During my junior year of high school, we read Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter” in English class.
Our final project included the option to create a video, and for some reason, my group thought it would be an excellent idea to recreate scenes from the classic novel in a mashup with jokes from “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.”
As part of our filming, I purchased a “quick crack” coconut to use for horse hoof sound effects and learned quickly that this coconut did not want to crack quickly at all. In the end, my poor dad had to come to my rescue with a hacksaw. I was also horribly disappointed that coconut milk was not nearly as sweet as I thought it was. Many things were learned that day.
I was thinking about that this week when I bought a can of coconut cream for a recipe and then realized that it called for coconut milk. The good news is that they’re almost the same product. The only difference? Coconut cream has more fat and less water. And in this case, that was actually a benefit.
The recipe I tried came from the blog “Yummy Inspirations.” You can find the original post at https://yummyinspirations.net/2023/03/coconut-milk-chocolate-mousse-recipe/. With only three ingredients, there wasn’t much “spicing up” to do, so other than noting that you can also use coconut cream, I did not change anything in this one.
Coconut Milk Chocolate Mousse
Ingredients
- 13 to 15 ounce can of coconut milk or cream
- 2 to 3 tablespoons sugar substitute
- 2 to 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
Instructions
- At least 24 hours before you want to make this, put your can of coconut milk into the refrigerator.
- When you’re ready to make it, carefully spoon the coconut solids off the top of the can into a mixing bowl, leaving as much of the water behind as you can.
- Beat the coconut solids, on high, for several minutes until it is smooth and forms soft peaks.
- Beat in two tablespoons of sugar substitute and two tablespoons of cocoa powder, and once everything is well combined, give it a taste. Add another tablespoon of either if you want it sweeter and/or chocolatier.
- Serve right away or refrigerate until you’re ready to enjoy.
This makes either one decent-sized serving or two smaller servings of chocolate mousse. If you’re not a huge coconut fan, you probably won’t like this one, but honestly, the chocolate overpowers the coconut overall, so it’s not as prominent as you might think.
The texture is pretty close to a mousse but definitely not as airy as a traditional one. It was a nice treat, regardless.
It also isn’t going to be fat free by any means, and despite using a sugar substitute, there will still be some sugar in this from the coconut milk. The bonus, though, is it’s dairy free and vegan, so it’s a nice substitute for people with some dietary restrictions.
And I got to learn yet another new lesson about coconut products.
Looking back on it, I’m guessing not too many people learn about tropical fruits as part of their reading of Hawthorne, but I’m also guessing not too many English teachers are in a predicament where they have to watch a stupid movie in order to understand their students’ equally stupid project so they can grade it. (Sorry, Mrs. Coleman.)
But I suppose the silver lining is we all received some surprising lessons in the process.
This piece first appeared in print on May 30, 2024.
Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.
