MEYER LEMON COCONUT CREAM TARTS with MINT + LAVENDER

These are divine, and they are reppin' the world of desserts that don't include chocolate. The non-cocoa players need love too! I'm just mentioning this because a lot of my recipes lately have included that brown powder we all secretly kiss when no one is looking. This time, Imma be kissin' my Meyer lemons instead. Honestly when I eat chocolate I usually think something along the lines of "I NEED YOU IN MY LIFE ALWAYS AND FOREVER." But in reality, I go days without it and hardly notice (cacao, please don't be hurt, you're still in my heart). My point is: ya don't need cocoa or cacao powder to make a kick-ass dessert; raw, vegan, or otherwise. This recipe proves it. 

CHOCOLATE COCONUT ALMOND BUTTER CUPS - OH BABY

Caution: these are almost as addictive as my chocolate cream caramel bars. This is the THIRD TIME I have made them because they are so damn delicious. Please, make them. Share them. Rejoice in the miracle that is raw vegan chocolate + almond butter + coconut. Essentially what you have here is a super wide peanut butter cup with raw chocolate, but I use almond butter instead of peanut butter, and I mixed in coconut shreds to thicken it up. By the way, I found the best shredded coconut! It's from a really neat little company right beside me (on Vancouver Island) called Harmonic Arts. They have the most amazing tea blends too, and many of their products are wild-harvested. Everything is organic.

WHIPPED COCO CREAM TART with FRESH BERRIES

An ode to tarts:

Precious tart,

so elegant and sweet,

you tempt me with your textures... 

a slice I cannot help but eat.

Who was your inventor?

They were indeed a genius.

Your taste and colour are sublime,

nothing is more luscious.

From your crust to your cream

and the fruitiness in between,

I love you for your simplicity, 

I'll see you in my dreams.

So that was really tacky and incredibly lame of me but sometimes ya just gotta write love prose to your fave dessert. Right, guys? ... GUYS? In all seriousness though I do adore raw vegan tarts. They're easier and quicker to make than cakes, and most of the time they come out looking like super stars. You make the crust which is usually just a mix of dates and nuts, press that into a tart pan, and then you make your filling which is normally a simple blending up of bananas, coconut or nuts with  a healthy sweetener, and finally you decorate it with something pretty like fruit. Done. You now have a gorgeous, delicious, uber-good-for-you treat to impress everyone with. This is why I love raw vegan desserts.

I made this recipe a few months ago and am posting it now to remind me of the wonderful berry harvests of the summer. I will miss the sun dearly for the next couple seasons. We basically get straight rain for the next five months here in British Columbia. The only way I survive is by daydreaming about the vibrant berries we had the pleasure of eating in the previous warmer months. Until the next fertile epoch I will be consuming a lot of frozen fruit, apples, greens, carrots and potatoes. I am trying to eat more food that is grown locally, and as I have said before: it's easy to do that when you have TWO winter farmers markets in your city. Yep, we locavore Vancouverites are spoiled.

Another bonus to buying local - in addition to being more connected to your food system, minimizing your carbon foot print, and supporting ethical, environmentally-concious farmers in your area - is the quality of the produce you are getting. Yes, it can be more expensive and usually is (though sometimes you can actually SAVE money at farmers markets) the flavour, colour and texture of locally grown organic food versus internationally shipped stuff from the grocery store is incomparable. What I do now is buy "the dirty dozen"(i.e. the ones most contaminated by pesticides, etc.) if they are available at the farmers market, or at least organically-grown kinds from the grocery store. That way I find a happy balance for my wallet AND still support the local farmers and enjoy amazing produce. Is buying organic important to you? Is buying local important to you? Why or why not? Let me know in the comment section! Have a great day, beautiful people, and try making the tart! x

WHIPPED COCO CREAM TART with FRESH BERRIES

Crust:
1 cup pecans
1/3 cup hemp seeds
1 1/2 cups dates
Pinch Himalayan salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Coconut cream:
Follow this recipe.

Fruit:
3 cups fresh berries
2 bananas
1 tablespoon coconut nectar (optional)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

To make the crust: pulse the pecans and hemp seeds into powder in a food processor, then add the rest of the ingredients and process until it all begins to stick together. Press into a lined tart tin and put in the fridge for a couple hours.

To prepare the fruit: wash and slice the berries and bananas then coat with the coconut nectar (if using) and vanilla and put in the dehydrator for 30-60 minutes, this softens and sweetens them.

Assembly: spread your coconut cream into the crust and top off with your berries. MMM.

SALTED CARAMEL + SESAME CHOCOLATE CREAM TARTS

It's recipes like these that I find easy to compare with sexual experiences. I promise you'll get some intense mouthgasms when you bite into one of these tarts. I did. 

When basic logic is applied one can see how most - if not all - pleasurable moments in our lives are as such because of hormones. Namely endorphins, dopamine, oxytocin and the like. Some might think this is depressing, but I think it's totally awesome. Why do I love Jack? Well, for a lot of reasons that are unexplainable at the moment. But a huge part of it is because when I am around him and when I think about him, oxytocin is released in my brain! I associate positive emotions with him and my body and mind wants me to stick with the relationship because our evolutionary history values solid reproductive partners. When ya really give it a think - we are still such primal creatures. We are ANIMALS through and through. Sure, in the last several thousands of years our environment has changed - but our biology has not. Look around: we are uber preoccupied with eating, sex and... oh that's pretty much it. Of course we've got culture and art and music and important movements for social, political and environmental policy improvement; these seemingly have nothing to do with our fundamental drives but in a lot of cases I think you can still relate it back. There's no doubt that the general public is most focused on appeasing their senses. We are a sensual species! We like feelin' good. So do other mammals (because we are mammals, after all)! 

SUMMER BERRY + CASHEW CREAM PIE

I made this pie for my aunt and uncle's anniversary when my family and I stayed with them in Minnesota during the past weeks. Read and see more about that trip (and a different one I went on right before) by clicking here.  Everyone enjoyed this recipe - including the grandparents - and they were all quite surprised that the only ingredients were fruit and nuts! I was able to whip this up easily in an afternoon and let it set in the fridge so the flavours would be able to develop in time for dessert that evening. I also didn't have a food processor with me, so this was made with just a blender and my two hands! It's is a perfect summer treat since it takes advantage of what is in season here: berries! It is also refreshing and not too sweet. Serve with extra berries. Extra berries = extra fun. Every time. It would be lovely with some mint sprigs too. 

SUMMER BERRY + CASHEW CREAM PIE

Crust:
2 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cups dates

Cream:
2 cups cashews
2 tablespoons coconut oil
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Pinch Himalayan salt
Water, as needed

Topping:
Sliced strawberries
Blueberries
Anything else you like 

To make the crust: process the oats into flour in a blender or food processor. If you're using a food processor, add in the dates and process until it all sticks together. If you're using a blender, dump the oat flour into a bowl and combine the dates and oat flour together with your hands until it all is evenly gooey. This will take a few minutes and you will have to get your hands a bit dirty. Press this "dough" into a pie dish and put in the fridge.

To make the cream: blend everything together until it's smooth and thick, adding water as needed. You want it to be the texture of a thick yogurt. Pour this into your crust and leave in the fridge for three hours or preferably overnight. Decorate with berries and enjoy!

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SUMMER BERRY VANILLA CREAM TARTS

Yeah, desserts are back. Thought I'd left ya, huh? Nope. I was just a little burnt out after writing my first book which focused entirely on raw, vegan, gluten-free desserts... over 100 recipes invented, created and photographed in under 4 months... I needed a break. Plus, as you may have noticed in my previous posts recently; I'm going 80/10/10! This means I am choosing to get almost all my calories (80%) from carbs, and leaving the remaining 20% of my calories to fat and protein. My diet is almost exactly what it was before: giant fruit smoothies all day, then a huge bowl of steamed veggies and rice for dinner, and a raw sweet for dessert! The only change? I'm skipping the desserts, which are usually nut-based, and instead getting those extra calories from more fruit in the day time! However, I  know that nuts are definitely necessary in a healthy diet, as is fat in general, in whole food plant form. So of course my dessert recipes are good for you! But having said that, I am going to focus on lowering the nut and coconut oil content in them, so we can all eat even MORE tarts. Sound good? Good. 

These adorable babies are full of fruity goodness, and they had my girlfriends practically fighting over the last bites. You can make this recipe nut-free very easily, or you can leave the nuts in there if you want. It's all up to you! I heart cashews! (I had to say it, it rhymed). You can also use nut pulp for the crust, if you are often left wondering what to do with that extra stuff after making almond milk. Frugal vegans are happy vegans... happy vegans with delicious healthy tarts. Let's eat. 

P.S. I apologize for these weird-looking photos. I'm still getting used to the photo editor on my MacBook. (YES I GOT A MAC WOOO!)

SUMMER BERRY VANILLA CREAM TARTS

Crust:

1 cup oats, nuts or nut pulp leftover from nut milk

1 1/4 cup dates

Berry cream:

1 cup frozen or fresh berries

Water, as needed

Vanilla cream:

3/4 cup cashews or 3 frozen bananas

1/2 vanilla bean

1 tablespoon coconut nectar

Water, as needed

Note: if you use cashews, you'll have lots of cashew vanilla cream leftover. I ask for 3/4 cup because you need to use at least that much to blend them into a cream in a blender, otherwise you just get cashew crumbs flying around the blades for infinity. 

Make the crust: pulse the oats or nuts into flour in a food processor. Add the dates and process it all until it sticks together. Press into lined tart tins. Put in the fridge for 30 minutes. 

Make the cream: for each one, just blend all the ingredients until smooth. Fill your tart crusts with your berry and vanilla creams, and decorate with chia seeds, dried berries, coconut shreds and whatever else you like! x

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CHOCOLATE PUDDING TART WITH COCONUT CREAM & GOJI BERRIES

I've made variations of this pie/tart/thing a few times now (click here and here for past recipes) and every time the result is a winner with the crowd I serve it to. It's one of those desserts where you can expect the plates to be licked clean. Why? It's simple, really. You have a crust that tastes like butter tarts, followed by the most delicious and healthy chocolate pudding you can imagine, covered in whipped coconut cream and topped off with goji berries. This here's a no brainer, folks - make this recipe immediately.

Technically-speaking, the coconut cream isn't 100% raw because as far as I know, there're no raw brands of canned coconut milk (which is what you need to make it). If this doesn't bother you, let's hug and chow down. If you'd rather keep it all raw, use a cashew cream instead (blend cashews, dates, water and vanilla). See? Everybody gets what they want. Happy happy happy people. I originally made this for a friend's birthday but they seem to have celebrated without me (pfffff not hurt at all) SO it's going towards another good cause; my mom's lunch party with all her lady friends. I hope they enjoy it. They loved it. 

CHOCOLATE PUDDING TART WITH COCONUT CREAM & GOJI BERRIES

Crust:
1 cup walnuts
1 cup dates

Chocolate pudding:
1 avocado
2 tablespoons coconut oil
2 tablespoons coconut nectar (or date paste)
2 tablespoons cacao powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of Himalayan salt
1/4 cup nut milk, as needed

Coconut cream:
See this recipe

To make the crust: pulse the walnuts into powder then add the dates until it all begins to stick together. Press into a lined tart tin (mine was about 8 inches) and put in the fridge.

To make the chocolate pudding: blend all the ingredients together in your food processor until smooth and thick... it should taste a-freaking-mazing. Spread evenly into your crust.

Make the coconut cream, spread it on top of the pudding layer, and put back in the fridge overnight. Serve with goji berries, coconut flakes and cacao nibs. Nom.

SUN-DRIED TOMATO TART WITH ZUCCHINI HUMMUS

To quote my wise mother: "This one's a keeper." I concur. If you love hummus, tomatoes, and freshness; you're gonna freak out when you bite into this. If summer were a pizza,  it would taste like this tart. If you need to prove to anyone that raw vegan dinners can be delish, serve them this. If I continue with these "If" statements... where will we end up?

After making at least one dessert every day over the summer (not just because I am a glutton, but also because I was writing my raw dessert uncookbook), I am kind of going through withdrawal from the - albeit healthy - sweets. At the same time, I gotta keep making recipes for you guys! So I'm getting back to savoury-type dishes. This recipe was inspired by a tomato tart I saw on Sidesaddle Kitchen. And yes, by the way, Laura Miller IS the ultimate vegan babe / bad ass. I suggest you serve it with raw crackers or something else crunchy, to add another texture. It's also best after being refrigerated overnight; that extra time allows it to develop flavour and thicken up. 

You can find the recipe for this scrumptious baby over at one of my fave healthy food blogs, Ascension Kitchen, where I did it as a guest post for the always-gorgeous Lauren. But first... scroll through all the food porn photography. Wink. 

STRAWBERRY & CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM TART

I am so happy right now. For my countless blessings from the magical universe BUT ALSO - because I have succeeded in creating raw vegan buttercream. Chocolate. Buttercream. I know, I know; but please try to contain the applause.

Honestly, it was accidental. Two nights ago I was making some date syrup to photograph for my cookbook, and then I decided to turn it into a fudgy pudding type thing so I threw in some cacao, coconut oil, maple syrup, cashew butter, and other stuff. It tasted great but I had changed my mind - I wasn't hungry anymore. I put it in the fridge...

The next day my heart was set on creating strawberry chocolate cream tarts using the chocolate mixture I had made the previous night, along with a simple tart crust and fresh strawberries from our garden. Everything was set to go; I finally took out the chocolate mixture and tasted it. Oh. My. God.

It had evolved into chocolate buttercream overnight. Praise the heavens and all that is holy. Obviously it will taste great with anything, especially if that anything is strawberries. Make this ASAP.

strawberry & chocolate buttercream tart

Crust:
1 cup almonds
1 cup dates 

Chocolate buttercream:
1 cup dates
3/4 cup water
Juice from 1 lemon
1/4 cup cacao powder
2 tablespoon cashew butter
2 tablespoons coconut oil
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

Topping:
Sliced strawberries 
Mint leaves

To make the crust: pulse the almonds into flour in a food processor. Add the dates and process until they stick together. Press into the bottom and up the side of a lined spring form pan or tart molds. 

To make the buttercream: blend all the ingredients until smooth. Refrigerate overnight so it can develop those magical flavours, then spread evenly into your crust. Top off with strawberries and mint. Enjoy the !#$% out of it. 

blueberry tarts for two

Guess who's back! Me. I am basically done all the dirty work for the book ("WOW EMILY YOU ARE SO AMAZING HOW DID YOU CREATE AND PHOTOGRAPH ALMOST 100 RECIPES IN JUST 3 MONTHS!?") Okay I am kidding but in all seriousness I am not ashamed to say that I am proud of myself. This summer has been crazy; mind and body completely devoted to thinking of, creating, photographing and typing up raw vegan dessert recipes. Oh, and always cleaning my messes up. Every. Day. 

Well now I am rambling. Point of this all is: with the hard work for my book (out March 2014) outta the way, I now am free to go back to focusing on my one true love. That'd be you. I miss you! I miss giving you recipes and hearing your feed back! So here is a recipe; and I demand feed back. 

These tarts are super simple to make (what else is new...) and equally delicious (I am officially a broken record). Most of my recipes leave you with several servings and that's all fine and dandy but what if you just want enough for two people? Or, one hungry person? Then you use this recipe. Whip these tarts up in a few minutes and surprise your friend or lover when they walk in the door, fort entrance, or whatever opening you have in your habitat.

Oh, I have more space to write than I thought I did. Okay. What shall I talk about? I got it. Berries and the Divine. In this recipe I used blueberries straight from our front yard, where they bloom in abundance for 3 glorious months each summer. These months give my life meaning: I live for these berries. Anyways, I have had many an epiphany whilst picking blueberries; my mind wanders to a peaceful, still place where the world is simple and I am but a humble human foraging for food. It's cathartic, to be perfectly honest. A few weeks ago while I was snacking on berries from the bushes, I realized that this was the original day job! Our ancestors spent their entire days - when they weren't running from giant cats or pro-creating - simply finding fruits and other edibles, picking them, and later eating them.

This gave me such a sense of oneness within and of the world. Truly, we have hardly changed a bit since our early days of hunting and gathering. What has changed is our surroundings, but that is virtually all. I enjoy participating in this majestic and intrinsically-connected universe and it's very much a reassuring feeling knowing that I am the same as those who came before me, and those who are yet to come. We are all the same. In our DNA, in our desires, in our perceived duties, there's hardly a difference among us when you get right down to our foundations. I am the blueberry and the blueberry is I.

Enough with the hippie talk, though. I know you just want dessert.

blueberry tarts for two:

crust:

1/2 cup almonds

1 tablespoon coconut oil

1 tablespoon maple syrup 

filling:

1 cup blueberries

2 tablespoons coconut powder (dried coconut process into powder) 

To make the crust: process the almonds into powder in a food processor. Add the the coconut oil and maple syrup and process until it all sticks together in a ball. Press into two single-serving lined tart tins. Put in the fridge for 30-60 minutes or until solid. Fill with blueberries and sprinkle with coconut powder.