vegan chocolate mousse

Last night A and I went over to J & L's house for a post-holiday catch up. J & L are vegan, so dessert had to be something pretty well thought-out. It turned out really well! You must try it before knocking it!

I set myself up at work, searching various vegan dessert recipes before settling on a choc mousse recipe. It had to be quick to prepare because i knew I wouldnt get out of work quickly. So recipe decided, next sourcing vegan chocolate. It was alot harder than I'd thought, considering that dark chocolate is SUPPOSED to be vegan anyway. I searched forums and blogs (very tight nit and supportive community) trying to find brands that would be okay. One forum said old gold dark chocolate was vegan (it wasn't) while another said green and blacks (which is organic but not vegan) so i settled on a no brand dark chocolate cooking choc. So anyway here is the surprisingly good and very easy recipe I used for my mousse.

recipe reproduced from suit101.com

Shopping trolley.
350g silken tofu
300g chocolate chips, about one small package. Many dark chocolate chips are vegan; check the ingredients though if this is a concern
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1 tsp. vanilla extract; optional.

Directions.

1. Blend tofu (preferably at room temperature) in food processor, blender, or with hand mixer until just smooth.
2. In a double boiler, melt chocolate chips with a tablespoon or two of water over low heat. Stir constantly.
3. Add maple syrup to melted chocolate and combine.
4. Put chocolate & syrup blend into processor and mix with tofu until creamy.
5. Pour into very small serving dishes - this stuff is rich. Serve warm or chill until set.

As I was doing my research I found a tip suggesting that the fresher the tofu is the better for desserts. The closer to the use-by-date the more tofuy it tastes. The tofu I used was about three weeks off its useby and it just tasted a bit nutty.

I served mine with fresh strawberries and grated chocolate on top. I think mixing some nuts into the mixture would be really nice - walnuts would be great!