Vegan Double Chocolate and Raspberry Bars.

The recipe that can’t decide whether it wants to be bars or a cake. Some recipes arrive knowing exactly what they want to be. And then there are these. Technically, they’re bars. But change the tin and suddenly they become a rather spectacular cake. We prefer to think they’re simply adaptable. An impromptu afternoon treat. Dinner with friends. A birthday celebration. Or an ordinary Tuesday that deserves improving slightly. They work remarkably well in every situation. An unexpectedly good combination. Chocolate and raspberries have been getting along beautifully for decades. No surprises there. But then come the cashews. The coconut. The orange. And one unexpected guest: beetroot. It brings colour, moisture and a depth that’s surprisingly difficult to describe and very easy to enjoy. Some recipes turn out to be far better than their ingredient list has any right to suggest. This is one of them. Ingredients for the base: 160g of Milola Double Chocolate and Banana cookies 120 g almond flour 40 g melted coconut oil Ingredients for the filling: 240 g cashews soaked overnight or for 20 minutes in hot water 120 g coconut cream (the thick part from a tin of coconut milk) 50 g melted coconut oil 60 g maple syrup 125 g fresh raspberries 50g of raw beetroot 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract Zest of one orange To decorate: Melted dark chocolate Method – 1. Prepare the base: Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Blend the cookies, almond flour and coconut oil until the mixture resembles damp sand. Press firmly into your chosen tin. Rectangular for bars. Round for cake. We’re not here to judge. Bake for approximately 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely. 2. Prepare the filling: Drain the cashews well and place them in a food processor. Add the coconut cream, coconut oil, maple syrup, raspberries, beetroot, vanilla and orange zest. Blend for several minutes until the mixture becomes completely smooth and silky. Patience is rewarded here. 3. Assemble and chill: Pour the filling over the cooled base and smooth the surface. Refrigerate for at least three to four hours until firm. Or overnight if you’re one of those admirable people capable of waiting. We rarely are. 4. The finishing touch: Drizzle with melted dark chocolate. Cut into bars or slices. Serve cold. And accept compliments gracefully. Variations we love Swap the raspberries for strawberries or mixed berries. Add chopped pistachios for extra texture. Serve with coconut yoghurt or plant-based crème fraîche. How we like to serve them: Very cold. With coffee. With a good cup of matcha tea. With a very cold glass of cava. Or directly from the fridge at eleven o’clock at night while promising ourselves this will definitely be the last piece. A small defence of beetroot Beetroot has something of an image problem. Most of us associate it with salads and not much else. But when it meets chocolate, something rather extraordinary happens. It brings moisture. Depth. And a complexity that’s difficult to identify but impossible to ignore. Perhaps that’s why beetroot has quietly found its way into some of the world’s best chocolate cakes. And perhaps that’s why these bars disappear considerably faster than they should. If you make them, we’d love to know whether they ended up as bars or cake. We hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do. If you’d like to see a video tutorial, you can watch it here. Enjoy!

Vegan Chocolate Mousse

The dessert nobody guesses is made with tofu. Some ingredients have excellent press. And then there’s tofu. Possibly one of the most misunderstood ingredients in modern cooking. Because when it appears in a chocolate mousse like this, something rather amusing happens: Nobody sees it coming. All they notice is chocolate. Lots of chocolate. A silky, surprisingly light texture. And that wonderful feeling of eating something deeply indulgent that just happens to be plant-based and dairy-free. A small pastry chef’s secret. Silken tofu has an extraordinary ability to disappear. Not literally, of course. But it does have a remarkable talent for becoming whatever surrounds it. In this case, it becomes the perfect partner for dark chocolate. It brings creaminess. Lightness. And a texture that feels far closer to a classic French mousse than most people would ever expect. Ingredients: 340 g dark chocolate 340 g silken tofu (important: silken, not firm) 60 g soy milk 2 tablespoons maple syrup 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional) To serve: Milola Orange, Almond & Cardamom Cookies Fresh berries Si prefieres una versión completamente vegana, puedes utilizar nuestra galleta de Doble Chocolate. Method: 1. Prepare the tofu. Break the tofu into a sieve and allow it to drain for a couple of hours to remove excess moisture. This small step makes a surprisingly big difference to the final texture. 2. Melt the chocolate. Melt the chocolate gently using a bain-marie or short bursts in the microwave. Allow it to cool slightly before using. 3. Make the mousse. Place the drained tofu, soy milk, maple syrup and vanilla into a blender. Blend until completely smooth and silky. Add the melted chocolate and blend again until the mousse becomes glossy and perfectly uniform. That’s it. How we like to serve it. We love breaking some Orange, Almond and Cardamom cookies into the bottom of a glass and alternating layers of cookie and mousse. The richness of the chocolate, the perfume of citrus and cardamom and the freshness of the berries do the rest. Finish with a whole cookie and a few fresh berries on top. It looks like the sort of dessert you’d order in a restaurant. And yet it probably took less time to make than choosing what to watch after dinner. A small lesson about chocolate – Chocolate has an extraordinary ability to make people happy. We’re not aware of any scientific studies proving it. But we’re not aware of many people willing to argue the point either. And this mousse probably won’t help settle the debate. If you make it, we’d love to hear how long it survives in your fridge.