Chocolate Cherry Superfood Pie

I made this up last week after a period of eating poorly, and feeling like it was time to be nice to myself.  Eating too much sugar makes me short-tempered, as well as giving me aches and pains I don’t get when I don’t eat sugar …

It had been a while since I made a sweet cake, and as I tend to buy ingredients in bulk, it was time to get busy in the kitchen, and use some up!  Avocado and cacao mousse was swirling in my mind, and so I made:

Chocolate Cherry Superfood Pie.

My first attempt at this delight, and there are a few changes I would offer to you.

FIRSTLY, I used 2 tablespoons of chia, but I suggest you use 3, as it will give the cake a little more firmness, which I feel it needs, apart from upping it’s superfood-ness!

SECONDLY, it doesn’t take long to do, but it’s important to defrost the cherries (or whatever fruit you’re using) in advance.  A little forward thinking was required and I was working spontaneously, so I’d thrown them on before thinking! I was by then in full flight and working towards a deadline, so I, perhaps foolishly, didn’t take them off and drain/defrost them.

Basically, the excess water from the frozen fruit will bleed down around the cake, and won’t allow the base and topping to meld together so well, it might mean also the mousse top separates from the base when you slice and plate it.  It just doesn’t work as well aesthetically.  Taste-wise however, it didn’t make much difference.  It may make the crust a bit soggy (in this recipe it didn’t harm the overall effect, but in others it could ruin it).  It still tasted gorgeous and didn’t stop me scoffing it down!

I sourced my freeze dried raspberries from a local deli, but they can be tricky to find.  If you’re having trouble, I suggest googling it to try and buy some online – you don’t need to worry too much about them taking a few days to arrive, as they are freeze-dried and therefore less perishable.

I popped mine into a zip-lock bag and bashed them with a rolling pin to make the powder dust for topping.  Any excess not used, can then be stored for next time in the zip-lock bag.

Alternatively, if you’ve no joy with the freeze-dried stuff, use the real thing!  Oooh fresh blueberries would look cool too?!

Ingredients:

1 cup of desiccated coconut (preferably with no sulphites/additives)

1 cup of raw unsalted macadamia nuts

1/2 -1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/3 cup Medjool dates, washed & pitted (no sulphites or additives is best)

1 tablespoon raw cacao butter, melted

Pinch celtic sea salt

*Optional: If you don’t eat nuts, you could use 2 cups of desiccated coconut instead.

I used a 300g box of fresh frozen cherries with no additives from the supermarket

2 avocadoes (ripe ones but firm green ones work best)

1 ripe sweet banana

3-4 tablespoons of raw organic cacao powder

3 tablespoons of Rice Malt Syrup

10 Drops of liquid Stevia

3 tablespoons of chia seeds sitting in 3/4 tablespoons coconut cream to soak for about 10 mins

1 teaspoon vanilla powder

1/2 – 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Handful of freeze-dried raspberries, crushed to dust

Method:

Drain the frozen cherries over a bowl in a sieve until pretty much defrosted and any excess water has dripped off. (You could add the coloured drippings to your smoothie?!).  You may like to further drain the cherries on some kitchen paper towel.

To Make The Gluten-Free Crust:

Place your cacao butter in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water on low heat until it’s melted. (Don’t allow the simmering water to touch the bowl).

Wash & pit (if necessary) your dates.

Place the dessicated coconut, cinnamon, macadamia nuts, pitted dates, salt and melted cacao butter to the food processor and process till it just sticks together. (Take care not to over-process when using macadamia nuts – if you do they release all their oil and the texture of the base will be too sticky).

I lightly greased the sides and base of my cake tin with coconut oil.

Press into a 9 inch cake/pie tin, preferably with a removable base/springform pan, pressing down the top to get a smooth finish.

Halve your drained cherries and spread them over the top of your pie base.

Refrigerate whilst you prepare the filling.

Place your banana, avocados, vanilla, cinnamon, coconut cream with chia, cacao, rice malt syrup, and stevia into a food processor and BLEND until smooth.

I would check for taste here – you might want to ADD more cacao, or sweet banana or stevia, depending on how sweet/chocolatey you want it.  The avocado provides an unusual tang.

Spread the avocado chocolate mousse over the top and SMOOTH over with a palette knife.

Refrigerate for about an hour until set.

Place your freeze-dried raspberries in a zip-lock bag and LOCK with as little air as possible inside.  Then BASH with a rolling pin or chef’s knife handle or something flat and sorta heavy!

Before serving, USE a hot, wet palette knife  (ie. run it under hot water!) and SLIP it down between the cake and edge of tin, SLIDING it all the way around to LOOSEN.

Then OPEN the spring form tin and RUN the palette knife carefully under the pie base to LOOSEN.

CAREFULLY SLIDE IT onto a serving dish with no raised edges (to make it easier to slice and plate).

Before serving SPRINKLE the freeze-dried raspberries over the top of the pie and maybe around the edges of the plate for effect.

ENJOY!

SOME VARIATIONS:

This will also work beautifully with fresh or frozen raspberries (less fructose too), or with any berry really.

Alternatively you could leave the berries out altogether, in which case you could keep this as a frozen dessert, just eating a piece whenever you’re short on pudding or fancy a sweet treat that won’t send your blood sugar sky rocketing, and then sticking what’s left back in the freezer for the next time!

And if you like to be super-organised, you could make one of each so you can eat the berry one now, and put the other on ice for a rainy day!

Superfoodness

I don’t normally do this sort of ingredient breakdown on here, but I thought as I used ‘Superfood” in the title, I might give you a rundown of what is MY point of view on the ingredients I use.  The way I see it, there is a universe of information out there on what foods are good for us, and what are not.  One scientist says this, another says the opposite. It basically depends on what or whom you choose to believe (/sells their brand best!).  For me, there is no wrong or right – only what’s right for ME.  Everybody is different and reacts differently to different stimuli. Food is a stimulus, and therefore, what suits me, may not suit you.

In fact, even some of the foods I choose to eat, and ‘foodosophies’ I choose to follow, don’t fully suit my body – while I may feel healthier from eating in a certain way, I have a sneaking suspicion that it affects a skin condition I have called rosacea. But I’m simply not prepared to give up the many foods I love to see if I’m right! So it’s really very hard to do the ‘right’ thing here …

All we can do is try to be more aware, and question what food companies and governments sell us, but at the end of the day, it’s comes down to making a personal decision.  I’ve posted before on how it’s hard to know what to believe anymore when it comes to food, so I try to see it as one big experiment, and expect I will find out some new information every now and then that will alter my perspective somewhat … and I’m happy enough with that.

So for now, here are my beliefs on:

Chia Seeds – Mega Super Benefits, Everyday Food!

Chia is a type of seed well known to the Aztec, Mayan and Native American cultures.  For this reason, I believe in buying mine from this part of the world.  You can talk about how much nutrition is in this, that and the other, but if the soil it’s grown in does not contain the nutrients, then neither does the food, necessarily.

I have already written about the benefits of chia HERE, if you haven’t read it, I highly recommend that you do.  You could be adding a tablespoon of the-new-improved-healthful-you to your food, so easily each day!  If you’re still eating packet cereal for breakfast, Im sorry to hear it, but you could always add a tablespoon of chia to it to get some more rounded nutritional benefits!!  (Like any high fibre food – always drink plenty of water to keep chia from getting stuck in your system!)

Avocados – Super Benefits, Every Day/Couple of Days Food!

Avocados are high in good fats, have anti-inlammatory properties are high in phyto-nutrients and anti-oxidants, and are rich in:

• Fibre
• Vitamin E
• Potassium (more than twice the amount found in a banana)
• Essential heart-healthy fat: oleic acid a monounsaturated fat
• B-vitamins
• Folic acid

Read all you need to know about avocados HERE, including how to peel them to get the most nutrients out of you avo!

Macadamia Nuts – Healthful Natural, Once or Twice a Week Food!

These fellas are also high in monounsaturated fats, as well as containing lots of vitamins and minerals such as calcium, phosphorous, potassium, sodium, selenium, iron, and the B-complex vitamins that are so important for metabolism; thiamine, riboflavin and niacin.

Macadamias are an excellent source of minerals such as calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese and zinc. 100 g nuts provide 3.6 µg of selenium.

Studies suggest that monounsaturated fats in the diet help lower total as well as LDL (bad) cholesterol and increase HDL (good) cholesterol levels in the blood.

Cacao – This Jury’s Still Out, But Still Would Eat Probably A Little Every Day!

To be clear, I’m talking RAW organic cacao not cocoa (which is usually processed and containing sugar).

I’m still not confident which side to take on the cacao topic.  Some claim it to be a superfood, while others say it can be in fact harmful to health in high doses!  As yet another superfood debate rages, I need my chocolate!

So I choose one that’s raw, organic and as unprocessed as possible. And then if it’s true what the “for” team say, I get the most nutrients and antioxidants out of it.  And it hasn’t got a whole pile of sugar and additives thrown in like cocoa and shop-bought chocolate.  I’m just choosing to believe that’s healthier.  But it’s still under scrutiny in my mind.  Something I’ll have to revisit!

As I’m on the “FOR” side, for now, the team say RAW CACAO provides:

• Magnesium, and other essential minerals including calcium, sulfur, zinc, iron, copper, potassium, and manganese
• Polyphenols called flavonoids, with antioxidant properties
• Vitamins: B1, B2, B3, B5, B9, E
• Essential heart-healthy fat: oleic acid a monounsaturated fat
• Protein
• Fibre

Tips: 

When buying, look for labels that read “raw” chocolate or cacao.  Raw beans are not roasted, and are only fermented and dried, conserving their ‘superfood’ composition.

Avoid labels that read “roasted” chocolate or cacao.  When the beans are roasted, they are stripped of their antioxidant properties.

Cacao Butter – Again, This Jury’s Still Out – A Couple of Times a Week Food!

Cacao butter is made by pressing ground, milled cacao nibs to make a cocoa paste. This process separates the thick and creamy butter from the fibrous powder.  What we want in our pantry is a good quality raw organic cacao butter which uses only low temperature processing to ensure that quality standards are met, and no chemicals or solvents to ever be used in the process.

Cacao Butter is an excellent source of healthy omega-6 and omega-9 fatty acids, and also contains natural antioxidants, as well as nutrients that support mood and the immune system.

If you melt a little more than the recipe requires, you could always rub the remainder into your skin for a natural moisturising treatment!

Coconut Cream – Superfood! Every Day Food! (If not Cream, Then Oil/Water/Flakes etc)

I found the Ayam brand to have the least amount of ingredients.  Do we really need guar gum, or sugar or other crap in our coconut cream and milk?  No we don’t.  Ayam claim their coconut products are processed and canned within 48 hours of harvest., and are 100% natural.

My rule of thumb if we’re buying canned or packet produce, we just want to try and buy ones with the least amount of ingredients inside.

I’ve been drinking fresh young coconut water by the boxful for the past few years, use coconut oil liberally, and coconut milk & cream much more than I used to, since reading more and more about it’s benefits, over the past few years.  I’m always banging on about it.

If it’s all news to you, click HERE to read Dr. Joe Mercola’s research and findings.

Cherries (Sweet) – Superfruit, Once or Twice A Week Food!

Cherries are pigment rich fruits. These pigments, in fact, are polyphenolic flavonoid compounds known as anthocyanin glycosides. Anthocyanins are red, purple or blue pigments found in many fruits and vegetables, especially concentrated in their skin, known to have powerful anti-oxidant properties.

Cherries however, are quite high in fructose, (as are dates used in the base, so we eat sparingly), so I wouldn’t be eating bowlfuls of them even though that can be very tempting!  No fair!  But life ain’t a bowl of cherries!

Scientific studies have shown that anthocyanins in the cherries are found to act like anti-inflammatory agents. Thus, consumption of cherries has potential health effects against chronic painful episodes such as gout, arthritis, fibromyalgia (painful muscle condition) and sports injuries.  HOWEVER, if you eat cherries as a therapeutic measure for gout etc, I believe guidelines that say it’s wise to limit it to about 10 cherries a day, as the fructose in cherries generates the uric acid that exacerbates gout, and the inflammation that causes joints and injuries to ache. It’s a real shame as they’re mmm very delicious, but again folks, life ain’t a bowl of cherries, heh heh heh!

Cherries are also mild source of zinc, moderate sources of iron, potassium, and manganese and good source of copper and fibre. Potassium is a heart-healthy mineral; an important component of cell and body fluids that regulate heart rate and blood pressure.

NO SUGAR!

Now, do I need to go into the details of why having NO PROCESSED SUGAR IN THIS SWEET TREAT is perhaps the best thing about the whole recipe?!  Because this post is long enough as it is!  Maybe some day.  Just not this day.

Spelling the plural of avocado perturbed me somewhat.

The Oxford Dictionary said this:

avocado

Pronunciation: /ˌavəˈkɑːdəʊ/

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary said this:

av·o·ca·do

 noun \ˌä-və-ˈkä-(ˌ)dō, ˌa-\