Raspberry Chocolate Mousse

 Sometimes when I discover a new ingredient, I go a little crazy with experimenting with it.  Such has been the case with agar agar - you may have seen it already with my sunflower-seed tofu cheeze, and it's making an appearance again with this mousse.  This was another first-time experiment, but I thought it turned out pretty well! 

 

Raspberry Chocolate Mousse

Ingredients:

Agar agar – 3 tablespoons chopped strands
Soy milk – 2 cups (I used Silk Organic Unsweetened)
Frozen raspberries – ½ cup*
Pitted dates – ½ cup**
Cocoa powder – 2 tablespoons

Instructions:

Pour soy milk into a pot and bring to a low boil.  Finely chop agar agar strands and add to the soy milk, as well as the raspberries, dates, and cocoa powder.  Boil on a low heat until agar agar strands are completely melted and dates are soft (about 10-15 minutes), and mixture is beginning to thicken. 

Pour hot mixture into a blender and blend on high until smooth. 

Pour mousse through a sieve into a mold (I just used a regular small bowl) to strain out raspberry seeds and date skins.  This helps produce a more creamy and smooth mousse, however if you like more texture you could leave these in.  (I strained mine, and then ate the remaining pulp/seeds like a pudding afterward!)

Leave mousse at room temperature until fully cooled, then put in refrigerator to set.  Once set, invert onto a plate.  Dust with cocoa powder and top with berries if desired.  This would also be good with a cashew or tofu whipped cream on top!

Makes 4 small servings.  (If you want this to last, you may wish to double the recipe)

 

Notes:

*My mousse was more chocolatey than raspberry flavoured, so if you want it more fruity feel free to try upping the raspberries. 

**I tested this one on a couple of friends, who suggested it might need more sugar.  I usually tend to go lighter on the sweetener when making desserts, so if you like things a little sweeter, I would recommend using more dates (although I think this might somewhat compromise the texture, since the dates are so fibrous), or else using a more concentrated source of sugar (such as cane sugar or maple syrup).  Once you have blended the ingredients, you can taste it before letting it set – if you feel like it needs more sweetener, simply pour it back into the pot, add sweetener, bring to a boil, and then re-blend before putting it in the bowl to set.  One of the great things I’ve found about agar agar so far is that it seems willing to be heated and cooled more than once without affecting its ability to stabilize. 

 

I hope you enjoy the mousse! :)