Simple, surprising, Chocolate Mousse

Having spotted a recipe of Lorraine Pascale's that looked interesting, we decided to give it a go.

As is usual for us, we didn't have *quite* the right ingredients so made a couple of minor tweaks.  However the recipe remains gluten free, dairy free, added sugar free and egg free.  Plus, it's a one pot 'whiz up' mix which is an added bonus!

The ingredients we used were -

One ripe banana, peeled
One ripe avocado, peeled and stone removed
62g dates, with stones removed
42g unsweetened cocoa powder

(this made enough for three quite large servings)

The banana and dates were put in a food processor, they were whizzed to combine and then the avocado was also added.

Finally, the cocoa powder was added and mixed until all ingredients thoroughly combined.

Splitting the mousse between three serving dishes, they were then cooled until it was time to eat them.  Having a smooth texture, they were very chocolatey and not too rich.  A lovely end to our meal.  Really simple to make and not as bad for you as other chocolate puddings!

Sous Chef J has suggested adding coffee to them the next time we make them - the finely ground instant coffee beans type - and we think the addition of a teaspoon of this will create a lovely rich mocha dessert.

Wild Raspberry Jam (no added sugar)

We have a walk we take with the dog where we had spotted a patch of raspberry canes - it's alongside the bridleway.  We noticed a few fruits were ripe and ready to harvest so when we returned at the weekend, it was great to see how many more had been ripened in just seven days.  Only spending a few minutes gathering fruit, we were surprised to find, once back home, that we had 350g red raspberries and eight yellow raspberries (much to Sous Chef J's delight).

As wild raspberries are small and very flavoursome, we decided to try to make jam with no added sugar. With no idea as to how it would turn out but thought it worth a go and would, we hoped, make a suitable filling for one of our favourite roulades.

After washing the raspberries, they were put in a pan and a small amount of freshly squeezed orange juice was added.  The pan was placed over a medium heat and brought to a rolling boil.  The raspberries were boiled until pulling back with a spoon revealed only a small amount of fluid.

Whilst the raspberries were boiling, we sterilised our jam jar (by placing it and its lid in the washing up bowl and filling with boiling water).  This was then quickly drained, making sure not to touch the inside of the jar or lid.

The jam was then decanted into the jam jar and left to cool.  It was good to hear the 'click' of the lid as the cooling contents created a vacuum seal in the jar.

We had read online that wild raspberries contain alot of pectin so we didn't add any sugar or pectin.  As you can see, in the pic to the right, after setting, there was no doubt this was not a runny jam!

Trying the jam on some Genius Gluten Free seeded bread that had been toasted, it was a tasty preserve that was very much like a thick paste/spread rather than a traditional jam with jelly.  Surprisingly, even though there were lots of seeds in the jam, as the fruit was wild, they were very small and not at all unpleasant.

Not bad for an almost free fruit spread!