Vegan and sugar free chocolate mousse

I am on a diet but really wanted some chocolate for Mother's Day, something mostly raw, low carb and healthy. This dessert is so easy and delicious that I made it two days in a row, once with hazelnuts and once without. I'll share the basic recipe:

12 dates

a little water to cover the dates

1 heap tsp cocoa (I used Dutch cocoa)

half tsp vanilla essence

1 firm avocado

berries to decorate

Remove the stones from the dates and place in a nutribullet or blender and add enough water just to cover them. Soak for 20 minutes, then add cocoa (a real heap tsp of it) and vanilla. Blend. Add the avocado, sliced, and blend again. Divide into three serving bowls or glasses, top with berries (frozen ok) and refrigerate until serving time. Decorate with edible flowers if you like, I used Alyssum here. If you want to add hazelnuts you will need about 8, toasted and grounded, to add to the date mixture. 

My husband couldn't believe that it was made with avocado and no sugar! The texture is just like a mousse, you can increase lightly the cocoa for a more bitter-chocolate flavour, increasing the dates (or using dates that are too big) will make it sweeter but may give out more of a date rather than cocoa flavour. If the mousse is too thick add a drop of water and mix again.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

 

Turmeric semifreddo, and Turmeric Mousse

10 years ago I made a turmeric cake, it was well before the 'turmeric fad', and definitely an experiment (that came out well!) but the most important thing for me is that it made me look at the spice in a new light, i.e. for desserts! This time I made a creamy mousse which, when frozen, becomes a delicious semifreddo. I made 8, 4 for the fridge and 4 for the freezer, I liked the semifreddo more, and so did my son, while husband and daughter preferred the mousse, it is all a matter of taste of course, but conveniently this recipe makes 8 portions and everyone could be happy.

Ingredients

1 egg

1 tbsp cornflour

3 tbsp sugar

half tsp turmeric powder

250 ml milk

300 ml cream

cornflowers to decorate (optional, and see note at the end)

Mix the egg with the cornflour, sugar and turmeric powder, then add the milk slowly and bring to the boil, stirring constantly with a whisk. When the custard is thick remove from heat and keep stirring until it cools down, adding 50 ml of cream (not whipped) as you do so, to make the custard nice and creamy. 

Whip the rest of the cream and then start adding it to the custard, little by little, and folding gently with a spatula. 

Halfway through (when you have used half of the cream), do the reverse: add the custard to the cream bowl, always folding gently. 

The resulting mixture will be quite pale, but it will become more bright and yellow after freezing and/or refrigerating. 

Now spoon the cream into 8 ramekins (still gently, to keep it nice and fluffy) 

Sprinkle with petals (optional) and then freeze for a few hours (for a semifreddo) or refrigerate overnight (for mousse).

For a semifreddo remove the ramekins from the freezer 20-30 minutes before serving; serve the mousse straight from the fridge. FYI, I have also tasted the custard before adding the cream, and it was scrumptious, perfect for a tart or to fill a sponge or for a trifle... will work more on it!

As for cornflowers, usually the they have a little pungent taste (a bit like clove) and I never used them for dessert before, but these from my garden didn't taste pungent, in fact they were quite 'bland', maybe because of all the rain we had? Not sure, but anyway, they are pretty and edible, and as I was using some to garnish basmati rice I kept the rest for the dessert. Taste them before using them though, and if they are pungent choose another flower for this (or any) dessert.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©