My husband has an evening sweet tooth. Despite my desire to get away from sugar, he needs his comfort food. Somehow (full sugar) cookies, ice cream bars or pie make it into my raw-food, no-white-flour-allowed kitchen. Once in while, my husband will want to dip his toe into the raw-food lifestyle. Last night he asked me he asked me to experiment with a few raw dessert recipes.
When visiting a raw food restaurant in New York or San Francisco, we have tasted delicious raw confections. A chocolate pie from Cafe Gratitude comes to mind. I pulled out the raw food recipe books and tried a lemon pudding. One cup of soaked Brazil nuts, 8 soaked dates, the juice from three lemons and 1 teaspoon of lemon peel. Process in a food processor or Vitamix. If you like lemons, it is quite good. However, it was too tart for a non-lemon lover. Hmm…perhaps a little dried coconut on top?
Ok, let’s try something chocolate. I pulled out David Wolfe’s Naked Chocolate. Synthesizing the Chocolate Fudge and Fudge Reloaded recipes, I came up with:
- 1 cup of raw cashews soaked
- 1 cup of dates
- 1/2 cup cacao powder
- 1/4 cup carob powder
- 1/4 cup dried shredded coconut
- 1/3 cup water or date soak water
Process in a food processor. Spread on a cookie sheet 3/4 and freeze for an hour (or eat it right out of the bowl). Wow, really good. The cashew pieces kept it a little crunchy and there was just enough sweetness to pull the chocolate taste out of the cacao.
Does it taste like Giant Eagle chocolate chunk cookies? No. Will it calm down a chocolate craving. Absolutely. And, my body doesn’t have to feel the after effects of a sugar-egg-butter-white flour concoction – baked at 375 degrees and solidified into a gooey mass -causing my white blood cells to go into panic mode.
