Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Vegan Chocolate Mousse in Cashew 'Cups'

It is no secret that I LOVE to bake. Typically, what I bake is determined by what we have in the pantry or what we're in the mood for. This is one of those instances where it was completely determined by the events we wanted to participate in...I'm not going to lie about it! If you are a food blogger who has never ever cooked/baked/photographed something that was not at all dictated by event(s), then seriously...hats off to you! But seriously...be honest...have you NEVER done it? Come on :P

This endeavor goes to two events:


Ingredients

For the cashew 'cups'

1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp cold butter, cut into tiny pieces
1/4 cup roasted cashews
1-2 tbsp chilled milk*
* add just enough to form a dough



















For the mousse

3/8 cup silken tofu
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup bittersweet chocolate
1. Preheat oven to 375F

2. Pulse the cashews, sugar and the flour a few times in a blender or a food processor until everything is combined into a fine powder. Make sure that the blender doesn't heat because this might cause the flour to stick to the walls.

3. Transfer this into a plate and incorporate the butter until a crumbly dough starts to form. Add enough milk to form a dough. It should be barely kneadable.

4. Divide this into 3 equal spheres. Roll each into 5-6 inch circles with a rolling pin. Place these into greased muffin pans to line the entire 'cup' and press the excess dough against the outer surface of the pan.

5. Fill these 'cups' with a 'filler' like rice or lentils because even before you press the second 'cup', you'll realize the first one has already started to come off! If you're a pro, then you could use something called pastry weights ;)

6. Bake for 15 mins. or until golden. Remove the muffin tray and let it cool until warm. At this stage, remove as much 'filler' as you can and then remove the cups from the muffin tray. Let them cool down to room temperature. Remove any filler which might be stuck to the inner walls in the meantime without breaking the cups.

7. While the cups are baking, melt the chocolate chips in a double boiler.

8. Drain the silken tofu to remove excess moisture. I used a couple of paper towels and pressed as gently as possible to remove some moisture.

9. Put this in a blender and add sugar to it. Blend until a uniform, creamy mixture is obtained.

10. Once the chocolate has melted, add it to the tofu 'cream' and pulse it a few more times. Taste it and adjust the amount of sugar as needed. You could also throw in a dash of vanilla extract. Once a nice uniform mixture is obtained, put this in a piping device or a ziploc bag and refrigerate for an hour or until nice and thick. Don't attach the plunger if you're refrigerating the piping device.

11. Pipe the mousse into the cups and refrigerate it until ready to serve.

The mousse came out quite rich and creamy. The cups weren't as crisp and crunchy as I wanted them to be. This recipe serves three 'cups'. I'd say that overall, this is very easy to make and is a nice idea for individual desserts and can be prepared ahead. And even weight watchers could afford to indulge in this because it is not as calorific as some other desserts out there. For every 'cup', you're probably consuming 1/9 cup flour, 1/6 cup sugar, 1/8 cup silken tofu, 1/9 cup chocolate and 2/3 tbsp butter. I don't think that should be more than 200 calories.

This dessert can be easily made vegan by substituting the milk with water and butter with oil or nut-butter for making the cups. The mousse, on the other hand, is certainly vegetarian...in fact vegan!


So here is another (relatively) guilt-free dessert from us ;) Please binge responsibly :D

UPDATES:

1) The indentations seen in the cups are from the moong daal (lentils) that I used as pastry weights.

2) I have a cup that can measure 1/8th of a cup. Do it three times and you got yourselves 3/8th of a cup ;)

56 comments:

amna said...

OMG!! I recognise the blue tissue :D and one question: how on earth do you guys cook up such awesomely different stuff?

Elyse said...

Way to kill two birds with one stone!! These cups look incredible. Both recipes alone look delicious, but paired together: well, that's something! Looks sinfully delicious.

Rachel said...

very creative cashew cups!

bee said...

i'm really enjoying this 'mini-dessert series" and measurements like 3/8 th cup. :D

veggievixen said...

yum! since when is binging responsible??

Unknown said...

I am really drooling ;)the cashew cups is gonna be in my to do list...simply superbbbbb

Pearl said...

what a great idea to combine the tofu mousse recipe with the nut recipe!

Cham said...

A nutty cup for heavenly delicious mousse! Seriuouly how to do u scale down the recipes?

chef and her kitchen said...

Casshew cups and chocoloate filling!!!
I think nothing can break these nutty n choco combo...lovely entry..

Indhu said...

droolicious :)
love love this recipe!

Lavanya said...

very creative idea of filling choclate in cashew cups..looks lovely n yummy too..nice recipe!!

Raaga said...

it looks wonderful... and how can one binge responsibly... if you tempt like this!

sra said...

Those cups look exotic with that honeycomb sort of pattern!

And yes, events determine what many, many bloggers make and eat :-)

SJ said...

I have technical question- which instrument should I use to measure out 3/8 cup? :P

lubnakarim06 said...

Somedays back iam drooling on seeing chocolate cups...These cahew cups make me drool more....Must try....Filling looks tempting...

Jacqueline Meldrum said...

Yum! That's all I can say. Yum :P

miss v said...

what a beautiful and yummy dessert. my mom would gush over these for mother's day!

suvi said...

love that mousse...yum!

Pooja said...

Very creative..lovly post..

Deepthi Shankar said...

thatz makes a very cute dessert .. lovely mousse

Soma said...

Cashew cups? where do get such ideas? No I will not binge responsibly.. u guys first tempt.. then add a note.. it does not work that way:-) be happy guys i don't live near u, or u would have a pest every night looking for crumbs after dinner.

Priya Suresh said...

Cashew cups very creative, drool worthy chocolate mousse!

Shreya said...

the cashew cups title caught my eye, and I am so impressed! The chocolate mousse looks so good and yummy in those cups..wish I could just grab one

Deepa Hari said...

Lovely treat...those cups look cute and very creative....just love the mousse in those cups....i am drooling now.

Bong Mom said...

Those cups are awesome. Very very pretty event or not.
Who is the baker, A or N ?

Valarmathi Sanjeev said...

Cashew cups simply superb. Looks yummyyyyy...

Cynthia said...

You took that close-up shot because you wanted us to drool didn't you? Well guess what? Mission accomplished! :)

Bianca said...

Dude, those need to be in my mouth right now. Thanks so much for this recipe.

Priya Sriram said...

He hee... am not going to lie! I have prepared a lot of dishes for the events! :D

Btw, where did you get the idea of making cashew cup n choco mousse in it? Totally wonderful, Great job guys!! :) Hats off to you!

Anonymous said...

Chocolate and nuts. What a great combination. I am going to try this recipe this weekend.

Bharti said...

So you did end up using tofu! The cashew tarts sound very tasty!

Elle said...

Binge responsibly...yes, with these that would be delicious! The tartlettes are really pretty, too.

Vegetarian Zest said...

What a recipe...who got the idea of it?? A or N??

Varsha Vipins said...

You guys are great..Brings up such innovative recipes all the time..Keep 'em coming..This is just S U P E R B..!!

SJ said...

HA! I don't need no 1/8 cups. 4 Tbsp makes 1/4 cup. So 2Tbsp gives 1/8 cup. 6Tbsp = 3/8 cup. Howisssit?? I am a genius. ain't I?

Bhawna said...

Wow guilt free dessert sounds great. Very innovatine and fresh recipe Thanks for sharing.

Pearl said...

are you able to search for the ingredients on my blog?

ha, yes, i SHOULD - what a wonderful idea! you're so adorably funny :)

AnuSriram said...

Wow.. thats fabulous! Fantastic! Gr8 looking cups and a tempting chocolate mousse...

Aparna Balasubramanian said...

A very unusual dessert, the cup part of it anyways. With cashews and chocolate this one definitely gets my vote.

Your cashew cups look like some exotic, oriental flowers.

Astra Libris said...

Such a beautiful recipe - and a beautiful blog! :-)

I love the texture of the mousse in their little cups... Positively gorgeous...

NKP said...

I would like to try working with silken tofu one day soon, I have heard lots of good things about it. Looks like a yummy treat!

Juliana said...

Cashew crust, sounds great! and with chocolate mousse...have to try it!

Priyanka said...

i m clean bolt :-)

Deeba PAB said...

Just fab.I love mini desserts & this is beautiful! LOVE IT!!

Vibaas said...

events help me on the days i go blank on what to cook (which is 90% of the time.hehe). the mooless moose..er..mousse is yum!

Archana said...

Super super dessert...the cashew cups look real nice and of course, the yummy chocolate...how do u come up with all these ideas ?? Brilliant work A and N

Cakelaw said...

Chocolate and cashews together - delicious!! A great idea.

Dori said...

Wow, those look amazing!

Uma said...

How do you guys get these tempting ideas? Those are some cute cups. What a pretty dessert! Yummy! :)

A_and_N said...

Thanks so much everyone.

For everyone who asked the question about who thought of this, it is A. A is the baker between the both of us. And he is the experimental cook who needs dessert every night and ends up doing stuff like this :)

Gena said...

Love this recipe! thanks!!

Gena

(www.choosingraw.com)

The Caked Crusader said...

Love the idea of those cashew cups - they could be used for so many different things!

aTxVegn said...

This is such a great recipe, which I've bookmarked to bake soon.

Laavanya said...

Cashew cups look pretty - how very innovative.

Sands said...

Thanks for the recipe girl :) Will try it out!

eda said...

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