Vegan chocolate mousse - this rich eggless aquafaba chocolate mousse is light, airy and perfectly decadent. It is easy to make and the perfect dessert for all occasions. The chocolate lover's dream!
This indulgent vegan chocolate mousse is rich and decadent yet light and fluffy as air. It is made using the magic substance that is aquafaba - the liquid drained from a tin of chickpeas.
Aquafaba can be whipped up just like egg whites into a fluffy meringue; that is what creates all of those little air bubbles in this mousse, giving it a wonderful, melt-in-the-mouth texture.
You can't taste the chickpeas at all, this mousse is pure, unadulterated chocolate heaven!
It has a rich chocolate flavour and is not too sweet. The texture is light and airy and oh-so-moreish. I love it served with some fresh berries to cut through the richness a little, and maybe a dollop of whipped coconut cream or vegan squirty cream to top it all off.
A scattering of chocolate shavings is all the decoration this vegan chocolate mousse needs to turn it into an elegant dinner party dessert, and it can be made a day or two in advance as well, saving you time on the day.
How To Make Vegan Chocolate Mousse:
(For ingredients and full instructions see the recipe card below)
*For the best results make sure that you follow the recipe closely. As always, I highly recommend using the gram measurements (with a digital scale), rather than the cup conversions. Cup measurements are simply not accurate enough for baking and I cannot guarantee the best results if you use them.*
The mousse needs at least four hours in the fridge to set so don't leave it until the last minute to make. I make mine the day before I want to serve it; it will keep in the fridge for up to three days.
Place finely chopped dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids, use a good one!), coconut cream and vanilla extract in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water. Don't let the base of the bowl touch the water.
Stir until almost all of the chocolate has melted then remove the bowl from the heat and continue to stir until melted and smooth. The ganache should be smooth and glossy. Set it aside to cool to room temperature.
While the gananche is cooling, place the aquafaba and cream of tartar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a balloon whisk; or use a hand mixer with the double beater attachments. (A stand mixer is definitely less effort though!).
Whisk the aquafaba on a high speed until it is frothy, add a spoonful of the sugar and whisk until well combined; repeat until you have added all of the sugar. Continue to whisk the aquafaba until it forms stiff peaks. This can take 10-15 minutes so be patient. There is no risk of over-whipping aquafaba like there is with egg whites.
Make sure that the chocolate mixture has cooled to room temperature then add ¼ of the whipped aquafaba to the chocolate and stir gently with a spatula until almost combined.
Add the rest of the aquafaba in three more batches, folding it in very gently until it is uniformly combined. You don't want there to be any more streaks of chocolate or aquafaba, but don't keep mixing for too long, you don't want to deflate the mousse. (It will lose a bit of volume however and become slightly more runny - don't worry, this is normal).
Divide the mousse evenly between 4-6 glasses and place it in the fridge for at least 4 hours until set. (I leave mine overnight).
Top Tips To Prevent Your Chocolate From Seizing (And How To Save It If It Does):
This vegan chocolate mousse is easy to make, but chocolate can be quite a tempermental beast to work with and things can go wrong very easily. For the best chance of sucess make sure that you follow these tips:
When heating the chocolate and coconut cream, you must make sure that the mixture does not become too hot otherwise the chocolate can sieze (become grainy or oily). The water bath should be just simmering, not boiling, and the base of the bowl must not touch the water.
Remove the bowl from the heat once most of the chocolate has melted and continue to stir until it is all melted and smooth.
If you are unlucky and the ganache does become grainy or oily, don't throw it away, it can be saved! Vigourously stir in boiling water, a teaspoon at a time, until the ganache becomes smooth again. Don't add more than 4 tsp of water however as your mousse will be too soft otherwise.
If the hot water is not enough to bring it back together, stir in a little melted cocoa butter if you have any or coconut oil if you don't. Add a spoonful at a time and stir vigourously, the ganache should become smooth again.
When folding the whipped aquafaba into the chocolate ganache, the chocolate must have cooled to room temperature so that it doesn't sieze. If it is still warm to the touch, wait until it has cooled before incorporating the aquafaba. The aquafaba should also not be too cold, you want both the chocolate and aquafaba to be about the same temperature.
How To Reduce Aquafaba:
While it is not strictly necessary to reduce the aquafaba I do find that it gives better, more consistent results and reaches stiff peaks more easily if it has been reduced rather than used straight from the can.
It needs to be completely cold before it can be whisked up so you ideally need to reduce it the day before you want to use it and let it chill in the fridge overnight.
To reduce it, pour the liquid from two cans of chickpeas into a pan and bring up to a gentle simmer. Allow to cook gently for about 10 minutes until it has almost reduced by half. It will thicken as it cools.
Once the reduced aquafaba has cooled, pour into an airtight container and refrigerate until cold before using.
More Vegan Dessert Recipes:
No-bake chocolate stem ginger tart
Vegan steamed chocolate pudding
No-bake vegan chocolate cherry cheesecake
Vegan lemon blueberry cheesecake
Blueberry pie with coconut oil crust
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Vegan Chocolate Mousse
Ingredients
- 190 g (6 ¾ oz) dark chocolate (70% cocoa)* finely chopped
- 120 g (½ cup) vegan double cream (Elmlea) or coconut cream**
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 120 ml (½ cup) reduced aquafaba (from 2 cans chickpeas)***
- ¼ tsp cream of tartar
- 3 Tbsp caster (superfine) sugar
Instructions
- Place the finely chopped chocolate, cream/coconut cream and vanilla extract in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water. Don't let the base of the bowl touch the water.
- Stir until almost all of the chocolate has melted then remove the bowl from the heat and continue to stir gently until melted and smooth. The ganache should be smooth and glossy, see tips in the post above if it goes oily or grainy.
- Set the ganache aside to cool to room temperature.
- While the gananche is cooling, place the aquafaba and cream of tartar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a balloon whisk; or use a hand mixer with the double beater attachments.
- Whisk the aquafaba on a high speed until it is frothy, add a spoonful of the sugar and whisk until well combined; repeat until you have added all of the sugar. Continue to whisk the aquafaba until it forms stiff peaks. This can take 10-15 minutes.
- Make sure that the chocolate mixture has cooled to room temperature then add ¼ of the whipped aquafaba to the chocolate and stir gently with a spatula until almost combined.
- Add the rest of the aquafaba in three more batches, folding it in very gently until it is uniformly combined. You don't want there to be any more streaks of chocolate or aquafaba, but don't keep mixing for too long, you don't want to deflate the mousse. (It will lose a bit of volume however and become slightly more runny - don't worry, this is normal).
- Divide the mousse evenly between 4-6 glasses and place it in the fridge for at least 4 hours until set. (I leave mine overnight).
Notes
- *Because this mousse has such a pure chocolate flavour it is important to use a good quality chocolate that tastes good. A poor quality chocolate will yield a subpar mousse. Just sayin.
- **I use coconut cream from a carton but you can also use just the solid white part from a can of chilled full fat coconut milk.
- ***While it is not strictly necessary to reduce the aquafaba I do find that it gives better, more consistent results and reaches stiff peaks more easily if it has been reduced rather than used straight from the can. See the post above for details on how to reduce aquafaba.
Viv
These are amazing. ive tried many vegan mousse recipes before and these are the 1st to taste like the real deal. Ive not tried one of your recipes yet which is not a success. Brilliany vegan recipes.Thanks so much! you shoupd write a book
Max
Accidentally allowed ganache to solidify too much before introducing meringue, and the result was quite clumpy. But I resuscitated it! Reheated the ganache (with deflated meringue), allowed it to cool only just to room temperature (rather than sitting out a room temp.), and made a new batch of meringue. Worked perfectly. Thanks for your brilliant vegan recipes, Hannah!
Aelish
Will this work if I don't have cream of tartar? Thank you!
hannahhossack
Hi Aelish, you can use lemon juice or vinegar instead.
S
Hi Hannah!
I don’t suppose you know whether this will work with panela? I’ve attempted a meringue with aquafaba and panela once which was a wonderful failure so wonder if you knew how it would fair up here?
Thank you for your beautiful content, I’ve been using your wonderful recipes for years!
Hannah
Hi, thank you so much! I have never used panela before but if it didn't work for meringue then I doubt it would work here.
Joana
Hi there!! I want to try these babies, however i have two questions! What's their shelf life? how long in advance could i prepare them and be safe?
And have you tried with another plant based cream?
Thank you!! so excited!!
Hannah
Hi Joana, they will keep for 3-4 days covered in the fridge. I have made it using Elmlea plant double cream with great success.
HS
Hello! Is it possible to make this with white chocolate?
Hannah
I don't think it would work as well with white chocolate as it is softer so I don't think that it would set very well. You would need to use a higher proportion of chocolate to aquafaba.