Fluffy vegan chocolate mousse with aquafaba
Fluffy vegan chocolate mousse with aquafaba
I’m so excited to bring this simple yet indulgent vegan chocolate mousse with aquafaba recipe to you, guys. As I’ve already mentioned in my previous posts, ever since I’ve read about the brilliant invention of aquafaba ‘egg whites’, I’ve been massively obsessed with it.
I’m part of an inspiring Facebook group solely dedicated to making things with aquafaba and I can tell you that every single person who tries to whip chickpea water like egg whites has the same reaction – that of amazement mixed in with excitement.
It’s because it’s a blooming genius invention. It opens up so many possibilities, not only for vegans, but also for people with egg allergies.
Who would have thought that something as basic as whipped chickpeas (most beans, in fact) cooking water can yield such amazing results. To make sure I have not gone mad and this thing doesn’t, in fact, taste vile, I made this mousse twice while a couple of our omnivorous friends were staying with us. Not only did they LOVE the dessert, but when I was making it the second time, they watched me whip up the chickpea water into stiff peaks as they couldn’t quite believe that it is as simple as it sounds. They were so impressed and vowed to make this dessert once they get home. It’s the best compliment I could have wished for.
For the sceptics amongst you, let me re-assure you, this dessert DOES NOT taste of chickpeas at all. If I hadn’t just told you what’s in it, you would have thought that it’s an indulgent chocolate mousse, just like your grandma used to make. Go on, try it for yourself – you’ll want to shout from the rooftops about it.
PS: you may also like one of these aquafaba-based mousses instead:
Vegan hazelnut mousse
Vegan raspberry mousse – 4 WAYS
Peanut butter caramel chocolate mousse
Vegan peanut butter mousse
Healthy vegan chocolate mousse
Vegan black forest chocolate mousse
- ¾ cup / 180 ml (room temp) aquafaba (from low-sodium canned chickpeas OR home cooked)
- 1 tsp lemon/lime juice or scant ½ tsp cream of tartar
- 140 g / 5 oz dark 70% cacao vegan chocolate
- 10 g / 2 tsp coconut oil (to help with chocolate seizing)
- 25 g / 2 tbsp caster (superfine) sugar (optional, adjust to taste)
GARNISH (optional)
- 1 tbsp chocolate shavings
- a handful of pomegranate seeds
- a handful of chopped pistachios
-
This recipe contains a step-by-step VIDEO (see above).
- Place broken up chocolate and coconut oil in a glass or metal bowl suspended over a water bath. Make sure the bowl with chocolate does not touch the water underneath. The key to success is not to overheat the chocolate and to be gentle with it – it’s a temperamental ingredient.
- Allow the water to come to a simmer slowly. Once it does, turn the heat off and allow the chocolate to melt in the residual heat.
- Once chocolate looks melted, give it a slow and gentle stir. Take the bowl with chocolate off the heat and allow it to cool down – you want it as cool as possible but still liquid.
- Once chocolate is almost cool, drain room temperature chickpea water (aquafaba) into large glass bowl. The bowl and the utensils you’ll use to whip aquafaba need to be completely grease-free as even the tiniest grease residue can prevent aquafaba from reaching stiff peaks.
- Add acid (lemon/ lime juice or cream of tartar) to the chickpea water to stablise the aquafaba – it helps to reach stiff peaks.
- Using an electric egg whisk, whip chickpea water into stiff peaks – this is SUPER important as otherwise your mousse will deflate completely once the chocolate has been added. The best way to check if you have achieved stiff peaks is to invert the bowl with whipped aquafaba. If aquafaba slides down even a tiny bit, you are not there yet – keep on whipping until it does not move at all. I use an old, hand-held whisk and it takes me about 8 minutes to get stiff peaks. If you are a lucky owner of a stand mixer, it will happen quicker. The good news is that (as opposed to egg whites) aquafaba cannot be overwhipped.
- Once you reach stiff peaks, start adding sugar, bit by bit, whipping the whole time. If sugar has caused the stiff peaks to perish, whip the mixture until you get stiff peaks again. Caster (also known as superfine) sugar or icing sugar work well, other sugars are known to make aquafaba deflate.
- Check that the chocolate has cooled down sufficiently – it should not be warm to the touch or else chocolate is likely to seize and you will end up with grainy mousse.
- Gently and gradually fold a portion (approx. a third) of melted chocolate into whipped aquafaba – using a silicone spatula and a gentle folding motion. Continue adding the chocolate to the aquafaba in two-three more batches until all of it has been incorporated. Do not worry if your fluffy mixture deflates a bit once all of the chocolate has been added – that’s perfectly normal – but you should still see plenty small bubbles in the mixture. By the time you’ve added all of your melted chocolate, the mousse MAY have more of a pourable than spoonable consistency – that’s ok.
- Divide the mixture between 4 glasses. Gently stir the mixture between putting it into individual glasses as a bit of melted chocolate tends to drop to the bottom sometimes. Once in glass, give the mousses a gentle stir with a toothpick to ensure the mixture sets evenly.
- Put glasses into the fridge overnight for the mousse to set.
Here are some common reasons WHY CHOCOLATE TENDS TO SEIZE:
– being exposed to heat for too long
– being exposed to too intense heat (I therefore do not recommend using microwave to melt it)
– stirring too much or too quickly
– due to coming into contact with even a drop of water
– due to a thermic shock between ingredients (aquafaba needs to be as close in temperature to the chocolate as possible)
– sometimes it seizes for to apparent no reason at all…
To minimise the risk of CHOCOLATE SEIZING:
– melt the chocolate slowly and using as little heat as possible (switch the heat off once the water barely starts to simmer)
– stir gently and as little as you can get away with
– make sure aquafaba and melted chocolate are at similar temperatures
– you could add a splash of plant milk or plant creamer (like Oatly or full fat coconut milk) to the bowl with unmelted chocolate and allow them to come to temperature together, then mix gently to create a ganache prior to incorporating into whipped aquafaba. This will ensure that the chocolate does not seize when it comes into contact with aquafaba, BUT it does sometimes seize when plant milk/creamer is being stirred into the chocolate and the only way to rescue a mixture like that is to stir in some boiling water, which will make the mousse less stiff and more watery.
PS: you may also like one of these aquafaba-based mousses instead:
No, it doesn't typically need to be reduced for this although there may be brands out there that have less concentrated brine so there might be exceptions, but I have never had to reduce it. I think it makes little difference, I don't bother. Hope that helps! Ania
One day for sure, then it's still fine for another 1-2 days, but it may start to dry out a bit. I would put it in a sealed container and then in the fridge. Ania
Yes straight out of the can. Not sure what went wrong, maybe I should try adding a sweetener .
Thank you
I am not sure either. I am sorry I cannot be of any more help but no one has ever had this issue before (and it's one of my most popular recipes) so I am convinced that it is worth trying again - perhaps change the brand of chickpeas (or make your own) and chocolate just to be sure it's neither of these raw ingredients. Best of luck next time! x
I am not sure, I have never had this happen and there is only 1 tsp of acid in the entire recipe so not sure why you tasted vinegar. Was your aquafaba definitely fresh? Ania
2 things that bothered me:
First, I can never get the milk to mix right with the chocolate. It always burn/harden the chocolate and I know this from my dairy days. Do you think it'll work if I use a splash of vegan heavy cream/coconut cream or will it be too heavy for the aquafaba? I ended up having tiny chocolate "flakes" in my mousse but it didn't hurt the texture.
Second, and what bothered me more - when I poured the batter into cups it was fine but after a few hours when I served it I noticed a lot of liquid sink under the mousse - what could that be?
I am glad to hear that you enjoyed the taste of this mousse and I hope that the next one will be spot on. Here are my thoughts on the questions you've had: 1) what you describe here is seizing of the chocolate - it gets grainy and hard - and it often happens because of difference in the temperature between the two, or because the chocolate has been overheated or sometimes for no reason at all. Chocolate is a tricky ingredient to work with. I find that if I add cold milk (vegan cream / coconut cream is fine too) to the bowl of chocolate at the start of the melting process and heat them up very slowly together, there is usually no issue. 2) This happens when aquafaba wasn't at stiff peaks when the chocolate was added (have you done the inversion test to be 100% sure?) or sometimes when the two are overmixed and therefore too much air is knocked out of the whipped aquafaba in the process. I hope that helps and I hope you'll nail it next time! x Ania
PS: Please don't be put off. Both ingredients, aquafaba and chocolate, are difficult to work with and it takes some time to master this. I took me quite a few attempts before I got good at it too!
I think so but only if you want to eat it as ice cream later, I dont think it will be as nice as fresh after you thaw it. Ania
It is normal for aquafaba to deflate a bit when mixed in with chocolate as chocolate is heavy (there is no way round this that I am aware of), however it should not turn into liquid. I hope it all set well and you enjoyed the result. x Ania
You need to make it a day before anyway to make sure it is fully set (I recommend at least 8 hrs setting time in the fridge) so no issues there. Yes, you can double the ingredients to make more but be extra careful to achieve stiff peaks (turn the bowl upside down to make sure) and incorporate melted chocolate very slowly and gently so that you do not knock all of the air out of the mousse at that stage. It is a bit trickier with a larger quantity. Make sure you set it in individual glasses, not in a one big bowl. Also, if you have never made it before, I would do a small (maybe even half a recipe) practice run during the week to ensure you know what you are doing when you are tackling it before the big day. Hope it works a treat for you! x Ania
Your tip of adding a drop of vinegar to the aquafaba really helped keep the mousse together while I waited for the chocolate to cool, although it seemed to take a bit longer to whip up?
The last two times I've tried this, I think I added the chocolate while it was still too warm and it turned a bit grainy; but this time I waited and waited until I was sure it was about to turn solid again, then I used a hand whisk to gently stir it into the aquafaba and it worked perfectly! The finished mousse was super-light and fluffy, just deliciaus.
I love this recipe - thanks Ania!
I've only tried freezing it to turn it into an ice-cream, but I have never tried freezing and unfreezing so I am unsure what texture you'll get. Ania
Please let me know your thoughts
Patricia
It's the increased amount of chocolate (fat) that has caused the mousse to harden. Perhaps you could get away with not refrigerating when you use 200 g of chocolate, but I have never tried that so I cannot advice. Ania
The aquafaba (wiped up to near stiff, moved ever so slightly when I tilted the bowl after 15 mins of whipping with a electric hand whisk) deflated completedly when I tried to gently stir in the melted chocolate (only very slightly warmer than body temperature). The chocolate also would not incorporate with the aquafaba. So I ended up with 'soapy' looking liquid at the top and thick melted graining chocolate at the bottom. Any idea why this happened? In the end, I just gave it a little whirl with the electric hand mixer to incorporate the two and poured it into little cups. It's in the fridge now. Fingers crossed it works out ok. It still tasted yum though like a very watery chocolate drink.
I'm sorry to hear about this! It does sound like your aquafaba wasn't stiff enough, which is why it collapses the moment chocolate was added. It needs to be so stiff that it doesn't move at all - it's crucial. I got lax with it once or twice thinking 'that will do' and it deflated into a messy puddle in front of my eyes as soon as I mixed in chocolate. Hope you'll be willing to give it another go as once it works it's like magic, promise! Ania
Always have wanted to make mousse and never liked the idea of raw eggs. First attempt at this recipe and I'm really pleased with the results and taste.
Thank you so much for the YouTube as that's really helpful to those who need the courage to learn too.
Your instructions are spot on..
I only had on hand 60% cacao chips and used 2tbs unsweetened almond/coconut milk - used lemon juice to whip the aquafaba in a stand up mixer, and it whipped! Used a pinch of espresso powder instead of chili powder. The chocolate did seize up a little but it just made very small chocolate bits on the bottom.
Now I have to eat the chickpeas. 😀
Was this related to how I prepared things, Or does the mousse need to be eaten within a few hours?" I definitely made sure the peaks were formed and could invert. I slowly add the chocolate, but still the mouse is barely firm in texture and I get the separation at the bottom. Any other thoughts why this might happen. I do live in a hot client and don't use the air con in the kitchen while cooking - might this have something to do with it? Thx maggie
I'm sorry to hear that the mousse separated. It's certainly not normal, it should last approx. 3 days in the fridge, no problem. I have only experienced separation when I was in a rush and underwhipped aquafaba. It may also be due to the fact that you live in a hot (and humid?) climate or perhaps too much air got knocked out of aquafaba during folding chocolate in. Better luck next time. Ania
Glad it turned out well. As for sweetness or intensity of chocolate flavour, it is very much down to personal taste (I did suggest adding a small amount of sugar in the recipe) so it's something worth playing with next time. Ania
I have tried this recipe twice and have failed the same way both times.
I’m a baker at heart and consider myself rather talented with regards,
I followed the instructions step by step, watched the video 100 times.
The minute I add my chocolate into the water it dissolves immediately. First time the choc was too hot. And second time, not at all.
Please help! I’m desperate to get this right!
I'm sorry to hear that. If the chocolate was the right temperature the only thing I can think of is that aquafaba wasn't at stiff peaks stage before chocolate was added (you need to be able to invert the bowl upside down without any movement from the foam) or that your utensils maybe had some grease residue as it is known to inhibit aquafaba from stiffening. Are any of these a possibility? Ania
The recipe tasted great tanks, but I noticed that after @ 24hrs in the fridge there was some "Separation" and liquid was forming at the bottom of the cups containing the mousse.
Was this related to how I prepared things, Or does the mousse need to be eaten within a few hours?
THanks in advance
Ed.
Glad to hear you enjoyed the taste. The separation usually occurs if aquafaba wasn't quite at stiff peaks in my experience and the mixture deflates too much once the chocolate has been added. You need to be able to invert the bowl over your head and then incorporate chocolate by folding it in very gently. Good luck next time! Ania
Thank you for this wonderful recipe.
Ik made your recipe yesterday for my family's Christmas dinner. The first batch of chocolate went wrong: I think some steam from the bain marie came into the chocolate so it hardened totally. I luckily had some extra chocolate in the house, so I tried again on a real small flame and with a lid on. That worked like a charm, took some time and a real effort not to stir! The aquafaba worked also very good, I cleaned al utensils with lemonjuice on forehand and it got really fluffy and voluminous. I topped the mousse with coconut whipped cream and some pitachio's. Everybody loved it! Happy Hollidays and thanks for your recipes!
Love the recipe, came out really well.
How long will these last for in the fridge?
5+ days?
Thanks
Yes, it does happen seem to happen sometimes but I find that if I give the mousse a gentle stir in between pouring it into individual glasses once the mousse sets overnight, it's the same all the way through. I guess it happens because melted chocolate is heavy and whipped aquafaba quite light. Did your chocolate pooled at the bottom of each glass AFTER setting? Ania
Thank you so much for your response! Yes, the chocolate did pool at the bottom of each glass. So, there was a clear demarcation after it was set. The top tasted quite chocolatey, but there was a clear divide and wasn't uniform. I'll def try the gentle stir between pouring into glasses, because your recipe is amazing and I'm determined to get it right :)
If the chocolate sat at the bottom of the glass after setting then it feels to me that maybe aquafaba wasn't whipped enough - was it definitely at stiff peaks? Did you invert the bowl to check that it isn't sliding down even a tiny bit? I have not had this happen ever so I am a bit mystified, but that's my best guess. Hope it's going to come out perfectly next time! Ania
Yes, I know exactly what you mean. This would totally work, but you need to modify it a little by adding a bit of fat, which will yield a sturdier cream. Here is the recipe to use. Hope that's what you are after! Ania
Just made this for the first time.
I whipped the chilled aquafaba until I could hold it over my head in the bowl, then it pretty much ALL deflated when I added the chocolate.
The chocolate wasn’t evenly distributed either without me really working it in, not a rich brown colour like yours. It was really light brown and flecked. I waited until it was cool - it almost seemed it was too cool to stir in. And sank to the bottom of the bowl through the aquafaba. I haven’t tried it yet, it’s chilling. The mixture just looked SO wrong :(
My gut reaction was that the chocolate must have been too warm, but you do say that it was almost too cool so I'm really not sure what to suggest. Aquafaba does deflate a fair bit once the chocolate has been added but it does sound like yours deflated way too much. Next time, perhaps try adding a splash of plant milk to the bowl with chunks of chocolate and allow the two to warm up and melt into each other. This should prevent the chocolate from seizing once you incorporate it into the aquafaba, but other than that I am not sure what else to suggest. Hope you'll have more success next time. Ania
The mousse texture was fine. However the chocolate was bitty. Not grainy but chunks almost like chocolate sprinkles distributed throughout.
I really want to make this again but I am stuck as to where I’ve done it wrong.
Also. I had a large bowl full of aquafaba mousse to begin with that only made two small pots once it had flattened and the chocolate had been mixed in.
I have high hopes for this, your help is very much appreciated :)
The chocolate 'chunks' make me think that your chocolate was cooled down too much. I know, it's frustrating, but chocolate is notoriously capricious ingredient. I hope you will give it another go as when it works it's really delicious! Ania
For orange flavour to come through, you'll need something with a more concentrated orange flavour, I think. I recommend Cointreau (added to the melted chocoalte), for example - orange flavoured liqueur and maybe some orange zest or caramelised orange peel. Hope that helps! Ania
What an inspiring recipe, thank you for posting this!
Could you tell me how to proceed when making aquafaba from fresh chickpeas? I usually soak chickpeas with a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda - is that OK? i then drain them and cook them in fresh water. Is it the soaking or the cooking water I'm using? I'm assuming the cooking water. Does bicarb of soda help aquafaba or should I best leave it out from the soaking process?
Thanks so much and best wishes, Anisha
Thanks! Here is how I made my aquafaba from scratch. And yes, your instinct is correct here - I recommend skipping bicarb when cooking chickpeas for aquafaba. Hope that helps! Ania
It sounds like your chocolate seized, which happens due to the difference in temperature between aquafaba and melted chocolate, for example if your aquafaba was chilled prior to whipping or if chocolate wasn't cooled down enough before mixing the two. Hope that helps! Ania
It's not crucial, either glass or steel bowl should be fine - the point being that they are easier to clean and as opposed to plastic, they do not trap grease residue, which inhibits aquafaba from whipping. It's hard to know why it hasn't reached stiff peaks. Did you use tinned or homemade aquafaba? Was it chickpea aquafaba or cooking water from another type of beans? Was it watery or on the thicker side. Did you add acid? I assume you used an electric whisk? Ania
Thanks!
I'm sorry to hear that you are having trouble. The only thing I can think of is that your aquafaba hasn't been whipped enough - it needs to be so stiff that when you invert the bowl over your head it won't budge (I do this test every time even though I've made it hundred times). Hope that helps and good luck next time! Ania
No, I'm afraid it won't work as a straight swap. If you wanna do that, try this recipe instead. Ania
This looks great and I can't wait to try it!
Is it possible to use this mousse as frosting for a cake?
I am not a fan of buttercream icing which uses vegan margarine or shortening.
Keeping my fingers crossed that it can.
Thanks
Rashmini
That's great to hear and I hope you'll love it. If you wanna use it as frosting, I recommend using this version (here I used it as a tart filling) as it's a bit sturdier. Hope that helps! Ania