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Eons ago, in the days of my misspent youth, I passed a couple of summers waiting tables at waterside restaurants in the bohemian enclave of Provincetown, a village on the tip of Cape Cod. I remember watching, amazed, when I first saw a chef fold beaten egg whites into melted chocolate on the way to chocolate mousse. At the time, my culinary knowledge was rudimentary, and making mousse seemed a mark of great sophistication. Years have passed, and I confess to having made chocolate mousse that way a few times myself. Consulting Julia Child, whom I consider to be the authority on such matters, I see that her recipe for mousseline au chocolat calls for very fine sugar, egg yolks, orange liqueur, semi-sweet chocolate, strong coffee, butter and egg whites. It’s not all that complicated to make, but then neither is my vegan version, and the only ingredient our recipes have in common is chocolate. Search out the best premium unsweetened chocolate you can find. I buy Ghirardelli’s 100% cacao unsweetened chocolate at my local supermarket. Three friends who joined me for dinner gave this creamy, rich dessert a hearty thumb’s up. The secret here is the use of agar agar, which adds lots of volume and almost nothing in the way of fat or calories. This recipe makes eight servings, but you could easily cut it in half. Garnish it anyway you like, but I kept mine vegan by using coconut cream, the thick part only of canned coconut milk, whipped with a fork and sweetened with just a few drops of maple syrup. And raspberries, I’m sure you’ll agree, are never wrong with chocolate. Full recipe after the jump.
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Photos: A Chocolate-Almond Mousse so rich and creamy your guests will never guess it’s vegan, garnished with coconut cream, raspberries and toasted, sliced almonds.
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