As we all know, being vegan does not mean missing out on delicious food.  With the abundance of vegan desserts available, there is no need to ever skip the most important meal of the day, dessert.  Here is a quick and easy recipe for chocolate mouse that uses on 3, yes 3, ingredients.  Not possible, you say.  Totally possible.  Not only possible, deliciously rich and creamy. The trick here is making sure your bowl is ice cold.  If you have an handheld mixer, this is very fast.  If you are using a wisk, it takes a little time, but you’ll get a great arm workout.  Aside from being creulty free, the best thing about this dessert is it is fool proof.  At the end of the recipe are ways to handle any problems that you may have.

And if you want to take this to the next level, serve it in chocolate cups.  But, before doing that, read my cautionary tale about making them.

Prep Time: 3 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Servings: 4

Ingredients:

3/4 cup water
8 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate (65-70% cocao)
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Fill a large bowl with ice and nestle a smaller bowl inside it. You will use this for whipping up the mousse. Basically you are creating an ice version of a double boiler. Set aside.

2. Pour water into a small saucepan. Then over medium-low heat, whisk in the chocolate. Once the chocolate is all melted and the sauce is smooth, whisk in the vanilla extract.

3. Pour the melted chocolate mixture into the prepared chilled bowl, then whisk the sauce either manually or with a handheld electric mixer. Just keep whisking and eventually the sauce will start thickening. It will go faster with an electric mixer.

4. When mixture is thickened, spoon into individual ramekins and let set.

5. Serve immediately or refrigerate.

Notes: three things can go wrong when you make this. Here is how to handle them…

1. Mixture doesn’t thicken – the chocolate doesn’t contain enough fat.  Simply melt the mixture again, add more chocolate, and then whisk again.

2. Mousse is not light enough (too dense) – melt the mixture again, add 1 TBL water and whisk it again.

3.  Mousse is grainy – you are a macho man and over whisked it. Simply melt the mixture and whisk it again, just not a much as before.