Vegan Chocolate Mousse Tart

Woo-hoo! Last exam for uni ever done and dusted!

And with warm (literally) welcome to the summer holidays, I'm ready to party, chill out and enjoy the last 3-month summer break I'll ever have. As much as I looked forward to finishing my degree in the past 4 years, I know I will definitely miss these long holidays!

I was originally going to post something cold and summery today because the weather lately has NOT been the type for anything other than icy cold drinks and salad, but then I realised that I had some unfinished uni-related business that I still needed to post. If anyone remembers from these posts before, I'd cooked up a four-course meal for a uni assignment that I'd thought would give me the content to blog more regularly during that particular month. Well obviously that didn't happen, but you really don't want to listen to me blabber on about how fail I am at managing this blog and other life related matters at the same time......

I did eventually (albeit painfully slowly) manage to get it all up on my blog, except for this chocolate mousse tart which I managed to forget about with all these other exciting things I'd made in the meantime. But it was a rather interesting and good learning experience that I'd like to remember so here it is- my vegan chocolate mousse tart!

I'd chosen the challenge to modifying a recipe for vegans because I'd always wanted to make something that could cater for my friends who don't consume dairy or other animal products. And because I'd made tofu based chocolate tart before, I ended up making it with a combination of cocoa powder, avocado and coconut milk for the filling and an olive oil shell for the crust. I can't say I enjoyed the olive oil crust that much (I haven't had much successes with it), but the chocolate filling was great- perhaps a little on the thick side, but a tasty, fluffy chocolate mousse, quite unlike the chocolate tofu version which was more of a jelly type textured mousse.

I ran into a little bit of trouble when I forgot to add the sugar first go and didn't incorporate it evenly enough afterwards, but you don't need to know about that part......

Definitely something I could serve up to my vegan friends next time they visit!

Vegan Chocolate Mousse Tart
Recipe adapted from here and there

125g plain flour
½ tsp salt
½ egg
30mL olive oil
60mL water
1 Tbsp. white sugar
½ large ripe avocado
4Tbsp.raw cocoa powder
4Tbsp.coconut milk
4Tbsp. Icing sugar
1 Tbsp honey
1 tsp natural vanilla extract

1. For the crust: Preheat oven to 180⁰C and lightly grease 6 mini tart pans. Combine flour, salt, and sugar in a mixing bowl, add oil and mix with fork. Add water, mixing until absorbed then knead lightly until it comes together as a ball. Roll out and cut into rounds large enough to fit tart pans, transfer over and line neatly. Rest for 30 minutes in fridge then prick with fork and blind bake for around 20 minutes until golden. Remove from oven and cool.
2. For the filling: place remaining ingredients in a food processor and process until mixed together. Pour filling mixture into the tart crusts, and chill for at least 2 hours before serving.