Last week I turned my kitchen over to Cailen and Jo to make dinner (that post is coming soon!) and a sweet dessert that Cailen is notorious for; Chocolate Avocado Mousse Tart. Since he's the master at making it he played chef while Joella served as the handy sous chef. The recipe is vegan and paleo and my god was it delicious. As Bran described it, "it tastes like everything you've been missing out on," in regards to my dietary restrictions. Well I'm happy I've finally got a taste of what I've been missing. The tart was rich, chocolatey, and sweet but not too sweet. The two of us happily polished it off after Jo and Cailen left.
Joella worked on the crust while Cailen got all the ingredients prepped for the mousse.
No Bake Chocolate Crust
2 cups crushed graham crackers (remember to read the ingredients!)
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2 tbsp coconut oil
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
- Line a round cake pan with parchment paper, making sure to cover the sides as well
- Mash the graham crackers using a mortar and pestle. When they're well crunched up add to a blender along with all the other crust ingredients and pulse until well combined and stuck together
- Press evenly into the bottom of the lined cake pan and put in the fridge to rest
If you choose to use sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds instead of graham crackers you can skip the mortar and pestle and just pulse them in a blender or food processor.
Could they be any cuter?
Once the blender, or Magic Bullet, was freed up they got to working on the mousse.
Chocolate Avocado Mousse
2 cups avocado flesh (approx 3 small avocados), pitted and scooped out
1/3 cup coconut milk
2/3 cup pure maple syrup
1 heaping tbsp Sunbutter
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup + 2 tbsp Enjoy Life chocolate chips, melted
1/4 cup cocoa powder
- Add all the ingredients, excluding the melted chocolate, to the blender or Magic Bullet and pulse until smooth
- Melt the chocolate in a double boiler on the stove, stirring until just melted. Remove immediately! When melting chocolate there's a very fine line between melted and ruined so watch it carefully
- Add the melted chocolate to the blender and pulse until smooth
- Take the crust from the freezer and pour the chocolate mousse over top
- Spread it out evenly and then use a spoon to create some gentle peaks
- Pop it back in the freezer and let set for 2 hours. I can tell you from experience that 45 minutes in the fridge is not enough, it really needs to set
- To make serving easier run your knife through very hot water before cutting in to prevent the blade from sticking
To garnish I added some sea salt, powdered sugar, and fresh orange zest. This tart can serve 6 - 8 people but ideally it should only serve 4 people who don't mind gorging in front of one another.
I whipped up another quick one tonight for our dinner guests and my little nephew had three servings and tried to demand more while his sister licked her plate clean, the ultimate compliment.