Dessert. I am a huge fan. I love cookies. I love chocolate. I love cake. Muffins? Yes. Ice cream? You bet. I shamelessly love dessert, which is a bit tricky because I'm also super sensitive to sweets. I'm no longer able to eat desserts from any bakeries- even those that are 'healthy-like'. You know the ones that use gluten-free flour and natural sweeteners - it's all too sweet for me. So creating desserts that offer that sense of decadence without being too sweet is a fine balance. Cookies without enough sweetener quickly become sandy lumps of stuff stuck together. Ice cream without the right amount of honey is basically just frozen coconut milk. And so it is a dance. A dessert dance, if you will.
But when I hit a home run? Shazaaam.
Chocolate Cream Pie
I first made this Chocolate Cream Pie when Josh and I had our work families over for a holiday dinner. Though most of us are riding the health train, not all of our partners are. That's how I knew this was a winner! When someone who is accustomed to regular treats with regular sugar wants a second (or third!) slice of a dessert made with whole, unprocessed ingredients and only a moderate amount of sweetener, well then we are rocking and rolling. And that is what happened with this coconut cream pie.
This vegan and paleo coconut cream pie recipe hits the mark as works with so many dietary restrictions and allergies! It is:
- Dairy-free
- Gluten-free
- Grain-free
- Soy-free
- Sesame-free
- Vegan
- Paleo
- Egg-free
It does have nuts, and though you may find recipes online that make a great pie filling using just coconut oil, coconut cream and avocado, this is not that recipe.
To make this extra fancy (and full disclosure - try and cover up the marks from slicing a still frozen cake), I drizzled on some of the chocolate from the Chocolate Chunk recipe that I offer in the free Culinary Nutrition Mini Training with the Academy of Culinary Nutrition. (You can take advantage of that training here).
Make Ahead Bonus!
One of the many things I love about this recipe is that because it sets in the freezer, you can actually make it ahead of time, like days before your event. One less thing to worry about!
Now - time to make this awesome chocolate cream pie and impress your friends!
Rating
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Yield: 8 servings
- 1 cup medjool dates
- ½ cup almonds, coarsely chopped
- ½ cup pecans, coarsely chopped
- ¼ cup unsweetened shredded, dried coconut
- 1 Tbsp coconut oil
- pinch of salt
- ¾ cup coconut milk
- ½ cup water
- 2 cups cashews
- ½ cup maple syrup
- ⅓ cup coconut oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup cacao powder
- In your food processor, combine dates, almonds, pecans, coconut, coconut oil, salt and process until it's a crumbly texture that sticks together between your fingers.
- Transfer to a 9 inch round pie dish and press down evenly and firmly around the bottom and up the sides. Set aside while you make the filling.
- In your high speed blender, blend together coconut milk, water, cashews, maple syrup, coconut oil, and vanilla extract. Blend until smooth. If using a food processor, pause every so often to clean down the sides and then process until smooth.
- Reserve 2 Tbsp of mixture and set aside.
- Add cacao to the blender and mix until fully integrated.
- Pour cacao mix into your pie crust.
- Drizzle on the reserved white mixture and then using a knife, gently swirly it around to create the white and brown pattern. Once swirled, give the pie a little jiggle to level out the filling.
- Transfer to freezer to set.
- Remove from freezer 10 minutes before serving.
- Option to drizzle on melted chocolate
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