Calling all Chocaholics – It’s National Chocolate Week!
It’s National Chocolate Week 8th-14th October 2012 (I was amazed that such a thing exists!) and this recipe was lucky enough to be selected for the Chocolate Festival’s bumper Autumn newsletter coinciding with the week. There is lots of interesting (chocolate of course) info the Chocolate Festival’s website so do take a minute to have a look and sign up to the fun. I can’t wait for the actual festival in December on London’s Southbank!
Chocolate Mousse
It is times like this that I realise why I watch a lot of cooking programmes. Relaxation on the sofa combined with inspiration for the kitchen. The lazy way to learn. Your average cooking show doesn’t cook the paleo way I want to cook – but every now and again I’ll either pick up an entire dish I can recreate straight up or spend most of the 24 hours after seeing the show thinking how I could make a dish healthier (or paleo-fy it). Will it work without processed sugar, gluten or dairy? Sometimes I get lucky and my experimentation works!
This chocolate mousse was inspired by something I saw on Lorraine Pascale’s Fast, Fresh and Easy which has just finished airing on BBC2 on Monday nights. A decadent dairy free chocolate mousse that is so simple it can be whipped up before you can say ‘dinner party pud’. All I have done to her recipe is substituted the dairy double cream for paleo friendly coconut cream (you can buy this in a small can, or you could just use the separated cream from a chilled can of coconut milk), used a particularly top quality strong tasting dairy free dark chocolate – 73% Montezumas (organic sugar, chocolate and vanilla are the only ingredients), and used a little organic coconut palm sugar (an unrefined sugar taken from coconut sap) to sweeten the whole recipe slightly. I also reduced Lorraine’s quantities so the dish scored a little less highly on the gluttony scale.
Since there is sugar in the Montezuma’s chocolate I can’t claim this to be a totally paleo pudding, but for a treat, it is absolutely wonderful. I would hope that anyone – whether a health conscious eater, or a complete pudding/choc-aholic would really enjoy the rich, smoothly chocolatey yummyness this recipe serves up.
Since these can be made a day in advance they would be perfect for a stress free dinner party pud. However I wouldn’t advocate serving to any pregnant ladies, since the egg in the mousse remains raw. Extras can be kept in the freezer if you don’t have 5 guests and want to retain a little room in your trouser waistband…
- 160ml can of organic coconut cream
- 150g dark organic chocolate (I used Montezuma's 73% organic chocolate)
- 3 medium free-range organic eggs
- tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tablepsoons organic coconut palm sugar
- Optional unsweetened cocoa powder to dust
- Optional Raspberries/Strawberries to decorate
- Heat the coconut cream in a saucepan over a very low and heat through for a few mins. Break up the chocolate and add to the coconut cream. Stir a few times and then leave for a few mins whilst the chocolate melts into the cream. Keep the heat on low since you don't want the cream or the chocolate to burn.
- Meanwhile, separate the eggs and whisk up the whites with the coconut palm sugar till soft peaks form.
- When the chocolate has completely melted into the cream stir a few times to ensure a smooth brown consistency and remove from the heat.
- When the creamy chocolate has cooled sufficiently pour a little into a clean bowl with the yolks and stir. It is important to add a little at a time to bring up the temperature of the yolks or else they will scramble. Gradually pour the rest into the yolks and combine well. Finally fold in the egg whites till there is no trace of white - just a smooth brown chocolatey gorgeousness.
- Spoon the mixtures into ramekins and place in the fridge for around an hour to set.
- When ready to serve decorate with fruit or additional cocoa powder if desired
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- Chocolate Mousse
This recipe was first published in October 2012, and was updated in October 2016
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I don’t have palm sugar. What could I swap with? Maple syrup? White sugar? Brown sugar? Thanks!
Apologies, I have only just seen this comment. Yes maple syrup or any granulated sugar will work (try an unrefined brown one if you can). A liquid sugar may make the mousse less solid, but as it is not a baking recipe it isn’t critical whether a liquid or granulated sugar will work.
Thanks for sharing Ceri!!!
I’m lactose intolerant and cook a lot with coconut oil and milk. I tried this mousse a couple of times and it worked out very nicely! I froze the extras, thawed one a day for snack at work and they came out very nicely as well. Absolutely no sign of frost or anything. Excellent recipe!
Thanks for your feedback Jedi – so pleased to hear that you enjoyed these – and also that you managed not to eat them all in one go and saved some for the freezer. Hope you enjoy the rest of the blog too 🙂
Great recipe! Take a look at this one, you may be interested: http://chocolatespoonandthecamera.wordpress.com/2012/10/08/chocolate-salami-without-eggs/
Will do – thanks!
I use a lot coconut milk,either in sweet or salted preparations,but your mousse is absolutely new for me.
I’m always looking for new recipes suitable for lactose-intolerants….
Thank you for sharing!
Great – thanks for taking the time to comment – hope you enjoy the mousse and the rest of my recipes too! The majority of my desserts are dairy free!
That’s great! Thank you
This is a truly delicious recipe – and lives up to its ‘decadent’ billing in every way. Looking forward to following your recipes in future.
Thank you Tatiana, a pleasure to publish this recipe in conjunction with the Chocolate Festival – I really hope your readers enjoyed it. I will certainly keep the chocolate recipes coming…!
This looks amazing Ceri! Though I won’t really know till I try some for myself – Next Disney night? ;p I actually think that using coconut milk would give the flavour a little something that regular milk wouldn’t 🙂
Maybe… if you’re lucky 😉 Coconut cream gives a lovely taste – but not coconutty at all. Just thick and creamy! 🙂
Well done on your recipe making it to the newsletter, I am not surprised as it is a delightful looking chocolate mousse and being dairy free must be appealing to lots of people who can’t eat or don’t want to way dairy in their diet. Lovely photos too Ceri, really pretty! Karen
Thanks Karen, that’s very sweet of you to say so – and also take the time to tell me so! I really appreciate the positive feedback 🙂
Excited for you being featured on websites! This looks really good, yum!
Thanks Adura – If you’re lucky I may make this again one day…
This sounds wonderful! Definitely going to try it later this week. Thanks for a great site!
Thanks Kim, I really appreciate your feedback. Would love to hear how you get along with this recipe! Maybe you could post a pic on my facebook page? 🙂