Chocolate Mousse

I discovered a lactose free chocolate mousse at the Whole Foods Grocery store in Toronto on February 12, 2004. Yes, sadly I made a note of it in my foodie journal: Dear diary, finally found a mousse I could eat!

I loved that mousse so much; I was making daily trips to the store for another hit of chocolate creaminess. About forty bucks later, I read the ingredient list and came up with this recipe.

The secret ingredient? Soft tofu; protein and heart healthy tofu, in a chocolate mousse? Who knew an ingredient, other than heavy cream and eggs, could whip up a mousse?

BIG NOTE: Some sage advice from a mom: whatever you do, don’t tell anyone about the tofu part of the recipe. Plant the tofu card in anyone’s brain and they won’t eat it. They may not even try it. So….just serve it. See what happens, and let me know. I love tofu stories.

1 – 3oo g package soft tofu – see below

5 oz (150 g) really good dark chocolate, at least 70% cocoa mass, dark chocolate should not have any milk solids, check the label

3 tbsp (45 mL) liquid honey

½ tsp (2 mL) pure vanilla extract, see note in step 5

1. Using an immersion blender, puree the tofu in a deep bowl until it’s really smooth.
2. Double boiler method: Melt chocolate and honey together in a metal bowl over gently boiling water, stirring often. When the chocolate is almost melted, remove from heat and stir until completely melted. OR for the unorthodox and not the faint of heart the Microwave Mwthod: place chocolate and honey into a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 20 seconds on medium (50%) stir. Keep adding 10 second increments until the chocolate starts to melt. Stir until it’s completely melted. WARNING: if you over heat the chocolate, it will burn, and wreck this recipe, grounds for going to Chocolate Hell….
3. If the chocolate mixture is hot, let it cool for about 2-3 minutes.
4. Add the semi-cooled melted chocolate to the tofu and puree together using the emersion blender or a blender.
5. Add the vanilla, puree until well blended. Note: only pure vanilla extract will do, if you don’t have any please don’t add the artificial kind; it really affects the final flavour and not in a good way. Bottom line if you don’t have pure vanilla, just skip it.
6. Spoon into 4 serving dishes and refrigerate, covered, up to three days. Like it’s going to last that long. Note: It thickens up as the chocolate cools down.

 

Makes – 2 cups (500 mL) One serving = ½ cup (125 mL)

One serving contains: 289 Calories, 15 g Total Fat, 6.8 g Sat Fat, 0 g Trans Fat, 1 mg Sodium, 38.1 g Carbs, 3 g Fiber, 31.3 g Sugar, 6 g Protein

Professional home economist tips:

• Soft Tofu: look for plain soft tofu where they sell the regular tofu. Make sure it doesnt say dessert tofu. Most dessert tofu is sweetened and flavoured. You want the plain one.
• Use your favourite dark chocolate. I use the large chocolate bars available at your local grocery store that are from France. Loblaws carries a PC brand.  If you don’t have a scale to weigh it, it need 25 squares. And yes, of course you could use more, but then the calories and the fat grams go up, and as the mousse sets, it becomes very firm and less like a mousse. Your call.
• You can make this in a blender, but in all honesty, an immersion blender works better.
• Living with diabetes? Serve this with an orange and let the extra fibre help regulate your blood sugar. One serving of this mousse plus the the orange will weigh in with 6 g of fibre. Not bad for a dessert.