Vegan chocolate mousse raspberry tart (almost raw)
Vegan chocolate mousse raspberry tart (almost raw)
As I might have already mentioned in passing, I am not a Valentine’s Day kind of girl. It feels a tad forced to celebrate love on demand, on a randomly prescribed day when love is such an individual and deeply personal thing. I think an anniversary is much more of an occasion to celebrate. You’ve ‘survived’ another loooong year together despite your (charming) quirks and his annoying character traits 😉 ! Yay!
The most I am willing to do on Valentines is to cook a nice meal together or at the very least make a scrumptious dessert (not that I need any encouragement, mind you!) Enter this indulgent vegan chocolate mousse tart with a layer of raspberry and a good pinch of chilli to awaken the senses.
This baby is sweet, yet not overly so. It’s airy and light. It’s also super easy to make, so no excuses please!
The base is raw so if you used to mould things out of Plasticine as a child (or still do 😉 ) you’ve got all the skills covered. The filling consists of shop-bought jam (if you can spread jam on your toast, you’ll nail that part) and finally the mousse layer requires a little bit more skill, but it’s not a rocket science, just follow the instructions. Once you’re done, chill it in the fridge and decorate away! Once you bring this baby out, every respected chocoholic will be yours for the taking 😉 …
- 150 g / 1 cup dried dates, halved and pitted
- 140 g / 1 cup almonds
- 90 g / 1 cup rolled oats (GF certified if required)
- 3 tbsp cacao powder
- ¼ tsp fine sea salt
- 1 tbsp coconut oil, melted
FILLING
- 125 g / 4.5 oz dark (70 % cacao) chocolate
- 90 ml / ¼ cup + 2 tbsp aquafaba / chickpea brine homemade or from a tin
- 90 ml / ¼ cup + 2 tbsp coconut cream (separated from full-fat coconut milk)
- ¼ tsp hot chilli powder, adjust to taste (optional)
- 240 ml / 1 cup good quality raspberry jam
DECORATION (optional)
- chocolate shavings
- almond flakes
- mini meringue kisses (recipe here)
- freeze-dried raspberries
BASE
- Place pitted dates in a small bowl and cover with boiling water. Leave them for 10 minutes to soften.
- Place almonds and oats in a food processor and grind them both into flour. If you don’t have a powerful food processor, you may want to grind them separately. Transfer ground almonds and oats to a large bowl. Add cacao and salt and mix well.
- Squeeze excess moisture out of the dates and place them into the food processor. Process until you get a smooth, sticky mixture. Add them to the dry ingredients and knead by hand until you get a uniform dough.
- Finally, add melted coconut oil.
- Line a tart tin with a piece of baking paper and line the tin with the dough you’ve just made. Make sure you press it really well so that it’s compacted and holds together well. Pop into the freezer for 10 mins.
MOUSSE LAYER
- Chop your chocolate very finely (unless you are using chocolate chips) and place into a glass bowl together with coconut cream. Place over a water bath (on the lowest heat) and allow the chocolate and coconut cream to melt gently into each other. Do not stir until most of the chocolate has melted, then turn the hob off and allow the rest of the chocolate to melt under the residual heat. Gently mix the two together and add chilli powder at this stage (if using). Chocolate is a temperamental beast to work with, if it happens to seize (gets thick, oily and grainy), see NOTES below. Take the bowl with chocolate off the pot with hot water to allow the chocolate mixture to cool down.
- Place room temperature aquafaba in a clean (that’s very important as any grease residue will prevent aquafaba from foaming) glass or metal bowl. Whip it until you achieve stiff peaks – you should be able to invert the bowl and the whipped aquafaba should not budge an inch, if it does it means that it hasn’t been whipped enough.
- Make sure chocolate is lower than body temperature before mixing into aquafaba. Gently fold whipped aquafaba into the chocolate ganache – 2 tablespoons of aquafaba at a time.
ASSEMBLY
- Take the base out of the freezer and spread the jam on the bottom. Next pour the chocolate layer on top. Let the tin sit at room temperature for around 30 minutes and then pop it into the fridge overnight or for several hours (at least) to set.
- Decorate and cut into slices. Store in the fridge and consume within 1-2 days.
The exact dimension of my tart tin are top: 25 cm / 10 inches , bottom 22 cm / 8.5 inches and side 3.5 cm / 1.4 inches
This recipe is based on a few earlier recipes of mine – chilli chocolate and raspberry cups, this aquafaba mousse and my raw brownies.
I'm delighted to hear that you enjoyed it, but sorry to hear that you've encountered some issues. I am assuming you used the same size tin and that you half-filled it with jam layer? I am not sure why that is, possibly you aquafaba has deflated although if that had happened it would not really set. As for the crust, its sound like you needed to add a touch more moisture (water or coconut oil). The crumbliness might be due to your dates being less sticky than mine or maybe dry ingredients were not as finely processed and bigger chunks of would make the crust crumbly. Hope this helps! Ania
I don't think it will work in this case, you need a crust containing fat and sugar to do that, but you are welcome to try. Ania
P.S. also I'm in awe of the aqua faba. I've never tried it before but it worked like magic!
I don't think so, I am afraid, as this particular mousse needs fat for structure. Having said that, you could top the tart with a regular vegan chocolate mousse and use oat milk instead of almond milk (recipe here), it will be a little less creamy, but should work well too. The technique is shown in the video under this recipe. Hope that helps! Ania
Once the mousse has fully set, it should be fine out of the fridge for a bit as long as it isn't exposed to direct heat, strong sunlight, for example. Hope that helps! Ania
Do you mean making it, letting it set fully and then spreading it on the cake the day after? It should work fine although some of the bubbles will get knocked out in the process - it's best to let it set on the cake (the cake needs to be stone cold). Hope that helps! Ania
Do you think I can omit the coconut cream? Husband hates it but I would love to make this recipe this week...
My feeling is that the mousse will not have enough structure without coconut cream, but you can try as I do make this mousse without it too (recipe here), it's just a bit delicate. Having said that, I don't think coconut taste comes through at all as chocolate is the dominant flavour so I would encourage you to simply make it as it is and not tell your husband what's in it ;) He will never know... Ania
Hot chilli pepper adds a touch of spiciness to the chocolate, which some people (me including) like. It is totally optional though. Hope that helps! Ania
Glad to hear that the tart went down well with you and your guests. Sorry to hear that you had issues with chocolate. It sounds to me like it was possibly overheated. Did you melt it over a low flame together with coconut milk? What sort of chocolate did your use (what percentage of cacao solids?) Basically, chocolate is a very tricky ingredient that reacts to overheating, overstirring, even a tiniest drop of moisture so it can be a pain in the neck sometimes. I've had it seize plenty of times, but not the issue you are describing. Ania
Could I make the tart base a day ahead and freeze over night?
thanks Jennie
Yes, absolutely, you made make it a day ahead and simply storing it in the fridge is sufficient - no need to freeze. Ania
Thanks
I'm not sure which bit of the recipe you are referring to as the only two instances I can find are both correct. It says: 90 ml / ¼ cup + 2 tbsp (...). With ¼ cup being 60 ml and 2 tbsp being 30 ml, it is definitely correct. Hope that makes sense. Ania
Of course you can! The substitution would be hazelnuts, pecans or walnuts (I would avoid fatty & creamy nuts like cashews though). Good luck and hope your mum will love it! x Ania
First of all, Happy B'day for yesterday! I'm so glad you picked my recipe to do on your special day and pleased to hear that it all went well. I hope you'll love the flavour and texture! Would love to know what you thought! x Ania