Paleo Almond Coconut Pie

I wanted to make a paleo ice cream pie, so in true Paleo fashion, Monica and I spent an afternoon playing around with the idea of making a wheat and dairy free frozen-raw pie…froraw, a rafro, a zenraw? How would this amazing creation of goodness be created you ask? Well the masterpiece would be created in two parts. First, we would make the crust and freeze it. Next we would put in the filling and freeze it a second time.

The glorious thing about making frozen pies is that you can pretty much say goodbye to unnecessary added fats, flours and fillers. Let’s start with what I mean by unnecessary fats. Butters and oil in any form generally contribute to the desserts flavour and moisture content. They make the brownies goowie and the whipped cream fluffy. Fats are generally used to cream with sugar to aerate the batter. If you check most of your recipes you’ll notice that they normally call for you to cream sugar with butter until fluffy. This, in addition to the chemical reaction you get from baking soda or whipping eggs will help rise your cakes or cookies. To return to our frozen pie, nothing needed to rise or bake, so very little fat was needed.

Contrary to popular belief, you can make a delicious pie without flour. This is true even if you do decide to make a hot, baked pie. Because of the oil content in the nuts and seeds, after pressing the ground mixture into the pan and freezing it, we noticed that it was unnecessary to add any additional coconut flour for structure.
*If I had decided to bake it in the oven, I would have mixed in an egg or two to get the solid effect we achieved from freezing.

Finally no fillers!! The beauty of making your own food is knowing exactly what goes in it. I don’t know about you, but when I got shopping I read the ingredients on the side of the box to see what I’m potentially putting into my system. When I make a choice between two identical products, I always pick the one with the least amount of ingredients. Another trick: if you can’t pronounce it, don’t fucking eat it! Try that next time you buy canned coconut milk.
I try to apply this philosophy when I bake or cook. If I can make something amazing with the least amount of ingredients, the happier I am. Baking with whole foods is the best thing for you and the planet. I’m not saying that baking soda or peppermint flavouring is bad for you, but it can be the gateway drug to other fillers. Like sinister-table-salt, back-fat-butter or mucus-making-milk. It is completely possible to make amazing goodies without any of those products.

Ok, now for la piece de resistance: Frozen Coconut Pie in an Almond-Sunflower Crust. As life changing as this recipe will be for most of you, I mostly hope that you can use this recipe as a blueprint for some of your own dessert brainstorming creations. The crust can be made with other nuts and seeds like walnuts or macadamias. If you don’t have any coconut meat handy, puree some peaches, berries or bananas.  For those of you who aren’t paleo followers, make a filling with thick Greek yogurt or ice cream. As a challenge, try to keep you ingredient to a minimum.

Frozen Coconut Pie in an Almond-Sunflower Crust

Ingredients

Crust

• 1 cup of almonds
• ¼ cup of sunflower seeds
• 1 ½ Tbsp coconut oil

 

1. Toast almonds and seeds on medium heat for 15 to 20 mins. You want the almond skin to flake off. *You want to cook the almonds first to dry out any moisture. If you were to puree the almonds without cooking them, you’d make almond butter. Not a total loss, but not the objective. Stay focused young Jeti.
2. Let cool for 30mins then puree in food processor until you reach the texture of cornmeal.
3. Add in coconut oil, mix well then press into pie pan (create an even, flat surface so that there are no open holes/ pores for the filling to seep into).
4. Place in freezer for an hour.

*if you prefer a thicker crust, feel free to boost up the ingredients.
Filling

• 1 ½ cup of pureed coconut meat from a fresh coconut
• 1 cup of almond milk
• 1/3 cup of coconut cream
• 1 cup of cut up papaya

 

1. Puree coconut meat in the food processor. Then add almond milk and coconut cream.
2. Pour into crust filling and papaya cubes.
3. Place in freezer for at least two hours.

By the time your forehead sweat makes you squint like a pirate, your pie should be ready. Cut yourself a nice big piece and appreciate how your body temperature starts drop.

 

Yours truly,

Genevieve