Ideal for EatingEating ethically while eating great!

After eating a couple of bites of my I'm-just-going-to-wing-it chocolate mousse last night, my 13-year old daughter, who loves chocolate mousse, declared, "This is the best mousse that has ever come out of this house." That is a huge endorsement!

I had made a batch of thick cashew cream for a corn chowder I made for dinner. I turned the remaining 1 cup of cashew cream into whipped cashew cream, just for fun, and stuck it in the fridge to cool. While doing the dishes from dinner, I kept thinking about that whipped cream and wondering what I was going to do with it. I was out of coconut milk ice cream. And I had only a few fresh berries left, not enough for my daughters, my son and me to share. Of course, I really wanted something chocolaty. Mousse was calling my name.

I considered melting some vegan chocolate and just mixing it in straight with the whipped cream. There are some recipes out there that pretty much call for mixing melted chocolate with traditional whipped cream. But those mousses just don't turn out very rich, in my opinion. The vegan option for making mousse is to use tofu. Honestly, I didn't want to mix tofu with my lovely whipped cashew cream. I mean, no disrespect to the versatility of tofu, but why do that to the perfection that is cashew cream?

So I chickened out of playing around with agar-agar or avocado and grabbed some eggs. Ideally, I would avoid eggs. When eating out, I do avoid eggs. If I can't be sure where the eggs come from, then I won't risk it. These eggs were from a local farm where the chickens roam freely, eggs are gathered by hand, and the hens aren't automatically killed at the end of their egg-laying days.

Here's the recipe:

Chocolate Mousse -- prep time: 20 minutes, chill several hours, serves 10-12

Ingredients

1 cup of vegan semi-sweet or dark chocolate (high quality chocolate is very important)

2 cups of whipped cashew cream, divided

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 egg yolks

2 egg whites

3 teaspoons of agave syrup, divided

dash of cream of tartar

Directions

In a small double boiler over low heat, melt the chocolate. Remove from heat, and stir in vanilla, 1 1/2 teaspoons of agave syrup and 1/4 cup of whipped cashew cream.

In a separate bowl, beat egg yolks. To the yolks, add about 1/2 of the cooled chocolate mixture. (If you add it while it's still hot, you'll end up cooking the yolks and wind up with lumpy mousse. If that happens, you could blend the chocolate-yolk mixture in a Vita-Mix.) Now add the chocolate-yolk mixture to the pan with the rest of the chocolate, and cook on low until mixture starts to thicken. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

In a clean, dry bowl, use a hand mixture to beat egg whites with cream of tartar and remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons of agave syrup. (If you beat egg whites in a copper bowl, you can omit the cream of tartar.) Beat until stiff peaks form. Set aside.

In a separate bowl (yes, you dirty a lot of dishes in this recipe, but it is so worth it!), fold together cooled chocolate mixture and remaining whipped cashew cream. Combine well.

To the chocolate mixture, fold in about 1/3 of beaten egg whites. Fold until well combined. Now gently fold in remaining beaten egg whites. Do not over mix, or you will lose the airiness of the beaten whites.

Chill for several hours and serve with a dollop of whipped cashew cream and chocolate shavings, a few fresh raspberries, orange zest, unsweetened coconut flakes, or whatever floats your boat! (I usually get impatient and let the mousse chill ever so briefly before having a bowl. But I've discovered that letting the mousse chill overnight is ideal. The texture is just so wonderful after sitting overnight. It is really worth it to plan ahead when making this mousse to allow yourself plenty of time to chill!)