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Jump to recipeEasy, healthy chocolate mousse recipe that starts with a can of coconut cream. Fluffy, creamy and decadent. A dollop of cream tops it perfectly!
Would you like to hear a funny story about chocolate mousse?
One Christmas I decided to get fancy with dessert. Not only did I want to wow everyone with a decadent chocolate mousse, but I had visions of piping it into dishes like a pastry chef.
I made the mousse the day before Christmas, and I must say…it was outstanding. Just as rich and decadent, light and fluffy as you might imagine. Because I wanted to pipe it out, I decided to store the mousse directly in the Ziploc bags I’d be using instead of piping bags, which I did not have.
Fast forward to dessert time. Taking my bags out of the fridge, I thought they felt a bit heavy. All of the air that I had painstakingly incorporated into this fluffy dessert was gone and I was left with bags of a dense, fudge-like substance. Not to be deterred, I set about my piping.
What came out of the bag was not something that you’d expect to find on your dessert plate. It looked more like something you’d expect to find floating in the toilet. Complete with ends that tapered to a point. When I served said ‘logs’ we all got a good laugh. I’m pretty sure I peed myself a little.
That’s not the mousse we’ll be making today. But I still can’t make any promises about the consistency if you choose to store it in a plastic bag. Pipe at your own risk.
Healthy Chocolate Mousse
I am not lying to you. It really is healthy. And you could make it healthier by cutting back on the sugar even further. I kept reducing until I settled on what my family prefers.
I’ve told you that I sneak things past my kids regularly. Even then, I don’t outright lie. My chocolate pancakes are one example of healthy that doesn’t taste healthy. This chocolate mousse is another. We love it!!
Let me say two things.
First, if you know my picky kids, and you reveal my secrets to them….I know where you live. Ha ha– I’m just kidding. Except I’m not.
Second, please don’t let the ingredients scare you off. Trust me on this!
There is no way on God’s green earth that I could convince either of my boys to eat anything with the word “coconut” in it. They are certain they don’t like coconut.
But they love this!
This chocolate mousse is lighter in taste than traditional chocolate mousse. While still decadent and creamy, it’s not quite as rich. And I’m ok with that, because I feel good about making and eating it a lot more frequently.
The secret to this recipe is coconut cream. It comes in a can. I get mine at Trader Joe’s. You can find it in the Asian foods area at your grocery store, too. I made the mistake once of using a can of coconut milk, draining off the liquidy part and using just the thick coconut cream. It works, but the problem with it is that there’s hardly any in the can! Getting a whole can of coconut cream gives you a lot more useable product. (Note: you do NOT want “cream of coconut”).
Open your can and scoop the thick coconut cream into your mixing bowl.
Add your cocoa powder, vanilla and sugar and begin whipping, using whisk attachment. It would be easy to whisk it by hand, too. You can adjust the sugar to your taste.
Once it is smooth and fluffy, transfer it to a bowl and chill in the fridge. It only takes a minute or so to mix up!
After it chills in the fridge for a couple of hours, it firms up into that airy texture you expect from a mousse.
We like ours best with a little dollop of whipped cream sweetened with just a little sugar. But it’s yummy all on its lonesome as well.
Creamy. Rich. Chocolatey.
Yum!
Make this chocolate mousse today! –Here’s the recipe:
Ingredients
- 1 can coconut cream
- ¼ cup cocoa powder (heaping)
- ¼ cup sugar (heaping) --or to taste
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- Scoop coconut cream into mixing bowl.
- Add remaining ingredients.
- Whip using whisk attachment until smooth and fluffy (or whisk by hand, it just takes a minute or so to combine).
- Transfer to bowl, cover and store in refrigerator.
- After chilling a couple of hours it will firm up.
I am a sucker for Chocolate Mousse! The best I’ve had yet was in this tiny cafe in Bavaria, Germany. But this looks absolutely delicious and super easy. So I may have to give it a try! Thanks for sharing.
Oooo, a tiny cafe in Bavaria. How lovely! What a beautiful image. (Made even better with the addition of chocolate mousse!)
It was absolutely delicious.
So glad you liked it!!
Hey, was just wondering if I could substitute sugar with honey. If so what would the measurements be? Thanks
I would think that you could definitely do that. What I’d do is start with a couple of Tablespoons of honey and taste it, and then just add to taste. Love to know how it turns out!
This is the year I start taking my hypoglycaemia really seriously. The more often I have issues the likelier it will be – I’m told – that I will develop diabetes, so I’m cutting WAY back on the sugar by using Splenda instead. I get the powdered form and it tastes just like sugar! I found out I can even bake with it so I just tried it out in some muffins and they came out great. I was wondering if you think the mousse would work out okay if I substituted the sugar with the powdered Splenda? The bag says that 1 Tbsp of Splenda == 1 Tbsp of sugar, so the substitution ratio is obvious. I just wonder if the mousse would “set” properly, you know?
I have never used Splenda, but I think it would work fine. Like the muffins you mentioned, people I know who use it say that they use it in everything. Good luck!!
Interesting — this sounds good! I’ve never heard of coconut cream and I’ll have to look for it. I know just what you mean on the solid part in the coconut milk though 🙂 I like to do healthy versions of various foods. Now that the kids are older, they’re onto me though. They other day, I made brownies and one of the girls looked at them suspiciously, asking if they had prunes in them 🙂
hahaha—yes! As my boys have gotten older they’ve started asking “what does this have in it?”
My husband does NOT like anything coconut, but I don’t mind the taste (in fact I quite like coconut!). Does this recipe taste coconut-y at all? Or does the coco overpower it?
I also love coconut…but my kids won’t touch it. They have eaten this lots of times and never had a clue. Good luck!
I made it Keto friendly by substituting sugar with Monk Fruit sweetener.
I love customizing recipes to work for our family–I’m so glad you were able to do that with this one!
Mine was grainy and never was smooth and whip-like. What did I do wrong?
Tina, That has happened to me on occasion too. To be honest, I’m not 100% sure what causes it, but I have 2 guesses. First, I think the coconut cream may be old/expired. The last time this happened to me, I checked the can and that was definitely the case. Second, it seems that it happens when I use cans of coconut cream that have more liquid in them, so I’ve wondered if perhaps the excess liquid has something to do with it. After I made the expired mess recently, I purchased a new can and it turned out great, so I know it still works. 🙂 (It is still slightly grainy normally, btw, but but not excessively.) Hope you have better luck if you try again!