CRANBERRY CRÈME TARTS

This recipe was a hit! I shared it with several people, including a friend for her birthday. It's sweet, fresh, fun and cute to boot. These tarts pack a secret nutritional punch thanks to Pranin Organic's PureFood Iron, which I included in the chocolate crust. Keep your eyes peeled (that saying always makes me feel kind of uncomfortable...) for a guest blog post from me on Pranin Organic's website. I will be talking about the importance of getting enough iron and nutritionally-dense foods in your diet in order to maintain a happy and healthy existence on this bizarre and wonderful planet.

As you can see by looking at many previous posts, I have been really into using beets as a natural food colouring for raw desserts lately. I throw it in my smoothies too to give them that hot pink shade. When my food is pretty colours, it makes me more inclined to eat it. Is that just me or what? I have also become enchanted with using coconut cream in my dessert recipes. I think it's so sexy: white, creamy and full of faaat, hunny! What's not to love!? It lends an incredibly smooth and delicious texture and flavour to puddings, cakes, tarts, mylkshakes and more. Let's make it an official declaration coming to you straight from This Rawsome Vegan Life HQ (i.e. my bedroom): I adore everything coconut.

In other news: I just started listening to a new podcast called Best of the Left and so far, so good. It covers important topics relating to social justice and equitable liberation that popular media outlets are not going to bring up (ex. the totally unethical treatment of people in prisons and how the American constitution allows for it). I would recommend givin it a lil listen if you're into podcasts. Now onto TARSTS!

<3

CRANBERRY CRÈME TARTS
[ makes four tarts ]

Crust:
2 cups shredded coconut
1 cup dates
3 tablespoons cacao powder
1 1/2 teaspoons Pranin Organic's PureFood Iron

Cranberry crème:
2 tablespoons chopped beet
2 tablespoons melted cacao butter
1/4 teaspoon vanilla powder
1 500ml can full fat coconut milk
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 tablespoon coconut sugar
Pinch sea salt

Garnish (optional):
1 tablespoon black sesame seeds
4 sprigs mint leaves
Pinch fleur de sel

To make the crust: grind the coconut shreds into powder in a blender, then add the rest of the ingredients and blend until a moist dough forms. Press into lined tart tins and leave in the fridge.

To make the crème: scoop the thick fat out of the can of coconut milk - this is what you wanna use for the crème. Blend all the ingredients together until smooth, sweet and pink; adjust according to taste. Pour into your tarts crust, decorate with black sesame seeds, mint leaves and fleur de sel if you want, and leave the fridge overnight. Enjoy!