Raw Chocolate Hazelnut Mousse Tart with Avocado Filling

Raw Chocolate Hazelnut Mousse Tart with Avocado Filling

A chocolate-hazelnut shortbread crust with a silky avocado-cacao mousse filling — sweetened with maple syrup, finished with crushed hazelnuts and toasted coconut

Makes one 9-inch tart (10–12 slices)

30 min active · 1 hr 30 min total

Year-round

Midday or afternoon

Cuisine: Modern Raw / Living Foods (Italian-inspired)

Ingredients

Base

• 1 cup medjool dates (10–12), pitted

• 1 cup raw hazelnuts

• ½ cup raw almonds or cashews

• ½ cup unsweetened coconut shreds

• 3 tbsp raw cacao powder

• 2 tbsp coconut oil or cacao butter, melted

• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

• pinch sea salt

Chocolate mousse filling

• 2 ripe avocados (Hass)

• ½ cup full-fat coconut milk

• ½ cup raw cacao powder

• ⅓ cup raw hazelnut butter (or raw almond butter)

• ⅓ cup pure maple syrup or raw honey

• ½ cup cacao butter, melted (or coconut oil)

• pinch sea salt

Garnish

• ¼ cup raw hazelnuts, lightly crushed

• 2 tbsp toasted coconut chips

• additional cacao powder, for dusting

Method

1. Base. Pulse dates in a food processor into tiny pieces. Add hazelnuts, almonds/cashews, coconut shreds, cacao powder, salt; pulse to a fine grain-like texture. Add coconut oil and pulse to combine into a cookie-dough consistency.

2. Press evenly into a parchment-lined 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom.

3. Filling. Blend all filling ingredients (except cacao butter) in a high-speed blender or food processor until silky-smooth. Slowly stream in melted cacao butter while blending until well combined.

4. Pour filling over base. Smooth top.

5. Freeze at least 1 hour.

6. Garnish. Just before serving, scatter crushed hazelnuts, toasted coconut chips, and a final dusting of cacao powder across the top. Slice and serve.

7. Store in the refrigerator up to 1 week or freezer up to 1 month.

ENHANCEMENT SUGGESTIONS to make this irresistible!

1. Toasted hazelnuts beat raw. Toast hazelnuts 8 min at 325°F until skins start to crack, then rub off the skins in a tea towel. Toasted-and-skinned hazelnuts are dramatically more flavorful.

2. Fleur de sel layer between crust and filling. Sprinkle ¼ tsp flaky sea salt on the pressed crust before pouring the filling. Salted layers transform any chocolate dessert.

3. Espresso powder in filling. 1 tsp espresso powder in the mousse filling — turns this into a tiramisu-leaning hazelnut-coffee-chocolate sophistication that elevates dramatically.

4. Frangelico or hazelnut extract. 1 tbsp Frangelico (Italian hazelnut liqueur) added to filling — distinctly authentic Italian hazelnut flavor. Or 1 tsp hazelnut extract for non-alcoholic.

5. Salted caramel sauce drizzle on each slice. A drizzle of date-coconut caramel sauce over each plated slice. Caramel + chocolate + hazelnut is the classic gianduja trinity.

6. Hazelnut praline shards. Make a quick hazelnut praline (½ cup hazelnuts + ½ cup pure maple syrup boiled and cooled until brittle) — break into shards, scatter across the tart.

Sourcing: Raw hazelnuts: ideally Italian Tonda Gentile delle Langhe from Gustiamo (the world-class Piedmont hazelnut); for shipped, Freddy Guys Hazelnuts (small Oregon family farm) or Holmquist Orchards. Raw hazelnut butter: Big Spoon Roasters (small-batch NC) or Hazelnut Hill (Oregon small-batch); Medjool dates: Bautista Family Organic Date Ranch or Joolies. Coconut shreds, coconut chips, coconut oil, cacao butter: Big Tree Farms or Nutiva. Cacao powder: Sunfood, Navitas Organics, or Big Tree Farms. Coconut milk: Native Forest Organic Simple. Vanilla: Singing Dog Vanilla. Maldon for flaky finishing salt.