The chocolate mousse that thought it was a semifreddo (and was totally right)

Hurrah, it’s Healthy Eating Week!
I eat healthy most of the times, and I also like to prepare wholesome – yet very tasty – sweets, which means with as little sugar as possible. Sugar is fantastic and indispensable for a lot of desserts but I don’t have a sweet tooth and I’m happy with some good chocolate every now and then. Yes, I can easily survive for a long time with very little added sugars (with the occasional little craving, I’m only human, after all). 😉

This dessert is perfect for the sweet and the chocolate cravings and it’s also very versatile: you can serve it both as a mousse and as a semifreddo. How good is that? In addition, it is very suitable for children. Sweet, tasty and yet perfectly healthy and wholesome!
One extra plus is that if you don’t use honey but a vegetable sweetener it’s also completely vegan. This is because you use the cooking liquid of canned chickpeas (aquafaba) instead of egg whites. Aquafaba can be whipped up until it’s completely stiff, just like egg whites, and is a great replacement for albumen.
It is important that the aquafaba gets really stiff, otherwise the mixture will remain too fluid. By whipping it well the mousse becomes deliciously soft and creamy. This also helps avoid the production of large ice crystals in your semifreddo if you decide to put the mousse in the freezer.
The rest of the ingredients are naturally creamy: ripe avocados and bananas give the mousse the soft sweetness that is needed for a healthy and yet delicious dessert.

And now to work!

Chocolate mousse/chocolate semifreddo with hazelnuts and berries

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

the cooking liquid from 1 can of boiled chickpeas, about 2 dl.
4 ripe bananas
1 ripe avocado, medium sized
3 heaping tablespoons of (raw) unsweetened cocoa powder
if you like also add 1 tablespoon of honey
1 teaspoon of orange blossom or rose water
1 bowl of mixed berries (raspberries, blueberries, etc.)
1 handful of unpeeled hazelnuts
fresh mint leaves

Whip the cooking liquid until it’s completely stiff. It has to become as fluffy as thoroughly whipped egg whites.

Purée the peeled ripe bananas and the avocado together with 1 teaspoon of orange blossom or rose water and the cocoa powder using a mixer.

Add 1 tablespoon of honey (this can also be left out if you wish to prepare a less sweet mousse) and stir well.

Gently fold the whipped “egg whites” into the puréed fruits till you obtain a creamy and homogeneous mixture.

Pour the mixture in 4-6 cups / bowls and leave it in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

Dry-roast the hazelnuts in frying pan without oil and chop them coarsely.

Garnish the chocolate mousse with a few berries, some chopped hazelnuts and a mint leaf.

You can also freeze this dessert and eat it as a semifreddo. Remove it from the freezer 10 minutes before serving.

TIP: You can also add the hazelnuts to the the mousse instead of using them as a garnish. A very delicious variation!

Mousse.

Semifreddo

Semifreddo. Yum.