Raw Chocolate Mousse

Recipe time again! This one sounds super suspect, like how could CHOCOLATE MOUSSE ever be healthy!?! And taste good!?! But trust me. It's amazing! Now, the more you read my recipe blogs, the more you'll realise I hardly ever follow a recipe, I just make it up based on what's in my pantry at any given time!! So no hard feelings if you don't follow the recipe either! This one had plenty of tweaks because I reeaally wanted to try it, but I didn't have half the ingredients! (Which is pretty normal for me, and I can't just duck down to the shops when I run out of something, so I need to be able to improvise). I'll pop the original recipe below, and outline my substitutions here to give you some ideas if you don't have all the ingredients either! Let me know if you change it up, and how it works out for you!! Now when I went to make this, I didn't have dates, phsyllium husk, or cacao butter! That's like half the ingredients missing! The first thing I did was get on Google and find out what phsyllium husk is - turns out it's a fibre source, often used as a thickener in foods, and a good substitute is flax seed meal! Easy, done! I have flax seed meal in my pantry for my smoothies. Dates are pretty easily substituted with any dried fruit, and I ended up using raisins. I'm actually not a fan of most dried fruits, about the only one I can eat on its own is dried apricots! But my pallet is slowly changing, and I'm incorporating more into my cooking now a days. About two years ago, my hubby went through a stage of cooking oats for breakfast and topping them with dried fruit and nuts, so I had this massive bag of raisins leftover from then. (They were out of date, but they still seemed ok to use!) At first the raisin flavour was very polarising, and I thought I'd ruined my chocolate mousse, but after a couple of days, the flavour must have soaked in a bit more, since the chocolate taste came through, and it turned into an absolutely delicous, melt-in-the-mouth chocolate snack! I actually used cocoa powder instead of cacao too, but those are pretty interchangeable. The main thing to be aware of is that cacao powder is the pure form, whereas cocoa powder can have added sugar and other things. Either is fine, but if you're avoiding sugar for whatever reason, it's something to be aware of! And the cacao butter of course, is not a normal staple food in my house; but what I did have was coconut oil! Coconut oil is an easy way to add some healthy fats into your diet - even putting it in your morning smoothie is a great idea, but it worked really well here too, not compromising the flavour or texture, but giving that extra nutritional value! I used my Nutri-Ninja to blitz up the mixture, and instead of dividing between serving jars, I just popped it in a larger container in the fridge, and scooped it out into my Tupperware snack cups each morning as I packed my lunch box for work! (Then I spent the rest of the morning thinking about it, until I got a chance to eat it!!) So however you choose to serve and eat it is great, it will still taste amazing! This recipe is just one of the many healthy treat recipes we have access to inside the Healthstyle Emporium! So I hope you love it, and if you'd like to get access to these along with all the other goodies in there, be sure to reach out so I can secure your place in the program!

Raw Chocolate Mousse Ingredients: - 400ml coconut cream - 2tbsp cacao powder - 1tbsp maple syrup - 1tbsp phsyllium husk - 1 cup dates - soaked - 1tsp vanilla - 1/4 cup cacao butter melted (optional) Method: Blend together all ingredients until smooth. Stop blender and scrape down sides as needed. Mixture should be very well combined. Taste test and add more cacao or maple syrup to taste. Divide into serving portions and allow to set in fridge for a couple hours or overnight. Top with fresh fruit or nuts to serve, or enjoy on its own!