maple•spice: White and Dark Chocolate Mocha Hazelnut Layered Mousse

Vegan White and Dark Chocolate Mocha Hazelnut Layered Mousse

♥ Dark Chocolate Kahlua Layer ♥

♥ White Chocolate Frangelico Layer ♥

♥ White and Dark Chocolate Mocha Hazelnut Layer ♥

Well, you all know I love my mousse! This was really a test as I have made mousse many times to layer within cakes and have made it on it's own in parfait glasses but I haven't tried a slice-able version. I really wasn't sure if the mousse would be firm enough to slice and hold it's shape once removed from the tin but as you can see it was all a success!

I based this on a recipe I saw for triple chocolate mousse which layered dark, white and milk chocolate. As the milk chocolate layer isn't really veganizable (is that a word??) I opted to mix the dark and white mousse for a contrast in colour for the top layer. This meant that the liqueur that I added to the dark and white had to go together as they would be mixed for the top layer. After much deliberation I settled on Kahlua (coffee) for the dark chocolate and Frangelico (hazelnut) for the white chocolate. This also meant that the white chocolate didn't change colour much as it's quite a pale liqueur. Combined they make a kind of mocha hazlenut top layer and altogether this mousse is sublime!

White Chocolate Mocha Hazelnut Layered Mousse

serves 8

200g dark chocolate, chopped
200ml soya whipping cream, chilled
3 Tbsp icing sugar, sifted after measuring
3 Tbsp Kahlua
♥
200g vegan white chocolate
200ml soya whipping cream, chilled
3 Tbsp icing sugar, sifted after measuring
3 Tbsp Frangelico

First a warning - this needs a shed load of bowls so get prepared! Now completely line a standard size loaf tin with cling film so that it overhangs all edges. Melt the dark and the white chocolate separately, I did this placing bowls over pots of simmering water but you could also microwave. Once they have melted scrape them into separate bowls to cool down, they will take too long to cool if you leave them in the bowl you melted them in. Keep giving them a stir to help them cool.

Place the whipping cream into 2 large bowls (200ml in each bowl) and whisk in the icing sugar. Now you have to wait until the chocolates are close to room temperature, if you whisk hot or too warm chocolate into the cold soya cream it will seize up. When ready start with the dark chocolate and scrape it slowly into the whipping cream whisking all the time. When it looks all combined then you can slowly start to whisk in the Kahlua a bit at a time then set it aside.

Repeat the same process with the white chocolate and Frangelico but don't worry if this one seems floppier than the dark chocolate, they set the same.

Now take 1/3 of the dark chocolate mousse and place in another bowl (told you it takes a lot of bowls!) and take 1/3 of the white chocolate mousse and add that and whisk these together well. Now you should have equal bowls of dark chocolate, white chocolate and mixed mousse. Being precise as I am I weighed the mousse to figure out exactly 1/3, but you could just eyeball it of course!

Spoon the dark chocolate mousse into the loaf tin and level off as best you can. Top with the white chocolate mousse then the mixed mousse levelling off each layer. Now place it in the fridge to fully set, best to leave it overnight but 5 hours should do it.

To remove, carefully lift the whole mousse out of the tin, it helps to have someone else around to pull the tin down while you lift up. Place the mousse on a chopping board or serving plate. Now, the cling film will be impossible to get off the bottom here so I sliced the film off around the mousse leaving it underneath (no one can see it anyway) then carefully transferred the whole mousse to my serving plate with 2 large spatulas.

I opted to decorate this with some shaved dark chocolate on top and made some dark and white chocolate stars just for fun. You simply melt some chocolate and pipe some shapes onto baking paper, chill then lift off the paper and decorate as you wish.

♥

2013 EDIT - Feeling lazy? Just spoon one layer into wine glasses for the best and easiest chocolate mousse. I simply used the dark chocolate kahlua version here and spooned it into 6 small wine glasses.