Pie in the sky

My second Raw Foods class was last Wednesday.  The agenda: dessert.  We made banana-avocado-chocolate pudding (quite good!), a banana chocolate smoothie (would have been good if the bananas were frozen, but instead we had banana-chocolate mush), and the pièce de résistance: Chocolate Coconut Kreme Pie.  The pie was quite a bit of work, but my three group mates and I were pretty good at accomplishing our tasks.  The whole pie was raw - the crust was made from dates and nuts, the chocolate layer was made with cacao powder and dates, and the kreme layer was made from real coconut meat.  We each took turns cutting open Thai Baby Coconuts and scooping out the insides while enjoying a glass of the coconut milk/water.  The interesting thing about raw foods (at least this is what I believe from what little we've done) is how many dishes/appliances are used to make one dish!  Between soaking nuts and fruits, processing in a variety of appliances, assembly....it's a full time job just to clean up!  But the end results are pretty great and I was able to bring home leftover pie for Jay to enjoy. 

  Now that we had a taste for raw desserts (but I had a lack of motivation to tackle something as big as that pie), I took to the blog world. There's a great blog about eating raw on $10 or less a day and we've tried two dishes.  A new veggie patty (it turns crispy in the dehydrator!) and a raw pecan pie for 1 or 2 people.  My raw foods instructor said that any recipe calling for dates (the pie's filling) implied that Medjool dates should be used....well of course Medjool dates are more expensive, so we picked up bread dates and Medjool dates at the store.  I made my first pie on Tuesday night and tried it with the bread dates.  The crust is processed raisins and walnuts, processed soaked dates are the filling, and pecan halves are the topping. It turned out pretty good but there wasn't much filling in our pie, so I tried again last night.  I soaked 6 bread and 6 Medjool dates for 2 separate pies.  It was amazing how much more filling the Medjool dates created - so much so that I used some to top off the regular date pie.  We enjoyed one pie last night after dinner and I look forward to the other one tonight!

Most people who know me know that pie has always been my least favorite dessert - for the longest time I would forgo dessert if pie was my only option.  I have lightened up a little since our 93 year old neighbor had us over for pie last summer.  I must say that I like the raw pies better, though!