Chocolate Mousse Tart

When I was about eight, my class made a cookbook. It was brilliant, in a stapled-together, newsprint kind of way. Each child brought in one or two of their favourite family recipes and the teacher typed them all up and made a copy for everyone to take home. It mainly featured classic 1980s New Zealand cuisine: fudge, banana cake, coconut ice and chocolate cake. I don’t remember noticing at the time that my recipe was different to everyone else’s, but now I wonder what the rest of the class thought when they got to my contribution: Mum’s famous Carob Ripple Cheesecake made with tofu, carob and bananas. It probably did nothing to help me lose my hippy associations. But even tofu-haters can be converted when it’s combined with chocolate. Just don’t tell them the secret ingredient until the very last crumb has disappeared... Which won’t take long.

Serves 10-12

Ingredients

Base

• 2 cups (320g) pitted dried dates
• ½ cup (75g) whole raw almonds
• ¼ cup (25g) cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon virgin coconut oil, melted if solid

Chocolate mousse

• 600g silken tofu, drained well
• ½ cup (200g) natural smooth peanut butter
• 3 tablespoons pure maple syrup
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
• 200g dark chocolate, melted

Method

Line the base and side of a 23cm cake tin with baking paper. Blend the base ingredients and a pinch of fine sea salt in a food processor on high for 1–2 minutes or until finely ground and when you squeeze a little bit between your fingers it sticks together. Press into base of cake tin, using a spoon to compact firmly.

To make chocolate mousse, wipe out the bowl of the processor and blend tofu, peanut butter, maple syrup, vanilla and a good pinch of fine sea salt until smooth and creamy. Stop to scrape down the side of the bowl a couple of times during blending. Add melted chocolate and blend for a further 20–30 seconds until fully incorporated. Pour over base and spread with a spoon to smooth. Chill overnight to set and then cut into portions with a hot knife.