Vegan Chocolate Mousse

I'm thinking we need to start off the week with something sweet. And I'm thinking this vegan chocolate mousse is just the thing. It's a simple dessert with five main ingredients and little risk for disaster. No oven necessary, just your blender and fridge. I promise you can make this happen! 

A few weeks ago, the hardworking + generous staff at Fair Trade USA contacted me about a campaign they were working on and asked if I'd like to help spread the word. Of course! It's called, Moms Make A World of Difference. With Mother's Day just around the corner they thought it was the perfect time to honor and celebrate all of the moms out there and also bring awareness to the women working in agriculture in developing countries.

By choosing Fair Trade products you help support these hardworking women, their families, and communities. Did you know 50% of the world's food is produced by women, but women only own 2% of the land (source)? Fair Trade gives workers opportunities for things like education, microloans, maternity leave, fair pay, safe working conditions, and more. By purchasing Fair Trade you're not only getting a quality product, but most importantly, you're helping families and communities in developing countries thrive.

Today I wanted to share a little snippet of Maria's story. Not only is she a hardworking mom who strives to improve the life of her family, but she is also committed to helping her community grow as well.

Maria Quishpe, 31, from Saquisili, harvests Fair Trade certified roses. Maria, who has been working at Agrocoex since 2003, is a mom of a 2 year old toddler and the president of the Fair Trade prize committee. Currently on her third term as president, she has been on the committee for five years. Maria, who finished her High School equivalent degree through a Fair Trade holarship for adult employees, states: "Our main focus right now is the housing project for 200 families [of Agrocoex employees] in Latacunga. I ask that you please continue to buy our flowers, as each rose represents a step towards our collective dream of improved housing. Each rose is gathered with lots of love. I want to end my presidency with the housing dream as a reality." The housing project consists of a track housing development on the outskirts of Latacunga city where Agrocoex employees will have favorable credits and other benefits in order to become homeowners. Many state that living in Latacunga will provide better health, education and income possibilities for their loved ones - children and spouses.

In honor of Moms Make a World of Difference, I've created this vegan chocolate mousse with a handful of my favorite Fair Trade certified ingredients. And today you have the chance to win everything you see below! This is thanks to the lovely people at Fair Trade and the extremely hard workers around the world who strive to bring you the highest quality Fair Trade products possible.

For this mousse recipe I utilized the Lake Champlain drinking chocolates (they melted wondefully and are vegan!), Nutiva organic coconut oil, and the Wholesome Sweeteners organic blue agave. I don't use agave too frequently, but I must say the caramel flavor of this variety was outstanding. 

Now, onto the mousse.

This velvety smooth, chocolate mousse is made possible by just a few ingredients:

• silken tofu
• coconut oil
• coconut cream
• melted chocolate
• agave nectar

Once everything is blended together you're left with a lightly sweetened, chocolaty dream of a dessert. It needs a few hours in the fridge to fully chill and firm and then you can dive on in. As it firms in the fridge, the texture also lightens. It really has a true mousse-like texture. It's the coconut whipped cream that adds lightness and also helps to firm the ingredients together, along with the coconut oil.

The coconut flavor is subtle and adds an extra layer of richness. You can definitely play around with adding more melted chocolate or more or less agave. It just depends on your taste buds. 

I originally tried adding a small amount of coconut flour (you'll notice in the ingredient photo) to the mix for added coconut flavor, but the flour also added a slight gritty texture that was not so pleasant for mousse. But without it, we were golden.

Print Recipe!

Vegan Chocolate Mousse

gluten-free, vegan // yields: 4, 1/2-cup servings

• 6 - 8 tablespoons vegan semi-sweet/dark chocolate chips (I used 54% cocoa - standard size chips)
• 1, 13.5oz can full fat coconut milk, refrigerated overnight
• 2-4 tablespoons agave nectar, divided (or coconut syrup)
• 1, 12oz block firm silken tofu
• 3 tablespoons softened unrefined coconut oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• pinch of fine grain sea salt
• toasted flaked coconut

Melt the chocolate using a double-boiler over low heat or in 30-second increments in your microwave, stirring after each. Set aside to cool for 10-15 minutes (not in the fridge).

Open your fully chilled can of coconut milk. Scoop out only the solid coconut cream from the top of the can and place it in a mixing bowl. Add 1 tablespoon agave and beat until smooth with soft peaks, about 1 minute (yields appx. 3/4 cup). Transfer to a bowl and place in the fridge.

Place tofu, coconut oil, melted + cooled chocolate, 1 tablespoon agave, vanilla, and salt in your blender. Blend working to high speed until fully smooth. Scrape the sides as needed. Taste and add more melted chocolate and/or agave if desired. Transfer to a medium-sized bowl and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

Add a 1/2 cup of the coconut cream to the chocolate mixture and fold together until combined. Cover and refrigerate remaining coconut cream. Portion mousse into 4 dessert cups with plastic wrap draped lightly on the surface of the mousse. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours and serve with a dollop of coconut cream and toasted coconut. Will keep in the fridge for about 3 days.

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Notes:

• Be certain you buy "silken" tofu that typically comes in a cardboard container and is not refrigerated. Also look that the box says "firm." If there is only extra-firm that should also work. If you can only find soft, the pudding my not firm up as much. Adding a bit more whipped coconut cream and 1-2 tablespoons more coconut oil should help.
• This can be made one day ahead. Cover the mousse and refrigerate, waiting to portion into cups until before serving. Give the mousse a quick whip with a whisk, portion into cups, top if desired and serve.
• If you want a thick layer of coconut whipped cream over the mousse, refrigerate 2 cans of full fat coconut milk and whip the coconut cream from both cans with 2 tablespoons agave. Use 1/2 cup in the mousse mixture and reserve the rest for topping.
• Feel free to sub honey instead of agave if not vegan.
• The higher the cocoa content of your chocolate, the richer and less sweet this dessert will be. Add agave in small increments until it's to your liking.

GIVEAWAY:

To enter: Leave a comment below about your favorite Fair Trade products or anything to do with Mother's Day (something about your mom, maybe your brunch menu, etc.)

Giveaway details: 1 winner will receive all of the Fair Trade certified items you see a few photos up. Giveaway ends Friday, May 8th at 5pm EST.

Good luck!!

Ashley

A big thank you to Fair Trade USA and all of the wonderful companies who participated in this campaign. 

| just love coffee roasters | whole foods market | barkthins | lake champlain chocolates | | wholesome! | traditional medicinals | nutiva | numi organic tea | unreal | eco lips |
| arrowhead mills | vosges haut-chocolat | simple truth | near east | cascadian farm | prana |

This giveaway was sponsored by Fair Trade USA and the companies mentioned above. I was not compensated for this post.

Vanilla Muffins

Friday! Friday!

We're starting this Friday off right with vanilla muffins. Vanilla muffins that are so full of goodness I can hardly stand it. I would definitely call myself vanilla obsessed. It's one of my all-time favorite kitchen ingredients and plain as it may be, my favorite ice cream flavor. 

This post is sponsored by Rodelle. All products have been tested and approved by my taste buds. 

A few months ago, I had the chance to meet some of the staff at Rodelle to learn everything there is to know about vanilla. Well, maybe not everything but a whole heck of a lot. I've been a long time fan of Rodelle's vanilla products, but I'm thrilled they reached out so I could learn even more. 

What stood out most to me was how they frequently visit the farms in Africa for more than just quality control of their product. While quality is very important, they focus much of their time and effort in making sure there are safe and sustainable working environments for the farmers. They also help support the communities as a whole by providing things like clean drinking water, safe cooking stoves, and with the microfinance program. Rodelle did not ask me to tell you any of this, but I was so impressed by their efforts and felt compelled to share. 

While the vanilla beans I received from Rodelle were the most fragrant, sticky, and plump I've ever encountered (honestly), I wanted to see if steeping them in hot water would make it easier to scrape the seeds and result in a larger yield. This totally worked! No vanilla beans were left behind! It was nice to feel like no beans were going to waste. I'm sure it's especially helpful if your beans have dried out a bit.

Recently, I was also able to tour the factory in Ft. Collins to take photos for a freelance project. I cannot even describe the intensity of the vanilla aroma that takes over the entire facility. I obviously loved it.

Have you ever made vanilla sugar before? I used muscovado sugar (it tastes like caramel sugar!) and followed Alton's simple instructions. As if my vanilla obsession wasn't bad enough.

I used the vanilla muscovado sugar as an alternative to the vanilla crumb topping for a few of the muffins. So good either way or with some of both! 

I also learned something about crumb topping in my trials.  

If you melt the coconut oil (or butter in some crumb topping recipes) you'll achieve a chunkier topping like you see below. However, if you use softened coconut oil (or butter) it will result in more of a crust topping that spreads over the entire muffin. It seems like the opposite should happen as the dough with the softened coconut oil is much crumblier before baking. But for whatever sciency reason, the melted oil gives you that real-deal "crumb" look.

Moving on....

And because I'm slightly strange and don't like crunchy things in my muffin but they're okay on top of my muffin, I've added cacao nibs to the crumb topping.

It provides a delicate crunch and slightly bitter, chocolaty bite to contrast all of that sweet vanilla flavor.

Print Recipe!

Vanilla Muffins with Crumb Topping 

heavily adapted from my citrus poppy seed muffins (guest post on 80-twenty)
gluten-free // yields: 12 standard muffins

for the crumb toppings:

• 3 tablespoons melted coconut oil
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons gluten-free oat flour
• 1/4 cup gluten-free rolled oats
• 3 tablespoons muscovado sugar (or coconut sugar/sucanat)
• pinch of salt
• 3-4 tablespoons cacao bean nibs

for the muffins:

• 1 cup gluten-free oat flour
• 3/4 cup almond flour
• 6 tablespoons muscovado sugar (or coconut sugar/sucanat)
• 1/4 cup sorghum flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 teaspoon packed vanilla beans, scraped from appx. 2 plump pods
• 3 large eggs
• 1/4 cup applesauce
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup melted unrefined coconut oil (lightly cooled)

Preheat oven to 350° F. 

Pour the coconut oil for the crumb topping in a small mixing bowl. Add the vanilla extract and stir. Then add the oat flour, oats, sugar, and salt. Stir/mash with a fork until a cohesive dough forms, similar in consistency to a soft cookie dough. Mix in the cacao nibs. Set aside. 

Line a muffin tin with 12 liners.

In a large bowl stir the oat flour, almond flour, sugar, sorghum flour, baking powder, and salt until well combined.

In another bowl, briskly whisk the milk and vanilla beans together until the beans are evenly distributed. Add in the eggs, applesauce, and vanilla extract and whisk until well combined. Whisk in the oil and then immediately pour into the dry bowl. Stir until you no longer see dry flour.

Scoop into the muffin liners, filling about 3/4 of the way to the top. Break up the crumble topping and sprinkle over top of the muffins. Quickly place in the oven and bake for 17-22 minutes, until the edges are light golden brown and a toothpick comes out nearly clean. You want the toothpick slightly sticky (but not gooey). Let cool for 10 minutes in the pan and then transfer to a cooling rack. Allow to cool for at least more 20 minutes before serving.

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Notes:

• I used Rodelle's Pure Madagascar Vanilla Extract and Madagascar Vanilla Beans in this recipe.
• To get the most from your vanilla beans, steep them in hot water for about 10 minutes. Then, blot dry, trim the ends with a pairing knife, slice down the center (through the top layer only), and scrape the entire inside of the pod with the dull side of your knife.
• I do not recommend subbing any flours. However, for a stickier/denser muffin, use 1 cup oat flour and 1 cup almond flour and leave the sorghum flour out. The sorghum helps lend a fluffier texture.
• If you don't have vanilla beans on hand: sub 2 tablespoons vanilla paste, or 2 tablespoons pure vanilla bean extract
• In the crumb topping, feel free to add a small pinch of vanilla beans if desired. Or, instead of 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract, sub 1 teaspoon vanilla paste.
• If you want more of a crust on top of the muffin rather than a crumb topping, use 3 tablespoons softened unrefined coconut oil and reduce the oat flour to 1/2 cup. The dough will be crumbly.

Happy weekending!

Ashley

This post was sponsored by Rodelle. Opinions are always my own and products are thoroughly tested before sharing. Thank you for supporting the occasional sponsored post that helps fund all the deliciousness you find here!