Chocolate Mousse, a sinful, crowd pulling dessert is generally made using either whipped egg whites (with or without yolks) or using gelatin. But for those vegetarians who do not wish to use gelatin in the recipes, here is an easy way out. Agar agar, a vegetarian substitute for gelatin, is derived from plants (Algae) and is widely used in desserts .

Here is the recipe for  Egg less, gelatin less chocolate mousse, that is a fluffy, airy, melt in the mouth dessert.

Ingredients for Eggless gelatinless chocolate mousse :

For making 4 large servings/8-10 small ( as you can see in pics that I have used tall glasses for mousse)

• 1 Cup sweet Whipping cream* ( I used Tropolite )
• 125 gm of dark chocolate (I used Morde dark Compound chocolate)
• 1 tsp of Coffee powder (I used Nescafe’s instant coffee)
• 2 tbsp of Agar agar crumbs (I used china grass sheet, ground in spice blender jar)

Method:

• leave the chocolate bar at room temperature for half hour to make it easy to chop and melt.
• Chill well the whipping cream, bowl and eggbeater (if whipping cream manually) before whipping the cream. Cream whips better if the cream and equipments are cold.
• *If using unsweetened cream, add around 4-5 tbsp of sugar while whipping. Taste and add more if needed.
• Whip the cream till it its airy, light and have soft peaks. Refrigerate till further use.
• Take around 2-3 tbsp of warm water and add agar agar crumbs. Mix well. Let it bloom nicely. In 5-10 minutes if should form a consistency of a thick sauce. If you can still see lumpy mass, cook this mixture in 1/4 cup of milk or water till agar agar dissolves completely. Let the mixture cool down a bit (Note: Cooling it for too long might initiate the ‘setting in’ process. In that case just add some more hot water and mix to regain consistency of a  thick sauce. )
• In 2 tbsp of hot water, add 1 tsp of instant coffee powder (Use more if you want strong coffee flavor). Keep aside.
• While agar agar is cooling, break the chocolate into small pieces . Take a microwave safe glass bowl (Borosil) and wipe it well to get rid of any water. Microwave the empty bowl for  few seconds to make sure that no moisture is left in the bowl.Add chocolate and either microwave for 6-10 seconds ( mix with spoon and if needed, microwave it for few more seconds, taking care to take out the bowl  after every 4 seconds , mixing well and then proceeding to microwave again), or you can use the double boiler method to melt the chocolate. Exposing chocolate to heat for even few seconds more than needed will ruin the colour and texture, while  letting it come in contact with any moisture will ‘seize’ the chocolate and you will end up with gritty, lumpy mass, instead of  that shiny, smooth, satiny, sinful ‘liquid’ chocolate .
• Add coffee concoction and agar agar in the chocolate and fold well.
• Retain some whipped cream for garnishing the mousse, and add the remaining cream into the chocolate+ coffee+agar agar mix and fold very gently, till the mixture looks evenly brown. Do not whip or mix harshly , be really gentle.
• Spoon this mixture into serving glasses and refrigerate for at least 3-4 hours, so that the mousse sets well.
• Before serving, just pipe some whipping cream (that you have retained ) using piping bag or cone and you can garnish it with sprinkles, chocolate shavings, grated chocolate etc.
• Cover each glass with cling film if you need to store it for 2-3 days in refrigerator.