Pineapple Coconut Cake

I’ve been pretty sick this week. Cough cough. Unfortunately, that means missing today’s raw vegan potluck which is so sad! Not only did I miss last month’s because we were on vacation, but today there’s a special presentation from a raw chef. I’m disappointed to miss it.

I decided that I would still send a dessert in my absence. I had 2 very ripe pineapples waiting to make this dessert and they weren’t going to keep, so may as well let the other people enjoy. I was very careful when I made the dessert so it’s definitely germ free! I forgot to snap a photo before I sent it to the potluck which is happening now. Hopefully Lee takes some pictures.

This is a little bit like a raw cheesecake meets an ice cream (or sorbet) cake. When I first made this, I thought I wouldn’t do it with coconut butter and only with agar flakes, but then I changed my mind. So the version that I sent to the potluck had agar listed in the ingredients but you can skip it in the final recipe:

This is the photo of the 2 layer version with papaya on the top layer. I didn’t get a photo of the all-pineapple version.

• 2 cups almonds
• 1 cup dates
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• Shredded Coconut
• Coconut Oil

1. Blitz in the food processor.
2. Coat bottom of a spring form pan with coconut oil, then sprinkle with shredded coconut. This will prevent the crust from sticking.
3. Press the crust into the pan and set aside.

Pineapple Syrup

• Take the juice of a fresh pineapple and put it in your dehydrator in a shallow pan. Dehydrate at 105 degrees for 4 to 6 hours. Check on it to make sure it doesn’t over dehydrate. This will concentrate into a very sweet syrup that you can drizzle over your cake. (I took a nap and mine over dehydrated so I put the “candied pineapple” on top of my cake.)

Filling

• 2 large pineapples
• 2 cups raw unsweetened dried coconut
• 1 tbsp coconut oil

1. Blitz the coconut and oil in the food processor to make coconut butter.
2. Add the meat of 2 pineapples. Blitz!
3. Poor over your pie crust.
4. Let set in the freezer for at least one hour.

Raw Vegan Pumpkin Cookies

Actually, I’m using the trick that I got from Rawlicious and these cookies were made with soaked butternut squash, not pumpkin! Butternut squash is more readily available and a bit less expensive, so why not?

These measurements are approximate. I actually made all of the coconut cashew butter in advance before I knew that I’d use it to make this recipe.

Required Equipment:

• Juicer
• Food Processor
• Dehydrator

Raw Vegan Pumpkin Cookies Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 smallish butternut squash, refuse removed, cut into pieces and soaked 3+ hours (recommended by Rawlicious since it’s very starchy)
• 600g of coconut + 4 tbsp of coconut oil, blitzed into coconut butter
• 600g of cashews
• 1/3 cup raw agave or to taste
• 2 tbsp pumpkin pie spice

Directions:

1. Run the butternut squash through the juicer. Save the juice for other recipes, it’s the pulp you want for the cookies.
2. In food processor, make your coconut butter first. Blend until completely smooth.
3. Add your cashews to the coconut butter and blend until smooth. This should make a smooth and creamy butter.
4. Add agave to taste.
5. Add the pulp from the butternut squash. Blend.
6. Add your spices, blend and voila! You’ve got a really sticky mushy mess. Time for the deyhdrator. As best you can, roll your mushy dough in to round cookie shapes and place on dehydrator sheets.
7. Dehydrate 10+ hours at 110 degrees. Flip and dehydrate for another 3 to 6 hours, or until they’re no longer oily/overly moist on the outside. This can be adjusted to your preference.
8. Eat your cookies!

Raw Pumpkin Cheesecake with Orange Toffee Crust

For this month’s raw vegan potluck, I knew that I wanted to make a pumpkin dessert. Pie? Cookies? I love love love pumpkin and the cozy fall spices that go with it. As usual, I like to read up on all of the different recipes online to see what primary principles should come in to play when working with raw pumpkin. The consensus seems to be that you should soak your pumpkin first, which I did. I also had the idea that it would be good to run the pumpkin through the juicer first to get a smooth consistency and Ani Phyo also recommends this so that’s the way that I went.

I decided to make a pumpkin cheesecake with an orange toffee crust. I loved the result! I didn’t make it very sweet, so for a really standard dessert you’ll want to boost the amount of agave you use, possibly even double it if you want a truly sweet finish to your meal, but I like it with a creamy, smooth texture with just a hint of sweetness.

Q. My raw desserts are too runny/don’t hold their shape. What should I do? 

How to make your raw desserts firm: Someone else at the potluck last night asked me how I manage get my desserts to hold their shape so well. She had also tried to make a cheesecake but it was more of an ice cream cake because it hadn’t had enough time to set in the fridge and also, in my opinion, the recipe didn’t call for enough coconut butter. My advice is to be generous with your coconut butter and to try to make your desserts a day in advance so that they have ample time to set in the fridge.

Equipment:

• Juicer
• Food Processor
• Crust – dehydrator (optional)

Orange Toffee Crust

• zest of 2 oranges
• juice of 1/2 an orange
• 2 cups almonds
• 1 cup dates
• 1/4 cup unsweetened dried coconut flakes

1. Blitz your almonds in the food processor until you’ve made almond flour.
2. Add the dates. Blend.
3. Zest your oranges and add the zest.
4. For the orange juice, if you’re going to dehydrate your crust you can use quite a lot of the juice. However, if you don’t have a dehydrator or don’t have time, I would only use 1 or 2 tablespoons of juice or skip the juice altogether.
5. Sprinkle coconut flakes at the bottom of a spring form pan. This will help prevent your crust from sticking.
6. Press your filling in to the spring form pan. If you have extra dough for the crust, you can press it in to some other forms for later desserts or roll in to balls and have as tasty “Larabara” type cookies for later.
7. Dehydrate (if you can) for 2 to 4 hours, depending on how much juice you’ve used. Ideally, the top of the crust should be completely dry when you pull it out.

Nut-Free Pumpkin Cheesecake Filling

Ingredients:

• 1 pie pumpkin, refuse removed, cut into slices & soaked in water for 3+ hours
• 1 carrot
• 5 cups of coconut + 4 tbsp coconut oil, blitzed into coconut butter
• 1.5 cups of coconut kefir or coconut milk.
• 3 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
• 2 tsp ginger
• 1 cup lucuma powder
• splash of vanilla (optional)
• 3/4 agave
• Juice of half a lemon (optional, but gives it a more cheesecake-like flavour)
• Fresh cranberries for decoration.

1. Start by blitzing your coconut and coconut oil in the food processor to make a smooth, liquidy coconut butter.
2. Add coconut kefir or coconut milk. Blend. You now have a kind of coconut cream cheese.
3. Run your soaked pumpkin and carrot through the juicer. Add both the liquid and the pulp to the cream cheese” in the food processor. Blend.
4. Add your spices and lucuma powder. Blend.
5. Add agave and vanilla. Blend. Adjust agave quantity to suit your pallet.
6. Add lemon if desired. Blend.

This has now formed a delicious, though pretty wet filling. Have no fear! This sets in the fridge and becomes very firm, though it does take a long time to solidify. I recommend preparing this the night before, but otherwise leave yourself at least 6 hours for it to set. Place in the freezer if you’re short on time. So pour your filling on top of the crust in your spring form pan and refrigerate for as long as you can.

Decorate with fresh cranberries if you like, serve and enjoy!

Wholesome nut & seed butters with a delicious twist!

Nut butters are my very favourite food. I eat them every day, often multiple times a day. In fact, I became so nutty for nut butters that I’ve even started my own little business making delicious and diverse flavour combinations. My company is called Health Nut and you can check out at www.healthnutbutters.com.

Flavours include:

• Notella
• Spiced Pumkin Seed Butter
• Pecan Pie Butter
• Cinnamon Bun Butter
• Oh Canada!
• Macaroon Butter
• Coconut Butter
• Other Special Flavours

Raw Vegan Key Lime Coconut Cheesecake

This is absurdly delicious. I haven’t been blogging about it, but I’ve started making raw vegan coconut kefir which I need to blog about in a separate post. I’m using it for the full version of this recipe (in place of just plain coconut milk), but for the moment I’ll post the quick version.

Raw Vegan Key Lime Coconut Cheesecake

12 servings

Equipment:

• You’ll need a good food processor to make this recipe.
• Muffin tray or small spring form cake pan or pie plate.

Filling:

• 2 cups of shredded, unsweetened coconut
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil
• 400 mL of raw coconut milk or 1 can coconut milk (canned coconut milk is not actually raw) or the equivalent made into coconut kefir in advance
• 4 regular limes or 8 key limes or more, to taste (reserve the zest in advance to mix in or for garnish, as you wish)
• 1/4 cup to 1/3 cup of light raw agave, or to taste
• dash of sea salt

Crust:

• 1 cup walnuts
• 1 cup almonds
• .5 cup of dates (or more if you’d like a softer crust)
• Optional: 2 tbsp dried coconut (if you’re not using silicone moulds)

1. Blitz 2 cups of dried coconut and coconut oil in the food processor. Leave it long enough that it becomes completely liquified. This might take a good 5 minutes or longer.
2. Add coconut milk to the filling. Blitz it again.
3. Zest your limes, and if you like add some of the zest to the coconut or reserve all of it for a garnish, as you like.
4. Squeeze out your limes separately, so you don’t get seeds in your filling. Then add it to the coconut.
5. Add light agave, to taste, and a dash of salt.
6. Set filling aside in a separate container, in the fridge if you like. It will solidify as it becomes cold.
7. Blend the nuts in the food processor until it makes a fine nut meal. Then add your dates and let it blitz some more. Leave it for longer if you like a softer crust.
8. Mould the crust into cups inside your muffin cups, or press into the bottom of your spring form pan or pie plate.  *If you’re not using silicone equipment, sprinkle about 2 tablespoons of shredded coconut on the bottom of the pan and it will prevent it from sticking.
9. Fill your crust, then let it set in the freezer until it’s nearly ready to serve. Garnish as you like.
10. Enjoy!

Raw Vegan Icing Recipes

 

 

I can’t believe how easy and delicious coconut butter is to use as a base for icing. Amazing! Even people who don’t [think] they like coconut love this as icing.

First, to make coconut butter, simply pulverize unsweetened coconut flakes in the food processor along with a little drop of coconut oil. For a smoother, more “wet” icing you can use additional coconut oil. I use coconut butter in so many recipes that I always make an extra jar and keep it on hand for the next time I’ll need it.

Raw Vegan Icing – base

• Coconut Butter
• Agave to taste
• Vanilla to taste

Blend it up in the food processor and it’s as simple as that! Depending on how much coconut oil you had added to your coconut butter, or how much agave and vanilla you used, this may harden when cool or stay a bit more runny. It’s up to you. If you’d like it to stay more “wet” then add some extra coconut oil or agave.

Raw Vegan Icing variations:

• Raw Vegan Coconut Icing – add a tiny drop of coconut extract to draw out the coconut taste
• Raw Vegan Chocolate Icing – add cocoa powder and a bit more coconut oil
• Raw Vegan Mint Icing – add fresh mint leaves as well as a drop of peppermint extract
• Raw Vegan Lemon Icing – a good dose of fresh squeezed lemon, extra agave, and optional lemon extract
• Raw Vegan Maple Icing – use maple syrup instead of agave
  

  Fresh mint is delicious and gives the icing a nice natural green colour.

How to make your own coconut butter

I use coconut butter in most of my raw vegan dessert recipes. It’s a really handy ingredient. Not only is it delicious but it helps to solidify and give texture to recipes that would otherwise be too liquid and soft. Many people use cashews in a similar way for their raw recipes, but I far prefer the flavour and texture of coconut butter which holds it’s shape better and doesn’t interfere with the flavours of the recipe.

You can buy coconut butter in a jar but it does get rather expensive. If you have good equipment of your own, I really recommend making it yourself. A really excellent food processor or Vitamix is required.

To make the equivalent to one 450g jar of coconut butter, you’ll need to use approximately 4.5 to 5 cups of fine raw dehydrated coconut. You’ll also need some high quality coconut oil, about 1 to 4 tbsps. Start with just the coconut and 1 tbsp of coconut oil and blend it up, or blitz it as I like to say. This may take a few minutes. After about 2 minutes, stop and check on your coconut. If it hasn’t started to produce any moisture, add more coconut oil. It will take 5 to 10 minutes to make smooth, liquified coconut butter.

Pour your freshly made, softened coconut butter into a jar and keep it on a shelf at room temperature and it will solidify into a solid form that you can use in recipes, or add it directly to your recipes immediately.

Whenever I’m making a recipe that requires coconut butter, I get that step out of the way first and then proceed with the rest of the recipe.

Here’s a handy blog post from Oh She Glows about making your own coconut butter.