October 7, 2008: Chocolate mousse slice

   

Madhuram's clearly been into eggless cooking for a while, and she's now initiated a blog event that can get the rest of us involved. The theme this past month has been to use silken tofu as a replacement for eggs in a dish. When I read this, I instantly thought of the stunning vegan chocolate mousse dessert that I ate at Sirens in Hobart last year. Could I make something similar myself? I could at least give it a go.

I started out with the biscuit base from Bella's cherry ripe slice, and then used this recipe as a guide for the chocolate layer. To my surprise and delight it set up into a firm, silky smooth and very intense filling without a hint of beany-ness. It's so relentlessly chocolatey that I'd suggest finding another flavour to pair it with - some coffee, or maybe some rosewater, peppermint essence if you swing that way.... or best of all, some fresh fruit!

To see tofu in a completely different egg-replacement guise, check out the chipotle maple tofu scramble that Michael made last year!


Chocolate mousse slice
75g nuttelex
1/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
200g silken tofu
200g dark chocolate (I used Lindt 70%)
sweetener, to taste e.g. sugar, agave nectar, maple syrup

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C, and line a small baking dish with paper.

Mix together the nuttelex and brown sugar. Sift the flour and baking powder over it, and mix it all together well. Press the mixture into the baking dish and bake it for 10-15 minutes, until golden.

Melt the chocolate by whatever gentle method you like and sweeten it to taste. I added about half a cup of brown sugar, because the Lindt chocolate was so bittersweet.

Next up, drop the tofu into a food processor and blend it until it's smooth. Spoon in the chocolate and blend some more, until it's all well mixed and creamy. Slather the chocolate mix over the cooled biscuit base and refrigerate until set, at least an hour.