My First Raw Pies!

[RawHeaven]

I made some raw pies yesterday afternoon and they came out really good! It's so fun and easy to prepare raw foods. Especially foods that I used to have serious problems binging on - like CHOCOLATE! Now I can have my raw chocolate pie for breakfast no problem and I feel so great too. Energized!

Raw chocolate pie: I used a macademia/almond crust, made it extra thick the way I like it. It is loosely based on the I am Bliss Recipe from the I am Grateful raw prep book. I didn't have any lecithin in the house so I substituted 1/2 avocado to thicken it and it really enhanced the flavor also. I also skipped the agave and just used dates for the filling - agave tends to make things too sweet for my taste.

Kiwi/goji berry/coconut pie: I just made this one up as I went along - I had extra crust. It's even better than the chocolate pie - melts in your mouth! mmm good. Sliced kiwi fruit, sprinkled with raw coconut flakes and goji berries. I also added a little coconut to the crust batter for this one.

Here they are and now I'm going go get another piece of that chocolate pie!

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g203/crystalsbones/DSC00207.jpg

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g203/crystalsbones/DSC00210.jpg

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g203/crystalsbones/DSC00214.jpg

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g203/crystalsbones/DSC00213.jpg

[KatK]

Mmm..they look sooo good!

[RawHeaven]

Kat, they do taste pretty good. I'm saturated with the rich raw chocolate though and I'm good for the rest of the week. Don't need anymore...sooooo stuffed. :p

Back to my green smoothies...

[earth_sista]

those look INSANEly yummmy!!!

i LOVE the idea for that kiwi pie-how inspiring! i think i'll have to try that one out :)

thanks for posting these lovely pictures

[LNdolls]

Gorgeous and looks totally delectable. I am going to make a pie today! You inspired me.

[tinystrawberry]

amazing!


*droooooooooling*

[carolg]

Look fabulous. Enjoy them for me as I am going super light on nuts so pies, cakes, and cookies are a think of the past--at least at this hour. It has been a while I haven't had a taste either--gosh, like months, but a choice.
carolg

[miaculpa]

omg crystal, they look GORGEOUS!!!!!!

I have been looking through my cafe gratitude cookbook at the pie recipes for the last two days. I want to make them!!

DID you use irish moss on your chocolate pie?

[jacsam]

They are BEAUTIFUL!!! I want to go and make a pie....THANKS!!!

[RawHeaven]

Thank you so much everyone for your beautiful words and I do hope you can make yourself a pie. They rawk! OMG the kiwi/goji/coconut pie is SOOOO GOOD and is the best one. There is only one piece left! I had pie all day. LOL. The flavor combination with the kiwi and macademia/almond crust is just mmmm, words just don't do it justice. And to think I was just playing around because I had extra pie crust. The choc pie iss good, but not half as good as the simple kiwi pie which is more refreshing than heavy. Which is a testament to how far I've come on this raw journey because I was a chocolate freak.

Please share your own pie ideas if you make one - would love to hear how they turn out.

(((hugs)))

Crystal


~~~~~

Hi Miaculpa! I couldn't find fresh irish moss. My food co-op only had the dried kind. So I just left it out of the recipe. The pie still tastes good, I'm curious though how the irish moss affects the flavor. I hope you're doing well.


ps. If anyone knows a good on-line source for Irish Moss or a substitute for recipes please do share. Thanks!

[Imani]

I need the recipes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[BananaJana]

Could we please have more details on the recipes? Please... what is the chocolate layer made of, how about exactly how you made the crusts? Your pies look awesome and my mouth is watering!

[RawHeaven]

I'm not that great about preparing food with recipes. I just look at the ingredients, eyeball the measurements and taste the food along the way as I'm preparing it. It's how I learned how to cook from the women in my family. Now I'm uncooking the same way. I've included the recipe from Cafe Gratitude's I am Bliss recipe below and then I'll notate how I modified it. You can follow either or make up your own pie.


From Terces Englehart's I Am Grateful recipe book

I AM BLISS

Hazelnut Chocolate Cream Pie

Makes one 9 inch pie

For the crust:

1 cup hazelnuts
1 cup macademia nuts
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 ounces finely chopped dates

For the filling:

1/2 oz irish moss
1 1/2 cups hazelnut milk
1/2 cup agave nectar
1/2 cup well packed, finely chopped dates
1/3 cup cacao powder
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/8 teaspoon s alt
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon lecithin
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons unscented coconut butter


To make the crust:

In the bowl of your food processor process the hazelnuts, macademia nuts, vanilla and salt until crumbly. Continue processing while adding small amounts of the date until crust sticks together. Press the crust into a greased (with unscented coconut oil) 9 inch pie pan

To make the filling:

Use a blender...

Blend irish moss with 1/2 cup of the hazelnut milk until smooth and thick. Add remaining hazelnut milk, agave, date, vanilla, salt, and cacao powder. Blend until smooth. Add lecithin and coconut butter, blending until well incorporated. Pour into prepared crust. Place in fridge/freezer until set (abount an hour). Top with meringue dresssing. Decorate with cacao nibs and hazelnuts.

To make hazlenut milk:
In your blender liquefy 3/4 cup hazelnuts with 1 1/2 cups water. Blend 1-2 minutes. Let steep 5-10 minutes then strain using nut milk bag. Yields 1 1/2 cups milk.


This is how I made my pies, loosely based on the recipe above:

Crust:
I used almonds and macademia nuts for the crust. I think about a cup of soaked almonds and a handful of dry macademia nuts. I soaked the almonds for 4 hours, then drained them. Macademia nuts tend to make things moist and sweet so that's why I like to use them. I skipped the dates in the crust for this reason because macademias made it sweet. I used all of the other ingredients. I food processed everything and again the macademias will make it a bit moist depending on how many use use. Cashews do the same thing. I put the mixture in a mixing bowl and added agave to make it stick together and a bit of salt also. Again I don't have a measurement for the agave, just go with your intuition and taste preferences. You just want to add it until it's sticky.

I didn't use a greased pie pan. I used the pan in the pictures which didn't require oil, pressed the crust into the pan kept it in the fridge overnight. I think it made the crust tastier actually to let everything set in the fridge for a longer period than the recommended hour. The flavors had a chance to blend. Just my opinion.

Filling:

I made almond milk from soaked almonds. I used about 1 1/2 cups of dry almonds in spring water to soak them. Drained and then put fresh water in the blender with the soaked nuts. Again, I soaked them for about 4-6 hours.

I chopped 6 large dates. I blended all of the ingredients except the agave, irish moss and lecithin. I skipped the agave because it makes chocolate too sweet for me. If you liked milk chocolate in your pre-raw days you may like the agave. If you're more of a dark chocolate person it will probably be too sweet if you add it. The dates make it sweet enough for me personally. You just have to experiement for your taste or whomever you're making the pie for. I used 1/2 a large avocado to make the filling creamy and thick since I didn't have any lecithin. Lecithin is a thickening agent.

I then poured the filling straight from the blender into the pie shell and let it sit the refrigerator overnight.

I have to note that I think the chocolate cream pie is even better today. The longer it stays refrigerated it gets firmer and the flavor is enhanced. I think next time I will leave it in the fridge for 2 days before sampling it.


Kiwi/Goji/Coconut Pie

I had extra crust so to make the kiwi pie I added some shredded coconut to the crust batter and set the crust in the fridge.

The next day I sliced some kiwi fruit in a mushroom slicer to get even slices. I believe I used about 4 to 5 kiwi.

Spread them over the the crust, sprinkled goji berries and coconut flakes.

You can eat this one right away, but I think it helped the flavors to blend when left in the refrigerator for 10-12 hours.

The kiwi pie was the easiest to prepare and it was very good. It was gone yesterday!

Happy Pie Making! It was so fun making these pies. A lot of love was passed into them as you use your hands a lot. I also had my favorite music blasting on the stereo, so my pies were on fire. lol. I believe you and your family will feel the joy when they eat something infused with so much love. :D

Peace,
Crystal

[lambe]

wow wow wow. seriously. i think i want to attempt to make that chocolate pie for my birthday this weekend. for some reason it seems wiser to try my hand at a raw pie before a raw cake.

i am not familiar with irish moss. what is the purpose of it in this particular pie?

[carolg]

Thanks for sharing the recipe. The book looks great. Seeing a recipe always excites me to hunt for the book vs. just buying outright.

carolg

[carolg]

To the chocolate pie:
I can see adding fresh strawberries slices and/or kiwi to the top of this pie with flowers around the edges too. Imagine daisies or roses. OMG the beauty that comes from nature!

carolg

[RawHeaven]

Thanks for sharing the recipe. The book looks great. Seeing a recipe always excites me to hunt for the book vs. just buying outright.

carolg

You're welcome Carol. The book is amazing and I recommend it. Some of the recipe books are over rated or use too much salt etc, but this one is good. When I lived in SF I often went to Cafe Gratitude and they've included all of their menu items in this recipe book, at least it appears this way. It's also very detailed and easy to follow.

[RawHeaven]

To the chocolate pie:
I can see adding fresh strawberries slices and/or kiwi to the top of this pie with flowers around the edges too. Imagine daisies or roses. OMG the beauty that comes from nature!

carolg

I agree! You can be so creative. I loved the colors in the kiwi pie and you can just expand on this forever with 'the beauty that comes from nature'. :)

[RawHeaven]

wow wow wow. seriously. i think i want to attempt to make that chocolate pie for my birthday this weekend. for some reason it seems wiser to try my hand at a raw pie before a raw cake.

i am not familiar with irish moss. what is the purpose of it in this particular pie?

Hey there lambe. I honestly don't know what the purpose of the irish moss is. Hopefully someone who reads this will be able to answer your question. I'm guessing that it has a lot to do with texture and/or flavor enhancement. The beauty of raw food preparation is you can really play around with different ingredients and do your own thing.

I never even heard of irish moss before taking some raw prep classes. In fact, I was in Briksha's Raw Indian food class a couple of weekends ago and he had some. He was using it to make a hazelnut smoothie. It was really good. I think it adds to the flavor of foods. I think my pie was pretty good with the avocado.

We learn as we go...and really...it was soooo easy to make both pies. I'm sure you will be able to do it.

Here's what Irish Moss looks like...


http://www.cafegratitude.com/store/products_pictures/Irish%20Moss.jpg

[RawHeaven]

I have to also say that these aren't your grandma's pies! lol. I have really moved my bowels, sorry if too much information. I mean this morning, WOW, I think I've eliminated everything that was in my colon and my tummy is very flat. I suspect the dates in the chocolate pie had a lot to do with this. ;) Also I'm emotionally detoxing quite a bit. I just feel like crying a lot, and it's not a sadness it's a feeling being released from my heart. If I were to describe it, it's like I'm releasing some energy that was blocking my ability to receive love and feel love. It's a loving feeling that's all I can say. I don't know which pie triggered this, but it's an interesting enough phenomenon that I thought I'd record it here in case anyone else experiences something similar. It's probably also the chocolate pie that has me crying, cacao is a very powerful food. Raw food is sooooo amazing and healing.

[miaculpa]

crystal, hun, mars went direct in cancer... that is part of the emotional detox reason, Id wager (as well as that/pie/evacuation). Remember it was retrograde for a long time and Ive noticed that you are sooo sensitive to the transits. We seem to go thru similar stuff during the same times. LOL. I wanna see your chart!

[RawHeaven]

Mia! LOL, no doubt it has to do with the Cancer transit and the pies. I'm extremely sensitive, a Cancer Rising person so that's probably why I'm also experiencing the extreme emotions. I've been snappy and then I just want to hug everybody and cry on their shoulder. hahaha! LOL. My poor boyfriend was on the phone with me for 2 hours last night giving me a big phone hug and dealing with my snappishness (code word for the B word ha!) -we're long distance. Everything he said I had to counter argue until he just started laughing, which made me laugh. Thank God he's a grounded soul and didn't take my behavior personally. We should go offline sometime and exchange chart information...would be cool. Maybe sometime in April??? - March is a crazy busy month for me. I used to do birthcharts and have been into astrology since I was a teenager, but not as deep as you. I'm a Taurus sun, Cancer Rising, Cap moon. Lots of water, earth and fire in my chart. My Mars in Leo makes me nuts sometimes. But I love my chart, I think it's kind of cool :p

[c'estlaviebelle]

Wow! Looks amazing- I need to try and replicate your kiwi pie :) And the chocolate looks sooo yummy!

[Green Amour]

The Irish Moss is most probably used to thicken and set the pie.

[RawHeaven]

The Irish Moss is most probably used to thicken and set the pie.

I think you're probably correct about this. Although the avocado ended up doing a good job thickening it up.



Wow! Looks amazing- I need to try and replicate your kiwi pie :) And the chocolate looks sooo yummy!

The kiwi pie was the best.

[RawHeaven]

Aww Jeez I feel I must share this...

I've been surfing the net and came across some information about raw cacao being toxic to the system. That it's been overrated as a superfood and blah blah. Something also about the alertness and energy you feel being attributable to your adrenals going into overdrive to rid this stimulant from the body. It can also result in mood swings and a rapid heart rate. So um yesterday after eating like 3 slices of this very rich chocolate pie in the morning I was able to check off a good number of symptoms. I'm not going to post the link...all you really have to do is Google for the info. I'm sure others must be aware of this too, there is a ton of information on it.

I had know idea!

Now I'm truly rethinking my position on consuming raw cacao in the future. But I will further research this for myself...I think we all have to make our own personal choice whether or not to include a particular food in our diet.

Just sharing and somewhat sadly dissappointed in the information I discovered tonight. Maybe no more raw cacao pie for this lady. :(

[Green Amour]

I remember this coming up and Rawkinlocs pointed out that it's one of those things that there isn't agreement on right now. Some say it's great, others disagree. But, I know I'm not ready to give up chocolate, so I'm not listening to bad cacao talk right now-lol. If I don't have some cacao( not everyday) but some, I'm sure I'll end up with Hershey's bars, Reese's etc. which is worse. It's saved me from "going there" many a time. I don't know, just for my own experience I don't feel burned out after eating it or notice any bad effects, so i feel ok about it for me for now.
However, if a person isn't a chocoholic, naturally I'd be much easier to do without and not fall prey to SAD chocolate cake etc.

Also,it seems to me that it's something you shouldn't eat too much of at one time. Possibly limiting the servings would help.

[RawHeaven]

Good points Green Amour. I had 3 pieces in quick succession so this probably didn't help with the stimulation effect. :p I am ready to give it up actually...a good friend of mine is a Raw Nutritionist and I called him about this and he confirmed he cautions clients on the impact of raw cacao. Moreso if they're currently on a fasting regimine, detoxifying their bodies and such. The raw cacao tends to cause havoc with the adrenal glands he has noticed with his clients. Jeremy Saffron, a well known raw foodist and fasting guy, actually sold raw cacao in the early part of this decade, but did some scientific research and it came back over and over the potential toxicity issue. So he stopped offering it. I'm listening to my intuition...every time I have cacao I feel like crap either later in the day or a couple days later no matter how much I eat. I don't think it blends well with my organs and system which I'm even more in tune with after doing the master cleanse for 40 days recently.

Well I was definately a chocoholic who craved the expensive swiss stuff and ghiradelli chocolate, not the processed well known commercial stuff. I've come a very long way and don't even want anything other than raw chocolate, but nonetheless this information concerns me, but I won't worry about it. I'll lean towards eliminating it for now and stick to my kiwi pie. Which was much better anyway! lol.

It was good practice making that chocolate cream pie and I probably will make another one for a special occasion down the line. Maybe once or twice a year I'll have some...who knows...still learning and growing you know?

Peace and thanks for your insight. Helps.

[Green Amour]

I don't think it blends well with my organs and system which I'm even more in tune with after doing the master cleanse for 40 days recently.

Well I was definately a chocoholic who craved the expensive swiss stuff and ghiradelli chocolate, not the processed well known commercial stuff.
.................................................. ........

oh wow- 40 day master cleanse-yeah your system is probably a lot more sensitive now. I could never make it through that! I def. preferred the high quality or artisanal chocolate when I could get them-but that took a 25 minute drive vs the crappy corner store which is a 5 minute walk. Temptation so close.. :p

[QTLayla]

Wow, these look great, Crystal!
Is that "I am Grateful" recipe book a large cookbook or a booklet and where did you get it??
Thanks
QT

[RawHeaven]

I don't think it blends well with my organs and system which I'm even more in tune with after doing the master cleanse for 40 days recently.

Well I was definately a chocoholic who craved the expensive swiss stuff and ghiradelli chocolate, not the processed well known commercial stuff.
.................................................. ........

oh wow- 40 day master cleanse-yeah your system is probably a lot more sensitive now. I could never make it through that! I def. preferred the high quality or artisanal chocolate when I could get them-but that took a 25 minute drive vs the crappy corner store which is a 5 minute walk. Temptation so close.. :p

Ha, you know it's easier to say you'll give up chocolate typing on a keyboard than actually doing it. I found some left over raw chocolate chunks in the back of the fridge yesterday and guess what? I ate 'em! lol. We shall see if I can really give up chocolate or not. :rolleyes:

And you can do a 40 day MC if you really wanted to. I started out with smaller cleanses and worked my way up to it. One of the best things I've ever done for myself.

[RawHeaven]

Wow, these look great, Crystal!
Is that "I am Grateful" recipe book a large cookbook or a booklet and where did you get it??
Thanks
QT

Thank you! It's a medium sized receipe book. You can purchase it on amazon, cafe gratitude store. http://www.cafegratitudestore.com/bk01-ig.html Hope it's okay to post the CG link on this site?


Take care!
Crystal

[Green Amour]

nevermind-

[RawDrop]

Personally, I think information like would depend upon the person. You know how some people are allergic to certain foods, but other people aren't. Maybe that might be some of the negative information that is out there. It may be that those people who are saying it is toxic, have actually found people that are allergic to it.

Personally, if you like it, and it makes you feel good, keep eating it. If you have some sort of allergic reaction, don't.

Simple as that I think! (Maybe a bit to simplistic, but you get my meaning.)