Sheryl
04-06-2006, 03:49 PM
Death by Chocolate sounds like such a cooked dessert. I just couldn't do it raw. So in 2003 when I went raw we invented this dish. It's superb! It's definitely a labour intensive cake with making your own fresh coconut cream, but it's so worth it!! Very rich too so you only need a small amount.
Here's a photo with a slice of dragon fruit on top:
http://raw-pleasure.com/raw-food-diet/images/Carob-Mud-Cake-05031972.JPG
And the recipe:
Life by Carob
Equipment: Food processor and single or twin gear juicer to make the coconut cream
Serves 4-8
Have you ever really thought about what the dessert Death by Chocolate is really saying? Sure its rich and creamy but is it really worth dying for? NO!! This dessert is from 100% living foods, and is guaranteed to make you feel utterly pampered and indulged. People that say they dont like carob obviously havent tried this dessert. For a different look experiment with the crust (different combinations of dried fruit and nuts), and with the flavouring (imagine fresh strawberries blended in instead of carob!). You could probably even make Key Lime Pie with the addition of some lime juice to the coconut and avocado filling!
Ingredients:
Crust option 1:
1 cup hazelnuts
1 cup apricots
3 tablespoons carob
1-3 teaspoons fresh orange juice (add only as needed)
OR
Crust Option 2:
1 cup macadamia nuts
1 cup apricots
2 tablespoons macadamia nuts (process briefly at end to leave in a little texture)
Note: I'd probably do a crust with pecans and figs now... I love the idea of that!
Filling
1.5 cups freshly made coconut cream
3 dried figs, soaked 15 minutes in water then drained
1 avocado
4 tablespoons carob, or more to taste (raw cacao powder would work really well too)
Addition nuts, fruit or mint to garnish (as desired)
Method:
For the crust
1. Blend nut and dried fruit together until well combined.
2. Process optional extra ingredients (extra nuts or orange juice to hold crust together) as needed
3. Press crust mixture into the bottom of the cake pan a springform pan with sides that can be easily removed is recommended. Alternatively you can make this dessert in individual serving bowls.
For the Filling
1. Blend filling ingredients until well combined. It should be VERY smooth, with just the occasional crunch from the fig seeds.
2. Pour filling onto crust, and chill in the fridge at least 45 minutes before serving.
3. Decorate with chopped nuts, fruit or coconut whatever you fancy!
4. Cake should be made no more than 1 day before it is needed and kept refrigerated until ready to serve. Coconut cream goes off very easily at room temperature.
This recipe does not set well when you use agave, and needs to be chilled to really firm up on hot days. It's not a good cake to bring to a picnic on a hot summer day because it melts!! On cooler days though the coconut will set firm as the cake cools after blending (like your coconut oil does).
To make fresh coconut cream I mince mature coconut, then run it through my Greenlife juicer with the large holed juicing screen in. The dried pulp comes out the end, and the most delicious rich coconut cream comes out the juice part (I think I get about 1/2 cup per coconut). You can also make this easily in the Champion juicer too.
Warning - on cold days the coconut oil is too hard, and coconuts are almost impossible to juice. This needs to be done in a place where coconut oil is liquid at room temperature or it just doesn't work. I guess you could warm the coconut flesh in a bowl of warm water in locations like that though (I haven't tried this)! And the rich coconut milks made by blending coconut flesh with some water then straining would be too liquid for this recipe too.
Best of all - coconut is highly anti bacterial, anti fungal and more. Read up on medium chain fatty acids for more info. It's truly a unique food, that is actually a GRASSS (the coconut palm is anyway - I'm not sure what you'd class the 'nut' as.
Enjoy!
Sheryl
Here's a photo with a slice of dragon fruit on top:
http://raw-pleasure.com/raw-food-diet/images/Carob-Mud-Cake-05031972.JPG
And the recipe:
Life by Carob
Equipment: Food processor and single or twin gear juicer to make the coconut cream
Serves 4-8
Have you ever really thought about what the dessert Death by Chocolate is really saying? Sure its rich and creamy but is it really worth dying for? NO!! This dessert is from 100% living foods, and is guaranteed to make you feel utterly pampered and indulged. People that say they dont like carob obviously havent tried this dessert. For a different look experiment with the crust (different combinations of dried fruit and nuts), and with the flavouring (imagine fresh strawberries blended in instead of carob!). You could probably even make Key Lime Pie with the addition of some lime juice to the coconut and avocado filling!
Ingredients:
Crust option 1:
1 cup hazelnuts
1 cup apricots
3 tablespoons carob
1-3 teaspoons fresh orange juice (add only as needed)
OR
Crust Option 2:
1 cup macadamia nuts
1 cup apricots
2 tablespoons macadamia nuts (process briefly at end to leave in a little texture)
Note: I'd probably do a crust with pecans and figs now... I love the idea of that!
Filling
1.5 cups freshly made coconut cream
3 dried figs, soaked 15 minutes in water then drained
1 avocado
4 tablespoons carob, or more to taste (raw cacao powder would work really well too)
Addition nuts, fruit or mint to garnish (as desired)
Method:
For the crust
1. Blend nut and dried fruit together until well combined.
2. Process optional extra ingredients (extra nuts or orange juice to hold crust together) as needed
3. Press crust mixture into the bottom of the cake pan a springform pan with sides that can be easily removed is recommended. Alternatively you can make this dessert in individual serving bowls.
For the Filling
1. Blend filling ingredients until well combined. It should be VERY smooth, with just the occasional crunch from the fig seeds.
2. Pour filling onto crust, and chill in the fridge at least 45 minutes before serving.
3. Decorate with chopped nuts, fruit or coconut whatever you fancy!
4. Cake should be made no more than 1 day before it is needed and kept refrigerated until ready to serve. Coconut cream goes off very easily at room temperature.
This recipe does not set well when you use agave, and needs to be chilled to really firm up on hot days. It's not a good cake to bring to a picnic on a hot summer day because it melts!! On cooler days though the coconut will set firm as the cake cools after blending (like your coconut oil does).
To make fresh coconut cream I mince mature coconut, then run it through my Greenlife juicer with the large holed juicing screen in. The dried pulp comes out the end, and the most delicious rich coconut cream comes out the juice part (I think I get about 1/2 cup per coconut). You can also make this easily in the Champion juicer too.
Warning - on cold days the coconut oil is too hard, and coconuts are almost impossible to juice. This needs to be done in a place where coconut oil is liquid at room temperature or it just doesn't work. I guess you could warm the coconut flesh in a bowl of warm water in locations like that though (I haven't tried this)! And the rich coconut milks made by blending coconut flesh with some water then straining would be too liquid for this recipe too.
Best of all - coconut is highly anti bacterial, anti fungal and more. Read up on medium chain fatty acids for more info. It's truly a unique food, that is actually a GRASSS (the coconut palm is anyway - I'm not sure what you'd class the 'nut' as.
Enjoy!
Sheryl