I am so proud of myself. Today I - Emily von Euw - woke up, wide-eyed and ready to use my noggin' - at 7:30 AM. I have not risen so early in approximately a year or so. Oh, stop that applause now, that's enough. Why in the world did I break from my slumber so early? To write a final exam. I think I did well. Now we will move on to more important matters...
Pie.
This pie actually began as butter tarts. In my effort to rawify all the holiday food favourites, I remembered a Canadian Christmas classic: butter tarts. As you may be able to guess by the name, they aren't the healthiest thing you can put in your stomach. They are pretty much white flour, sugar, butter, raisins, more butter and more sugar. Time for me to step up to the plate and see what I can do (I like to pretend I'm a superhero.)
The idea was to make a basic raw crust, then make a raisin caramel filling and add in whole raisins. I was going to make them all cute little individual tarts like the real thing, but then I got lazy. I didn't feel like shaping out as many tarts as I had made crust for so I decided to make a giant butter tart instead. Then I saw some pecans and I'm like "Hey! If I throw pecans on top of this baby, I can call it a pecan pie and no one will know! HAH!" Except I just told you.. So there goes that plan. This pie is a deceitful liar that can't be trusted - just eaten mercilessly.
The filling ended up being a caramel sauce but it was too sweet and dense so I added gelled chia seeds for bulk and to dilute the sweetness; it turned out wonderfully! I made a simple chocolate sauce for contrast, and had leftovers so I made one baby tart and filled it with chocolate sauce. Secret treat for later.
chia caramel pecan pie with cinnamon chocolate sauce: makes one pie
Crust:
2 cups nuts or raw buckwheat flour (I used pine nuts and cashews)
1 cup dates or prunes
1/2 teaspoon salt
Filling:
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup dates
1/4 cup melted coconut oil
6 tablespoons chia seeds mixed with 12 tablespoons water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
more water, if needed
1/2 cup more raisins
Cinnamon chocolate sauce:
1 tablespoon cacao
1 tablespoon nut butter or melted coconut oil
1 tablespoon agave/maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
To make the crust: pulse nuts in your food processor until they are crumb-sized. Add dates and salt and process until it stick together. Press into the bottom of a tart plate. Put in fridge.
To make the filling: process all ingredients - except the last 1/2 cup of raisins - until smooth. It will taste like a divine entity has landed in your mouth, plus chia seeds. Stir in the 1/2 cup of raisins by hand and pour into your crust. Let it set in the fridge then decorate with pecans, pumpkin seeds and chocolate sauce. Or not.
To make the chocolate sauce: mix all ingredients together until smooth. Drizzle onto your pie. Eat it while
listening to this song.
