Fluffy Chocolate Avocado Mousse

I’ve been trying to find a way to get my little one to eat avocados … FOR-E-VER.  I wanted to introduce avocados back into her diet for the monounsaturated fat content (good fats). Functional Medicine doctor and educator Chris Kresser notes that interestingly, monounsaturated fats seem to be the only fats that typically fat-phobic groups like the AHA and fat-friendly groups like Atkins and other low-carbers can agree are completely healthy. Little Miss ate Avocados as a baby, then went right off them for a few years, and through perseverance and continued taste testing, different recipes and food education, they are back on the menu. But before she’d joyously scoop into half a raw plain avocado we’ve been through a myriad of recipes that include hidden avocado and dessert avocado. And this is one of them.

When the girls were babies, I remember going through a stage introducing meat where they would only eat it if I covered it in yoghurt. Yuck! But it worked a treat. So, I adopted a similar strategy for getting little miss to eat avocado by disguise it with chocolate. Chocolate or anything chocolate flavoured is still seen as an enormous treat in our house, so even when it’s a healthy recipe it’s a big deal! And while I don’t completely agree with the ‘hidden veggie’ philosophy to get kids to eat vegetables, this is one food I wanted to pursue so had to try a few tricks in the book to get there. Side note: she now joyously scoop into halved raw plain avocado as fast as I can feed them to her!

Traditionally chocolate mousse is full of cream, but I don’t like to give the kids dairy in the afternoons/evenings. On our paediatrician’s advice, we try to avoid dairy after 2pm. He suggests this leads to mucus filled kids and when following his advice with his prescribed ‘diet’ plan we have been able to control coughs, colds, ear aches, snotty noses with this, plus a few more diet tweaks and lots of fluids.

So, we’ve tried the chocolate avocado mousse recipe that you find all over the place. And we’ve tried the light fluffy aquafaba (chick pea water) chocolate mousse. A little bit like the three bears – one was too dense and the other like eating a mouth full of air bubbles, so we combined the recipes and made this perfect version for our baby bear! The dates add a touch of sweetness to it and almost feel like little bits of chocolate chips in your mouth if they don’t fully blend in the food processor. As we used foraged dates from our tree in the front garden, they were a little on the hard side – so soaking them in hot water helps but I don’t mind the little bits of dates in the finished product. You could alternatively use a few teaspoons of maple syrup or honey as a sweetener, or 4-5 softer Medjool dates for a thick sweet caramel texture and taste.

Licking the bowl is the best bit isn’t it!?!

Aquafaba Chocolate Avocado Mousse

• Servings: 4-6
• Time: 10 mins
• Print

Ingredients

• 150g dark chocolate melted. (Dare I suggest that you could maybe melt down the excess plain chocolate Easter eggs for this recipe!)
• 1 avocado blitzed
• Pinch of salt
• 1 handful of dates soaked in water (or use a few tablespoons of sweetener of choice)
• 4 tablespoons coconut milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 2 cans of chick peas – using the aquafaba (chickpea water) only
• Garnish of your choice – Freeze dried or fresh raspberries, chocolate shavings, coconut flakes, mint leaves, chocolate covered coffee beans, cocoa nibs, whipped coconut cream …

Method

1. Melt the dark chocolate over a double boiler and set aside to cool to room temperature.

2. Removed the seeds from the dates*. Place dates in a bowl and pour over just enough boiling water to cover them. Soak till soft (approx 10 mins).

3. Open the cans of chickpeas and drain the water (aquafaba) into a large bowl or KitchenAid mixer bowl. Keep the chickpeas to make homemade hummus or chickpea burgers! With the whisk attachment on the KitchenAid or a hand beater, beat the aquafaba till stiff peaks form^. This may take between about 5-15 minutes depending on how thick your aquafaba is to begin with and the equipment you are using to whisk it. Make sure your equipment is super clean and grease free before you start otherwise you may never get stiff peaks. Once stiff peaks form – set aside while you mix the next ingredients.

4. In a food processor, place the avocado, salt, coconut milk, vanilla and cocoa powder together and blitz till combined and the avocado is smooth. Add melted chocolate and blitz again, stopping to scrape down the sides a few times as it comes together. As soon as you add the chocolate it starts to set, so work quickly from here on. Add chocolate avocado mixture to a clean large bowl.

5. Add a third of the aquafaba mixture to the chocolate avocado mixture and fold lightly till well mixed. Then fold in the remaining aquafaba mixture into the chocolate mixture using a silicon spatula taking care not to knock too much air out of the mixture.

6. Put finished mousse into individual serving sized bowls or glasses and set in the fridge for a minimum of 3-5 hours (overnight is perfect). Serve topped with the garnish of your choice!

*The dates will be blitzed up and taste like little chewy chocolate bits in the mousse. If you don’t like ‘bits’ in your mousse, then swap dates for 2 tablespoons of date syrup, maple syrup or honey to the avocado in the food processor. Or try date paste for a smoother date taste.

^You may like to add a double pinch of Cream of Tartar to the aquafaba to help whip up the stiff peaks. This helps stabilize the mixture. Not necessary but helps.

Fun tip! Did you know if you whip up egg whites or aquafaba to stiff peaks – you should be able to hold the bowl upside down over your head and nothing should fall out if you whipped them stiff enough 😉

 

And remember if your little one doesn’t like a certain food, then try-try-try again, but teach them to listen to their body.

From our kitchen table to yours. xx