About the Recipe
Fans of Battered (the first book in the Whipped and Sipped mystery series), might recall that the cafe’s pastry chef, Ruthie Rosin, is a vegan who doesn’t eat or bake with any animal products. This is the kind of pie she serves both at home and in the café.- it’s a refreshing dessert in the summer and a pleasingly light dessert to nibble on after a heavy winter meal.
Ingredients
Crust:
1½ cup unsalted raw or roasted pecans*
¾ cup (8 to 10) dried pitted dates or prunes
2 TBSP organic filtered coconut oil
*Also, delicious when I replace the pecans with 10-12 of my own baked and frozen cookies
Filling:
2 cups unsalted cashews or peanuts
1 cup canned whole coconut milk
½ cup unsweetened coconut flakes
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
½ cup packed coconut or brown sugar
1 ¼ cup mashed ripe bananas (3 medium or 2 large bananas)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
½ tsp pure almond extract
½ tsp fine-grained sea salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 TBSP instant coffee or decaf powder
Optional: Sprinkle ½ cup mini-chocolate chips on top, or for a more dazzling presentation, add the chocolate chips and then finish with powdered sugar or whipped topping
Preparation
Crust:
In a food processor, blend pecans (or cookies) until completely uniform, about 60 seconds
Add dates/prunes and oil, pulse just until blended, about 5-6 times
Add oil and pulse 4 or 5 times
Press mixture into a greased tart pan, pie pan or lined muffin cups (with silicone or paper)
Bake at 350°F/180°C for 8 minutes (in a muffin pan) or 10 minutes (in a pie or tart pan)
Cool on the counter (not on top of the oven) while preparing the filling
Filling:
Don’t bother to rinse out the processor, just add all the ingredients except chocolate chips
Blend until completely mixed and shiny (about 2-3 minutes)
Smooth into the completely cooled crust (in either the pie pan or the muffin cups)
Toss mini chocolate chips on top
Freeze for at least 4 hours
Remove from the freezer about 20 minutes before serving
Add the optional topping – although it’s delicious without the final flourish
Leftovers can be either frozen or refrigerated (for nibbling whenever you want something sweet but nourishing). When refrigerated, it gets a pudding-like texture.