Citrusy Cottage Cheese Chocolate Mousse Recipe

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Cottage cheese chocolate mousse is a delicious, high-protein alternative to traditional mousse and one of the best ways to use cottage cheese. This star ingredient is used to make the dish rich and creamy without the eggs and heavy cream used in regular mousse. And instead of white sugar, this mousse is sweetened with maple syrup or honey. If you're hesitant to try this recipe because you don't like the texture of cottage cheese, fear not. The curds are blended completely smooth.

Recipe developer Michelle Bottalico has created a recipe for a cottage cheese chocolate mousse that highlights the flavor of citrus. Cottage cheese is blended with unsweetened cocoa powder to make it nice and chocolatey, while maple syrup sweetens the mixture and vanilla extract deepens the flavor. Orange and chocolate pair beautifully together, and a small amount of freshly grated orange zest puts a bright spin on the otherwise plain chocolate pudding. Be sure to top the mousse with chocolate shavings or chocolate chips for an elegant presentation, with optional orange zest for a beautiful touch of color.

This mousse has over 13 grams of protein per serving, and you can easily make it keto by swapping maple syrup for a keto-friendly sweetener. You can whip up a batch in just five minutes and keep it in the fridge for 4-5 days, making it a great choice for meal prepping for breakfast or dessert, to make your life easier and more delicious.

For this recipe, you will need cottage cheese, and you can choose any fat percentage you prefer. You will also need unsweetened cocoa powder, maple syrup, orange zest, and vanilla extract. For garnish, either grab chocolate chips or a chocolate bar to create chocolate shavings. Optional ingredients are ground flax seed to make the pudding thicker and additional orange zest for garnish.

Place the cottage cheese, cocoa powder, maple syrup, orange zest, vanilla extract, and optional flax seed in a blender, food processor, or bowl with an immersion blender.

Blend on high until the cottage cheese is creamy and smooth.

Taste and add more maple syrup if you like it sweeter.

Transfer to 2 individual serving dishes.

Garnish with chocolate chips, shaved chocolate, or orange zest before serving.

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This recipe is simple to make, but you can make an even quicker version by reducing the ingredients to just three basic ones: cottage cheese, cocoa powder, and maple syrup (or honey if you prefer). You'll get the creamy and chocolatey base without extra tasks like grating oranges or shaving chocolate. This recipe can easily be made keto-friendly by swapping the maple syrup for one of the many keto-friendly sweeteners out there, like stevia, erythritol, or monk fruit sweetener, and by using sugar-free chocolate chips.

For the creamiest mousse, use full-fat cottage cheese, which is about 6% milk fat (regular cottage cheese is 4%). On the other hand, if you'd like to reduce the fat, choose a low-fat version, which is 1%. If desired, you can make the mousse even creamier by blending in some ripe avocado. While cottage cheese is the main ingredient, you could substitute ricotta if needed. It won't come out quite the same (ricotta is grainier), but it would still be delicious.

There are many possible (and delicious) flavor variations that would work well in this recipe. Instead of an orange flavor, you could blend other ingredients into the mousse and use them to top the final dish. Berries like strawberries, blueberries, or raspberries are a great option, as well as coconut, nuts like hazelnuts or almonds, cinnamon, a small amount of brewed espresso or instant coffee, or peanut, almond, or cashew butter.

Ground flaxseeds are commonly used as an egg replacement in egg-free baking, for example, by people who have an egg allergy or who follow a plant-based diet. A flaxseed egg alternative, often called a flax egg, can be made by mixing 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseed with 3 tablespoons of hot water, stirring, and letting it sit for 5 minutes. It can be used to replace an egg in sweet baked dishes, like cakes, cookies, and muffins, or savory dishes like veggie burgers or a meatloaf alternative made with lentils and walnuts.

Flaxseeds are highly absorbent, and when you mix them with water, they soak up liquid, swell, and become gelatinous. This makes them a great binding agent and thickener, which is why they can replace eggs in certain recipes (although you can't make an omelet or a meringue with them).

This is the reason we've listed them as an optional ingredient in this cottage cheese mousse recipe. Blending in flax seeds makes the mousse thicker, enhancing the creamy mouthfeel. If you use them, you can choose to refrigerate the mousse for 30 minutes before serving to give the flax seeds more time to absorb liquid and thicken up. As a bonus, flaxseed is also chock-full of fiber and healthy omega-3 fatty acids, adding vital nutrition to the dish.

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