Simple, elegant, delicious, vegan
Regular chocolate mousse is delicious, but it’s definitely not vegan, and also it’s not safe for people with weak immune systems because it has raw eggs in it. This version is a little harder to make, but it has no eggs and is completely vegan – it has nothing in it but chocolate and water.
Is this really mousse? Since it’s vegan?
No, it’s not. Chocolate mousse has eggs in it. The eggs give chocolate mousse a spongy texture that you won’t get here. But the texture is not unlike mousse.
How to make vegan chocolate mousse:
In a medium-size mixing bowl, put eight ounces of vegan dark chocolate (eight squares of baking chocolate, or vegan chocolate chips are fine too) and 3/4 cup of water. Microwave until the chocolate is melted, or nearly melted, about two minutes. Meanwhile, put some ice cubes in a large mixing bowl and get out the electric mixer.
Put the hot bowl inside the cold one with the ice, and begin mixing the chocolate and water together with the electric mixer. Slowly, the mixture will begin to thicken and then it will be like thick whipped cream. It will take about five minutes. Stop now – if you keep going too long your mousse will get grainy.
Divide the mousse into cups and serve.
A vegan tart
You can make this into a lovely vegan chocolate tart by using the mousse to fill a pie crust. Keep it thin: use a big shallow tart pan, not a regular pie pan. For the vegan pie crust, mix 1 1/2 cups of flour with cold cubed vegan butter like earthbalance, and spread it in the tart pan with your fingers. Bake the crust at 400 degrees, and take it out when it has browned. Add the filling after it has cooled. (Or just use butter if you don’t care about whether it’s vegan.)
Can I keep this for later?
I wasn’t happy with the results of refrigerating even for a couple of hours. The mousse got too stiff and was more like icing. Better to make it right when you need it. Maybe if you left it out while you ate dinner, it would soften up again?