Healthy Chocolate Mousse

You may be noticing a trend - I promise I'm not just trying to lure you in with impossible-sounding headlines (though I stretch the truth perhaps a little in my claims of healthfulness...), what with my apple and carrot cake and now this mousse.

This has an incredibly surprising ingredients list, and though I don't think it could ever replace real chocolate mousse, it has a place in times of belt-tightening (the literal kind) when your sweet tooth won't be placated. I might have mentioned before that I pretty much always have to have something sweet after dinner - it doesn't have to be a full-on dessert, and sometimes a lollipop (I'm a child on the inside!) will do - and this is a good kind of compromise dish.

It does have an amazingly creamy, rich texture, and though the avocado flavour is still present it takes a backseat to the chocolate moussiness. It looks the part, too - decadent, chocolatey, creamy.

It's not quite vegan, as honey isn't, but use of a different syrupy sweetener could fix that if you are seeking a vegan dessert, and it's dairy-free (so long as your chocolate is dairy-free, which dark chocolate should be!). It's also a ton easier to make than real chocolate mousse.

The original recipe I was following was ridiculously simple - throw ingredients in food processor, process until smooth, chill. Given that I only have a teeny food processor (part of my stick blender) I couldn't do it all at once, and it wasn't quite as smooth as I wanted so I finished it off with the stick blender in a bowl. It wasn't quite in a state that I would have been happy eating on its own, though, so I added some melted chocolate to half of the mixture, then popped both versions in the fridge.

The proof was in the eating, and the earlier verdict on the version without added chocolate stood firm, so though it's not quite as healthy as the recipe I started with it's entirely more satisfying, and though creamy and moussey it's also remarkably filling, which means you might stop eating earlier than with the real deal.

Do you have any sneaky ingredient/recipe swaps to make your treats healthier to help fight off the winter padding?

Avocado Chocolate Mousse (adapted from The Kitchn)
Ingredients
4 ripe avocados
1/2 cup cocoa
1/3 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla essence
100g dark chocolate

Put avocado flesh, cocoa, honey and vanilla into a food processor and process until smooth and creamy. Melt the chocolate, then stir through the mousse. Chill for two hours before serving. Serves 6-8.