Thursday, August 18, 2011

Peaches & Cream Pie



Oh gosh, that is a mighty fine peach - suited for a pie I think. Yes, Peaches and cream pie.

First, you'll need to make a nut crust.
Use almonds, walnuts, coconut flakes, coconut oil, dates soaked in fresh orange juice and himalayan sea salt. Process the nuts in the food processor until fine with little chunks, but not too many little chunks. Take the nuts out and place the soaked dates in the processor. Process into a paste. Add the rest of the ingredients, including the processed nuts back into the processor. Pulse until a nice thick dough is formed. As for the measurements... use about 2 cups or more of nuts, about 5-6 dates, a few hand-fulls of coconut shreds, a few pinches of salt, and few tablespoons of coconut oil, or up to 1/4 cup. Adjust from there, you don't want it to be too dry or too wet, but easy to spread/press into containers. It will solidify fully in the fridge. There are many raw nut crust recipes out there, if this scares you, you might want to look one up and use accurate measurements. The second time I made this pie for the market I omitted the dates and o.j. (dates are too sweet for me) and substituted fresh peach to make it wet and added a bit more coconut oil so it would be solid when cold. I got that idea from when I make instant macaroons I add fresh strawberries as a binder sometimes. Lots of fun ways to experiment here.

Press into a big tart shell or into individual sized containers. Place in fridge for a bit to harden.

Then you will need to make the Coconut Vanilla Cream.
1 cup raw cashews, soaked
1 cup young coconut meat
seeds from a vanilla pod
about 1 tbsp lucuma powder
1/4 cup agave nectar or more to taste (you can add a couple of drops of liquid stevia as well if you want to use less agave)
a few pinches of sea salt
1/2 cup coconut oil, warmed to liquefy
possibly some water, if you find the mixture too thick. You want a nice pourable cream that will solidify in the fridge.
Blend all of these things in a high speed blender until very creamy and smooth.

Pour onto crust and if using individual serving dishes, pour even amounts into the dishes, about 1/2 inch thick, or whatever you like. Place in fridge again to solidify. Freezer if you are in a time crunch, but don't allow to freeze.

Last step - Peach Puree
Pretty easy stuff here for the last part. Wash some organic peaches, squeeze a bit of fresh lemon, zest a bit of fresh lemon, add agave to taste. I think I used about 5-6 peaches, maybe 1 or 2 tbsp lemon juice, 1/2 tsp lemon zest and about 1-2 tbsp agave. Blend in a food processor or hand blender until pretty smooth and spread on top of the coconut cream. Place back in the fridge, covered, for few hours and then serve!



I made this twice for the farmer's market. B.C. peaches are in full season right now so this pie is so nice and summery.

Here are some other things I've been up to for the market:
Honey Mustard Parsnip Chips

Hickory Smoked Eggplant Bacon

Transgingers (ginger cinnamon) dark chocolate

Smoked Chocolate Bark

Mocha Body Scrub


and I've been selling my friend Andrew's Smoked Salts, yum!


One market left people! Hope to see you there next week.

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Something Quick to Tide You Over


I had a bunch of fruit to use up this morning but I didn't want to run the risk of elevating my blood sugar too much (for me this means itchy skin and rashes) so I came up with this bizarre concoction that is full of protein to balance the sugars and actually tastes pretty great!

I had one realllly ripe banana and I threw it in the blender with the rest of my hemp protein (about 1/4 cup), threw in some true cinnamon which also helps balance blood sugar (about 1 tsp), a handful of raw hazelnuts, a dash of water to get the mixture blending, about 3/4 tsp ground vanilla beans and a couple drops of vanilla liquid stevia.
I blended this to a nice thick paste.

In a bowl I put:
a handful of hazelnuts
a handful of cocoa nibs
a handful of raw shredded coconut
a handful of fresh blueberries
a handful of gogi berries
2 small fresh apricots, cut into chunks


Then I poured the banana goo over top and I'm eating it right now.


There was a lot of energy in this breakfast because I just left this post open and ran around the house and cleaned up before returning to finish writing...

Anyway, just something quick to tide you over before I tell you how I made the Peaches + Cream Pie.