Archive for the ‘desserts’ Category

Blushing Almond Sundae

August 7th, 2010

The other night, I made a decadent dessert of banana crepes with cashew whipped cream and strawberry sauce atop. Gatlin ate two he loved them so. River is not a banana fan and so I am going to make apple crepes next time. They were lovely but I wanted a little twist and wasn’t in the mood for a crepe.

Into the fridge I went……. I came out with a new favorite sweet treat that truly makes me blush. Almond butter seems to have that warming effect on me.

I scooped a big dollop of raw almond butter into a bowl and topped it with strawberry sauce and a nice dollop of whipped cashew cream. Ooooo wheeeee! It is quick and easy!

I used the cashew cream recipe in Ani Phyo’s Raw Food Essentials since I have it on loan from the library right now. This book also has the wonderful crepes mentioned earlier.

Strawberry Sauce

  • 2 cups fresh strawberries or 15 oz frozen strawberries
  • 1-2 TBS ground chia seeds
  1. Mash the strawberries in a bowl. I use a potato masher.
  2. Grind chia seeds in a spice or coffee grinder
  3. Mix ground chia seeds with strawberries until well combined
  4. Leave to sit 5-10 minutes.

The chia seeds absorb moisture. Chia seeds also help to keep you hydrated since they absorb so much water. Adding more or less ground chia seeds allows you to reach a sauce consistency or a jam like consistency. This stays fresh in the fridge 3-5 days.

Go ahead and be creative! place sliced bananas on the bottom of your sundae or over banana ice cream. Add different toppings like chopped walnuts, whole chia seeds, cacao nibs, buckwheaties or dried coconut.

Have a sundae party and put everything in it’s own bowl and let everyone make their own. Especially fun for kids!

Enjoy!

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patriotic shortcake

July 9th, 2010

strawberry blueberry shortcakeThe kids voted for which red-white-and blue dessert we would make as part of our Fourth of July festivities this year — smoothie parfait with a blueberry level, coconut milk yogurt level and sour cherry or raspberry level; blueberry shortcake with raspberries, or something along the lines of Sabrina’s Berries ‘n Cream.

As you can see, shortcake had unanimous support, and I made a sour cherry smoothie to wash it down — mostly cherries, with a little water, one banana and 2 dates. To  prepare for this colorful treat, we picked oodles of fat blueberries at Belltown Hills Orchard in Glastonbury.  Afterward, we followed Matson Hill Road to the end and went for a walk in the woods and dip in the water at Cotton Hollow. Then onto the Glastonbury library (to reluctantly relinquish their overdue copy of David Wolfe’s The Sunfood Diet Success System) and Whole Foods where we found organic strawberries on sale.

I hem and haw (gee, that seems silly in print) about buying organic berries from California, but everything I have read on the topic makes me feel very strongly that even washed berries contain high levels of pesticides and chemical fertilizers. You remember the invaluable resource we mentioned back in February — Environmental Working Group’s Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides. Like this article today from Rodale:  Coming Soon to Your Strawberries: Newly Approved Carcinogenic Pesticide. Aside from those grown in my yard, I have yet to find a good source of local organic berries, especially strawberries. Last year we drove out to the lovely and amazing Kristin Orr’s organic blueberry patch at Fort Hill Farms in Thompson, CT. A gem of a woman, a very special farm, it was worth the trip and we picked 10lbs of organic blueberries! If you know of another organic pick-your-own or farm stand in CT, please pass that info on!

I avoid buying food from across the country when local alternatives are present, but we wanted us some strawberry shortcake.  We had several bowlfuls of homegrown strawberries this year (well, those that actually made it into the bowl, that is, and weren’t gobbled up by my two garden gremlins), but we only made shortcake once.

This is a picture of our first attempt at almond flour drop biscuits which I actually made as drop biscuits. Ignoring the directions, I scooped out a bunch of dough, dropped it on the pan and baked it. Dante chopped  and slightly mashed up our berries with a little wood sorrel and Voila!  We sliced them in half and added the berries, but since they were so big, the texture of the biscuits left something to be desired and we didn’t have the abundance of berries so much biscuit required. Since they were tasty, we tried again.

I followed the directions and used my 1/4 cup measuring cup to scoop the dough, and flattened it once it came out on the baking sheet. Much better! Here’s the recipe, once again using almond flour so entirely gluten free and without that odd aftertaste that we find in many GF flour mixes that involve beans and loads of tapioca or corn starch!

Gluten Free Almond Flour Classic Drop Biscuits

  • 2 1/2 cups blanched almond flour
  • 1/2 tsp. sea salt
  • 1/2 tsp. baking soda
  • 1/4 cup melted coconut oil
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 tsp. lemon juice
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees; line baking sheet with parchment or grease the baking sheet.
  2. Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Mix the wet ingredients in a medium bowl. Combine wet into dry until thoroughly mixed.
  3. Drop the batter in scant 1/4 cups onto baking sheet (will make 8-10 biscuits). Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown and cooked through.

She called for grapeseed oil and agave, and we replaced each egg with 1 Tbs ground flax mixed with 3 Tbs water, allowing it to stand until thickened. I mooshed the dough into my 1/4 cup measure, and it came out nicely onto my sheet. I then pressed it down a bit into the shape you see on the right and popped them in the oven.

I whizzed some blueberries and chia seeds in the Vita-Mix, and once smooth I added another couple handfuls and ran the blender gently to chop them a bit to give the sauce a chunky texture. Blueberries thicken on their own, as anyone who has left a blueberry smoothie to stand for a while can attest, but I added the chia to accelerate this and boost the nutrition of the dish.

I started 1 cup of cashews soaking before I mixing shortcake dough or chopping berries. I rinsed these well, drained and added them to the rinsed blender with some water, several dates, the juice of 1 lemon and a pinch of Himalayan sea salt and whizzed til smooth to make a cream sauce to top our shortcake. I didn’t measure, and did this to taste, adding a little water gradually until the blender was able to do it’s job and I achieved the consistency I was looking for.

Our red, white and blue shortcake was a big hit with the family, and some had seconds. The shortcakes were tasty, and I want to try them with little or no sweetener perhaps mix in some chives or other herbs and serve them with a savory dish for dinner. We used to make a veggie stew with cheesy cheddar biscuits, and I think these would be a lovely sub. We’ve even found a replacement for the cheese that melts, stretches and taste delicious! More to come soon on that!

The garden beckons, and the heat wave demands a pilgrimmage to a local body of water, so I’m off!

Happy high garden season!

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Berries ‘N Cream

July 4th, 2010

Happy Fourth of July!!

Today is a day of red, white and blue and celebration of America’s independence. Happy Birthday America!

We were headed to a family gathering by the lake to have a cookout, swim and celebrate the fourth. While everyone else was planning on grilling I wanted to make sure we could join in while still keeping in line with our choices for food. So we broke out the sunshine burgers and tossed them on the grill to heat for a minute towards the end of the rest of the family cooking their various meats. We piled the burgers high with lettuce tomato and melted Diya cheese on millet bread. They were great and the kids loved them. It teamed up perfectly with the Waldorf Salad I brought and our Aunts potato salad.

They real highlight was dessert! I made a new favorite.

Berries N’ Cream

In a bowl, layer sliced strawberries, cream and then blueberries on top. Get it, red, white and blue!

Cream:

3/4 cup walnuts
3/4 cup cashews
2 TBS maple syrup
1 TBS honey
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 -3/4 cup water

Put all cream ingredients in vitamix and blend until smooth, scraping sides down as needed.

You can use any nuts you would like including all walnuts or cashew, pecans, macadamia or a combo. Also, feel free to use dates (about six) in place of the honey or maple syrup. You could also use all honey or maple syrup.

Add the water slowly so it stays nice and thick. Change it up a bit by adding some lemon zest or orange zest, or coconut water to make new flavors.

For the top, I fan cut a strawberry and placed it in the center. Garnishing it this way added a nice splah of color and the kids thought it was cool to cut the strawberry this way.

So simple and beautiful. I ate 2 helpings while I was there and a nice snack of it when we got home. Gatlin stated, “I am so full of this but would eat it all if you made it again sometime.” My husband ate a huge container of it. Ok, so I don’t recommend that, but the point is, it is that good!

No need to worry about missing out on that whipped cream experience anymore. This one is sure to please.

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cinco de mayo spanish rice

May 10th, 2010

At this weekend’s raw potluck, the theme was Cinco de Mayo and delicious dishes were everywhere, including (at the time I took the picture — a salad with sprouts and some desserts appeared later, but I was too busy eating and forgot to snap a picture):

* gazpacho — a creamy, blended version, with chopped tomato, cuke and cilantro for garnish

* corn chowder

* Ani Phy’s walnut cranberry butternut squash rice

* Spanish rice with mockamole

* chunky chili

* almond pulp cheese with crackers

* fajitas

* green salad with sprouts, pecans and mesclun mix

* mango pie

* chocolate coconut macaroons

One of the guests, who has a severe allergy to avocados, found a delicious alternative — peas! She recommends fresh if you can get them, but says you can use frozen. Measure the frozen peas out and let them sit in cold water until they’ve begun to thaw but are still slightly frozen. Drain and “blend the heck out of them” until they have a smooth, even consistency. She used about 1 cup of peas to replace 1 avocado in the Spanish rice recipe, and said that her avocado-loving husband was devouring the avocado mixture, surprised that it wasn’t made with avocados.

spanish rice and mango pieSpanish Rice

  • 1 head shredded cauliflower
  • 1 red peppers, chopped
  • 1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped finely
  • 5 green onions, sliced thinly
  • 2 Roma tomatoes, chopped
  • 1 recipe of Spanish Avo Mix

Spanish Avo Mix

  • 1 avocado, mashed
  • juice of 1 lime
  • 1 Tbs basil
  • 1 Tbs paprika
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/2 Tbs sweetener
  • crushed red pepper, finely chopped, to taste
  • sea salt, to taste
  • 1 clove garlic, crushed
  • 1/2 tsp onion powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon cumin

Mix Avo mixture in a separate bowl, the add it to bowl with veggies and stir to coat.

This was tasty and light, and I will definitely give the avo mix recipe a try with the peas as a dip, or try replacing avocados in a recipe when I don’t have a ripe one on hand. Thanks for the recipe and the idea for an avocado replacement!

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our class raw potluck

May 6th, 2010

raw potluck and some workshop studentsHi everyone!

Yesterday was the last day of the raw class we taught at Greenspring. It was a fantastic 12 weeks and we received lots of positive feedback which we are ever so grateful for!!

For the last class, we had a raw potluck to share a couple of our favorite dishes and give the students a chance to spread their wings and bring in a raw recipe and dish to share with the class. What a beautiful display!! We were so happy to see how everyone really took on the challenge and made some remarkable dishes. We’ve left the pictures really big, so if you click on them, you can see the dishes better.

There was so much variety:

raw potluck dishes* a beautiful garden salad with homegrown sprouts with a citrus dill vinaigrette – nice and light and the dressing had a fabulous tang.

* an Italian salad of simply cut oranges with red pepper flakes, onions and oil and vinegar was a flavorful and colorful dish

* guacamole beautifully dressed up with red pepper left nice and chunky

* one student got so excited she just couldn’t stop the creative juices from flowing and brought three dishes in! One was a balsamic dressing served over tomato and avocado. The lemon bars were superb with strawberries and chocolate sauce. Her last dish, black bean brownies, demonstrated nutritious cooked options. They were rich, fudgy and all gone!

* dehydrated pear and peaches looked pretty and were a light, sweet chip.

*crudites were served with a pumpkin seed pate which was a lovely light green color that really felt like spring. This same student brought in a dessert –  chocolate coconut balls.

* another student who is obviously an artist in the kitchen brought in a version of the coconut white cake in the form of cupcakes with filling in the middle, cashew cream frosting and elegant decor of slivered almond atop. She made a chocolate version, and an alternative made with almond butter instead of tahini as well. They looked stunning.

littles sucking down sprouts* a big bowl bursting with nutrient packed homegrown sunflower sprouts with velvety white cream sauce was a hit among the little ones as they went back for seconds and thirds. I heard Lucia say, “I could eat these every night for dinner if I wanted to ya know!” I loved it!!

* fruit salad was also gobbled up by the littles with big smiles on their faces

* Pad Thai seemed to be a hit and I happily recited the ingredients to many who said, ” I must have that recipe.”

One of the best parts of getting together with others in this way is everyone brings such a unique quality to the experience. I love sharing my favorite dishes and trying others creations. It is a wonderful way to sample recipes you may have not come across yet or ones that include flavors you do not typically use in your kitchen. You go with one recipe and come away with so many more and you now know how they taste. Potlucks are a great way to quickly expand your repertoire.

It is also important to have community. Going to a raw potluck or hosting one does just that. It is a good way to connect with others and discuss successes and challenges, get feedback and share experiences.

So, here’s to you, our raw class participants and friends!! We so enjoyed the experience and hope you did as well!

In gratitude!!

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i love almond flour

April 27th, 2010

A couple of months ago I heard an interview on WNPR’s Faith Middleton show with Elana Amsterdam (you can listen here), the author of the The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook (a great deal — around $10! And has recipes for savory dishes as well. I looked on Amazon and found some of the recipes in the free preview, so we tried the blueberry banana muffins. We have cut wheat out of our diets and I must say I’m not the biggest fan of many of the substitutes. It’s lovely to have an alternative, but I find the flavor on some to be a turn off. So it was with absolute delight that we gobbled down the entire batch of muffins in one sitting! They came out a little dark because I turned them off when the timer went off, but thought they needed more time. At which point I forgot allllll about them. Oops. But they didn’t burn, and were still moist and tasty, just a little browner than necessary.

birthday cake for my little fairyFor Lucia’s birthday this past week, she wanted a vanilla cake with pink frosting, so I turned once again to this book, which I was able to get from the library! I made the vanilla cupcake recipe (I followed the one that has a surprise inside, since it was a little different than the other), using a 6 inch and 8 1/2 inch springform pans. I baked it for about 22 minutes for the 6 inch and almost 30 minutes for the larger pan, covering it after about 18 minutes once the top had browned so that it wouldn’t burn while the center cooked. The texture, while more dense than a white flour wheat cake, was still moist and light and the flavor — absolutely delicious!

I frosted it with the same cashew-based frosting that I used for the raw lemon poppy seed cake, but added a half a bag of defrosted frozen strawberries to it for flavor and color (it was a nice medium pink, the flash bleached it out). This made the frosting a little too runny, but if I’d drained the berries or whizzed the strawberries in ahead of time and let it sit, it would have thickened (I had leftovers in the fridge that did so). After frosting the bottom layer, I put chopped strawberries on before adding the second tier.

I also took some frozen bananas and strawberries and made pink ice cream — a hit with all the kids. I served this cake to my family, who eat a primarily standard American diet, and didn’t have to compost any pieces left on plates, except for the scraps of my nephew’s second piece. An impressive feat for no wheat!

I liked the tanginess of the frosting offseting the sweetness a bit, but Lucia wants round two (cupcakes with friends this week) to not be so lemony. And we’re going to try the chocolate cake AND chocolate frosting recipe from that book for the cupcakes as well. I can’t wait!

We have also made the pancakes, and while it took me a few tries to get the heat right (keep it low low low!) the pancakes themselves were light, fluffy and scrumptious! You should see them puff when you flip them — the kids oohed and ahhed upon viewing this phenomenon.

Using low heat (and I mean 3 or 4 on my stove) means it takes longer to cook them, but I popped the oven on warm and kept the done pancakes in the oven. Or I would have. If my children hadn’t insisted on eating them all and lining up at the stove performing a constant chorus of “Is it done yet?” I also halfway through the process started putting a lid on the frying pan to keep the heat in and make sure the middle cooked, although using the low heat helped with this as well. (Before I figured this out, they were dark brown on the outside and gooey inside.)

And last night we made the chocolate chip cookies. Lucia’s review: “Hey! These taste just like the junky ones!” What more can you ask for? Well, Luke asked for me to add some shredded coconut and chopped almonds next time, or maybe a maple walnut version, or a cranberry pecan version, or… well, you get the idea. We are delighted to have found a delicious way to make baked goods without gluten flours.

Elena’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

  • 2 1/2 cups blanched almond flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 cup grapeseed oil
  • 1/2 cup agave nectar
  • 1 Tbs vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup coarsely chopped dark chocolate
  1. Preheat oven to 350, line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
  2. In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients, including chocolate.
  3. In a medium bowl, whisk together oil, agave and vanilla.
  4. Stir wet into dry until thoroughly combined.
  5. Regrigerate dough 2o minutes.
  6. Spoon 1 heaping Tbs at a time onto sheets, pressing down with your palm to flatten.
  7. Bake 8-10 minutes until lightly golden.

I used maple syrup and honey instead of agave, coconut oil instead of grapeseed and didn’t refrigerate the dough, due to the puss-in-boots eyes on my cookie monsters that demanded cookies asap! We actually baked and cooled them while we ate, and had them for dessert after cleaning the kitchen from dinner. YUM YUM YUM. We imagined dunking them in almond milk, so we’ve got some almond soaking for the next batch tomorrow.We’ve had a long break from baked goods and are making up for lost time!

So now you’re wondering “Where on earth do I get this almond flour?” Well, the Bob’s Red Mill almond flour that you can get at most grocery stores  is allegedly too coarse a grind for these recipes, and gives a grittier, less cake-like texture. I bought mine from Lucy’s Kitchen Shop. I called and placed the order — it took less than 2 minutes to do so and I had my flour in 3 days.  It’s well worth the price for the occasional baked treat, and keeps well in the fridge or freezer. Elana also recommends some other sources (as well as other inspirational recipes and ideas on her blog Elana’s Pantry.

Happy baking!

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lemon poppyseed cake

April 26th, 2010

One of Dante’s favorite cakes is a lemon poppyseed cake, and when I stumbled across a raw version on the sunny raw kitchen, I was intrigued. Having found some good-looking jicama at the store the week before the last raw potluck, I decided to take the plunge. Lucia, assisting in the kitchen, kept stealing chunks of jicama to snack on. If you haven’t had it before, I’d describe it as an apple and pear having gotten together with the texture of raw potato. It’s sweet with a firm, pleasant crunch. She likes it best cut into sticks. Lots of raw recipes give this as an alternative to french fries and serve it with a raw ketchup. I don’t know about that, but it’s delicious in its own right.

Many raw desserts are heavy due to to the reliance on nuts and seeds. The beauty of this recipe is that the jicama cuts that density, and if you use the almond pulp, that heaviness is cut even more. We were out all afternoon before the party, so this cake had to sit in the car in a cooler on a hot spring day, and was decorated last minute, not as pretty as I’d have liked. But boy did it deliver in flavor what it lacked in panache! Sweet lemony goodness. Delicious.  (see pics of this cake at sunny raw kitchen or raw freedom community for more aesthetically pleasing versions)

Lemon Poppy Seed Cake
Slightly modified version by Anna of TheRawTable.com, as featured in the Purely Delicious magazine of Fall 2007

Cake:

  • 2 cups jicama, peeled and cubed
  • 1 green apple, peeled, seeded and chopped
  • 3 cups dehydrated almond pulp from making milk
  • OR 2 cups almonds soaked, dehydrated and finely ground
  • 1/4 cup golden flax seeds, finely ground

  • 3/4 cup agave nectar
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 large lemon, juiced
  • 2 generous tsp lemon zest
  • 2 tbs psyllium husks
  • 1/2 tsp sea salt
  • 1/4 cup poppy seeds
  1. Place all ingredients in food processor and blend until everything is finely chopped and moving freely.
  2. Press one half of the mixture in the bottom of a springform pan, smoothing edges and evening the sides as much as possible.
  3. Reserve the rest for later.

Lemon Coconut Frosting

  • 2 cups cashews
  • 1 1/2 whole lemons (seeds removed)
  • 3 or 4 tbs coconut butter
  • 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup agave nectar
  • 3-4 tbs water
  • Pinch of sea salt
  1. Place all ingredients in high speed blender and process until smooth.
  2. Frost bottom layer of cake and allow to freeze for 4-6 hours.
  3. Top with remaining cake mixture and gently press, again smoothing edges and evening the sides.
  4. Return to freezer for an additional 2 hours.
  5. Remove from spring form pan and frost either top or sides or both with remaining frosting. Garnish with extra poppy seeds.

Aside from swapping agave for honey, I followed this recipe precisely. Oh, and I didn’t have a spring form cake pan that would work, so I used a tart pan and did it all in one layer.  My family loved this cake and I would definitely make it again. It was easy enough and can be made ahead of time, which again is a nice bonus. It firmed up nicely, despite the lack of proper refrigeration for hours before serving.

I also used this frosting for Lucia’s birthday cake this past week. She wanted pink frosting, so I added some frozen strawberries to it. It was lovely and if I hadn’t made the frosting at the last minute, it would have set nicely. If you decide to add berries to color or flavor this frosting, you might want to put the berries in a strainer over a bowl for a little while, because the texture was a bit too runny. However, the frosting I didn’t use had set into a nice consistency overnight. Drained or made ahead of time, this frosting is an excellent, nutritious substitution for dairy and white sugar versions. It’s really lemony, but you can definitely adjust that to your taste.

The next time we make this cake, I plan to serve it with a berry sauce — berries whizzed in a blender or food processor with or without a little honey as needed. It would also be delicious with fresh fruit chopped up and drizzled with honey until it releases it’s juices… as the fresh berry and fruit season approaches, I can’t WAIT to explore the possibilities. And this recipe will definitely figure in my plans.

Enjoy!

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Coconut White Cake

April 23rd, 2010

I am a chocolate lover but my kids, not so much. Don’t get me wrong, they are not one to turn down a piece of dark chocolate or raw fudge but as for cake they like white cake better. I like variety and well, I just like cake!

This week, I made the Boutenko’s Wedding Cake out of Eating Without Heating. I call it a coconut white cake because it is very heavy with coconut and I find this prepares the taster for not cooked white cake but they know a little more what to expect. I made one full recipe for our Raw Food class and a half recipe to make a small cake for our family. River jumped right in to help with the middle layer and then off to play. Gatlin hung around and helped decorate. I really love having the kids in the kitchen. It is such a sweet bit of quality time sharing laughs and yummy tastes as well as being able to teach them practical applications of math with measuring, nutrition and how to make food itself.

Coconut White Cake

Crust:
2 cups raw tahini (easy to make homemade)
4 cups dry, shredded coconut
1/2 tsp. salt

Mix together well and use for the layers of the cake.

Frosting:
1 cup cashews
2 TBS raw honey
1 tsp. vanilla extract (the original recipe calls for mint extract)
1/4 cup fresh coconut butter
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup water

Blend all ingredients in vitamix. I soak th cashews 4 hours and they are even softer and of course healthier. Use as little water as possible to have a thick, creamy spreadable frosting.

Put half the crust on a plate and form into desired shape. Next, layer with fruit. I like banana in the middle. It gives a super creamy texture kind of like that pudding layer for cooked white cake.
On a second plate, form the second part of the crust and gently slide it onto the top crust. Frost the cake and decorate wildly!

It is a beautiful cake to be able to decorate so be extra creative. With the last cakes I made, I will say, Gatlin won the prize for best decorated. We were both using the same fruits to decorate and had very different ideas. Fantastic!

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apple crumble

April 22nd, 2010

So on with another dessert — a quick-to-make and easy-to-adapt recipe that is one of our favorites. I first made this recipe two summers ago inspired by something I found on goneraw.com (haven’t been able to find this one on there since, so no link, sorry). I used fresh, local peaches with the same crumble topping and oh my GOSH was it delicious! I have since made it with berries, cherries, pears, apples and plums. All have been scrumptious, but peach and cherry vie for first place for me personally. The cherry blossom petals are snowing my backyard, which means it’s not too long til cherry picking time! Yay spring!

Another beautiful quality of this dish, aside from versatility and quick prep, is that it can be made last minute with things I tend to have on hand. And honestly — why limit it to a dessert — it makes a very fine breakfast, lunch or snack as well. Not to mention that having a jar of both parts of the recipe (fruit as well as crumble topping) means you can add a new dimension to banana ice cream, chocolate mousse, banana pudding and more.

Oh, and did I mention that you can also make it ahead of time, keeping the crumble separate from the fruit until ready to serve. This makes it a great holiday dish when you have other things to do last minute besides worry about dessert. Seriously, what more could you want from a delicious dish!? I had stored some apple filling in a small metal tiffin, so I dumped this out into a plate and it held it’s shape. So I put crumb topping around it instead of on top for the picture. It’s much prettier with some sort of berry or cherry, but hey, looks aren’t everything, right?

Better than Betty’s Apple Crumble

Crumb mixture:

  • 2 cups walnuts
  • 2 cups pecans
  • 1 cup dates
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 1 Tbs honey
  • cinnamon to taste
  • pinch salt
  1. Pulse nuts in food processor until smallish — if you take it down to a flour at this stage your crumble will have a different, more cohesive, dough like texture, less crumbly. Not a bad thing, still delicious, just a different feel.
  2. Add remaining ingredients and process just until the dates are broken down. Pour out into a bowl or storage container if you aren’t serving immediately.  I don’t bother cleaning out the food processor bowl, as this comes out without leaving much residue, so on to the fruit without further ado.

Apple delight:

  • 4 lbs apples, cored
  • 1/2 cup raisins
  • 1 Tbs honey
  • cinnamon to taste
  • 1/2 banana
  1. I chopped my apples into 1 inch cubes or so. Well, actually, I quartered the apples (a mixture of green, braeburn and pink lady) and tossed all but 3 of them into the processor. And couldn’t get my Cuisinart to process them — the chunks were too big, and the blade just couldn’t get to most of them. So, I dumped out half and cut it all into smaller pieces and was able to get it to process.
  2. After the apples were almost pureed, I put in the rest of the ingredients. I added the half banana because it seemed like it needed something to give it a bit of creaminess as well as sweetness to balance the tartness of the green apples I used. I would consider adding a whole banana next time, but this one was really ripe, thus intensely flavored, and I didn’t want to taste banana when I ate it.
  3. Once the puree was all set, I scraped that out into a bowl and added small pieces of the 3 remaining apples to the processor. I pulsed until these were what looked like a good size (small enough to chew politely but big enough to give my teeth something to do) and then mixed them into the puree.
  4. The nuts will get soggy if you mix this ahead of time, so I like to serve it in two bowl and let people take the amount of crumble they want right at the table.

I think you can easily make this recipe without the honey, using whole food sweeteners like the dates, raisins and bananas. The original recipe called for a tablespoon of coconut oil in the fruit mixture, but I tend to leave that out. I bet coconut butter would also  be delicious — especially if you use mango, papaya, pineapple, strawberry or a combination of those for the fruit.

I also occasionally add a couple tablespoons of hemp, chia or ground flax to the crumble once it’s been processed to boost the nutrition. I’ve been adding hemp seeds to guacamole — Dante and Lucia haven’t noticed and I feel good knowing I’m getting lots of healthy fats, vitamins and minerals, and protein into something they love to eat. Make sure you have enough dates or dried fruit going on in the crumble to absorb these extra dry ingredients if you choose to do so.

We use organic apples, so I just wash them and leave the skins on — if you haven’t had a chance to see the Shopper’s Guide to Pesticide to know which fruits and vegetables contain high levels of pesticide residue even after washing, head on over to our post about limiting chemicals in your home.

Happy crumbling!

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banana cream pie

April 17th, 2010

It’s dessert week for our workshop, and I’m kicking it off with Alissa Cohen’s recipe for Ann Wigmore’s Banana Cream Pie. I forgot to take pics before we served the pie, so you’ll just have to fill in the rest with your imagination.

Ann Wigmore’s Banana Cream Pie (from Alissa Cohen)

Crust:

  • 1/2 cup pecans
  • 2 cups dates, pitted and soaked
  • 1 1/2 cup dried coconut
  • 1 tsp vanilla

Filling:

  • 4-5 bananas
  • 1 cup shredded coconut
  • 1/2 cup apple juice
  • 2 tsp tahini
  • 2 tsp honey
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  1. Grind pecans in food processor til fine.
  2. Add dates and blend til creamy. I think the dough came out too wet, and would probably not soak the dates next time around.
  3. Add remaining crust ingredients, and blend well. Sabrina had made this for raw potluck once, and recommended cutting the coconut to a scant cup. Since I’m not a coconut lover, I took this advice. Also, I’m reading David Wolfe’s Superfoods, and in the chapter about Maca he recommends using it to help bind crusts made from dried fruit and nuts, so I put 2 Tbs of maca into the crust as well.
  4. Pour into pie place or springform tart pan and chill while you make the filling.
  5. Add 4 bananas and remaining filling ingredients to food processor and process. I used an apple instead of the 1/2 cup apple juice. I also added a 1 Tbs of flax meal, and 1 Tbs of psyllium husk because I didn’t have a lot of time to chill the pie and wanted to make sure it was firm.
  6. Pour filling into a bowl, and cut remaining banana and stir. Pour filling into crust and chill in fridge.
  7. Just before serving, decorate the top with extra banana slices, cacao nibs, various seeds, berries, dried fruit, etc.

I took this pie to a family birthday party so I could have a sweet treat, but surprisingly many of the other guests tried it. None was left on the plates, except a particularly thick portion of crust. My kids liked it, but preferred the filling, so I will probably just make banana pudding for them in the future and save the pie for something special. Easy peasy wholesome dessert treat! One half went at the party, and my family gobbled the rest of it for breakfast the following day. Mmmmm pie for breakfast!

Maca is a root vegetable found high in the Andes of Peru. Consumption of the maca root powder is shown to strengthen the immune system, increase energy, and  improve memory, endurance and libido. It is also an adaptogen, helping to relieve stress and depression. It has a malty flavor, and we like it in nut milk shakes with cacao. YUM!

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