Banana Cream Pie & Chocolate Pudding *raw vegan*

I made another couple of really great raw recipes this past week, Banana Cream Pie and Chocolate Pudding.

Raw Banana Cream Pie

This recipe was inspired by one in Ann Wigmore's great little Sprouting Book

But the crust recipe I used is one from Jeremy A. Safron's book, The Raw Truth: The Art of Preparing Living Foods

Crust

1 cup sprouted* almonds (*soaked overnight and rinsed thoroughly)

5 seeded and soaked medjool dates

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp allspice

1 Tbsp raw honey

olive oil (just to moisten to dough consistency)

Take these ingredients and blend them together in a food processor. Press the mixture into a pie plate.

Filling

4 ripe bananas

1 ripe avocado

2 Tbsp pineapple juice

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

3 tsp ground flax seed powder (or amount needed to reach consistency desired)

Ann Wigmore's recipe doesn't call for flax but I often add ground flax to recipes that require thickening. It acts like an egg binding everything together plus it adds fiber and healthy omega 3 essential fatty acids to your recipe.

Add the filling ingredients to the blender and blend until smooth and creamy. Pour this mixture over the crust.

If your filling is too runny, you can freeze the pie before serving.

Topping

1/2 cup sprouted* raw macadamia nuts (*soaked overnight and rinsed thoroughly)

1/2 cup water

1 Tbsp maple syrup or raw honey

Blend all of your topping ingredients together until smooth and pour over the filling.

I actually used coconut milk instead of water. Unfortunately because I live in Canada it is next to impossible to get fresh raw coconut milk so I had to use it from a can. This added a really nice flavor to the topping. Fresh coconut milk would be absolutely incredible in this recipe. Or next time I might try adding a touch of this pineapple coconut juice. Have you tried this juice? It's delicious!

Instead of macadamia nuts, Ann Wigmore's recipe calls for pine nuts or you could also use cashews.

Eating this right away is divine! Otherwise, you can freeze it and eat within two days. It's easy to eat it all up quickly because it's so healthy you can eat it for breakfast, and that's just what we did! Also, I have made just the filling a couple of times using frozen bananas. We call it banana ice cream. Yum!

Raw Chocolate Pudding

Here is another favorite raw recipe these days. It is incredibly delicious and nutritious! This was also inspired by a recipe in Ann Wigmore's Sprouting Book

***Update***

I tried this recipe a few times before posting it and it turned out perfectly. However, when I tried it again today, it came out very thin. I think, because I used honey dates instead of medjool dates. I added a few more dates, some raisins and even a bit more cocoa and flax to reach the consistency I wanted. You can do this too if yours turns out to be too thin and watery.

Also, this makes an excellent chocolate banana shake if you reduce the amount of ground flax and dates/ raisins and add a frozen banana.

Ingredients

1/2 cup sprouted* almonds (*soaked overnight and rinsed thoroughly)

1 1/2 cups water

5 pitted medjool dates or a handful of raisins

5 heaping Tbsp of raw cocoa powder (can be substituted with regular cocoa or carob powder)

*I got my raw chocolate from ChocoSol Traders*

raw honey to taste (about 1-2 Tbsp)

5 tsp finely ground flax seed powder (or the amount needed to reach the consistency desired)

Blend it all up in the blender and serve! This will last in a sealed container in the fridge for a couple of days.

*I had to grind my raw cocoa powder into a finer powder in a coffee grinder first*

I just love making raw recipes that taste like desert but are healthy enough to eat for breakfast!

♥ Andrea ♥