Chocolate Peanut Butter Coconut Squares, Vegan and No-Bake

Posted on April 7, 2013 by Hannah

I think there is a frenetic bumblebee stuck inside my chest. I think he is flying in circles around my sternum, breathless, whizzing, so fast as to be only a blur, so fast that even he, in his wild zooming, can’t be sure whether his movements are borne of excitement or terror.

I cannot feel still tonight. I can sit still, yes, but I cannot feel still. Something is coming. Change is coming. It is like the way the air smells before a thunderstorm hits on a stifling summer’s day: electric, fresh, new, dangerous. I am balanced on the balls of my feet, ready to spring, even as I sit here calmly, carefully, slowly typing these words.

I want to dance madly in the moonlight and I want to collapse in a giggling heap of limbs on a Twister mat at 3am and I want to play Catch and Kiss in an empty school playground after walking precariously across the monkey bars with hands out for balance and I want to stand on the edge of a cliff dizzily carolling echoes into the abyss and I want I want I want I want I don’t know but I feel and it’s coming and I want I want I want.

For now, I will calm the whirling inside with these vegan no-bake chocolate peanut butter coconut squares. Enticingly sweet dates, rich peanut butter, dark cocoa, thrumming vanilla, white-bright coconut. Dairy-free, gluten-free, sweet but not cloying, chewy and soft and perfect and beckoning.

I can almost pretend that these are all I want.

And yet, and yet, can’t you smell the storm whispering through the air?

Vegan No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Coconut Squares

Makes 12 – 16
Original recipe

1 cup (packed) Medjool dates, pits removed
1 cup peanut butter (I used salted; add a pinch or two of salt if yours isn’t)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/3 cup desiccated coconut, plus more to sprinkle

1. Line a 20cm/8inch square tin with baking paper, extending the paper over the sides for easy removal later.

2. Place the dates, peanut butter, vanilla extract, and cocoa powder into a food processor, and process until everything is fully combined into a smooth dough/batter.

3. Add the 1/3 cup of coconut, and pulse until mixed through.

4. Tip the dough into the tin, and press down firmly until the mixture is smooth and evenly compressed. Sprinkle additional coconut on top, as much as your heart desires, and then place in the freezer for about half an hour. Cut into squares and serve, or store in the fridge or freezer for later.

Submitted to Ricki’s Wellness Weekend, Healthy Vegan Friday, Raw Foods Thursdays, and Allergy-Friendly Lunchbox Love.

Raw Vegan Mini Mango Lime Cheesecakes

Posted on November 29, 2012 by Hannah

Can I be honest with you for a minute? Just a wee minute?

There are a few things I need to get off my chest.

such as

for example

this morning

I poured unsweetened vanilla almond milk

over my bowl of All-Bran

let it sit for ten minutes

to soak through and become soft

and then

I topped the whole thing

with a layer of crackly-sweet-sugar-crackly kettlecorn

because

you see

I am both seventy years old and five years old.

the heart wants what the heart wants.

also

another secret

(shhhh now)

is sometimes I wake up

and I can’t breathe for giddiness at

this shining glorious

exhilarating world

but sometimes I wake up

and I can’t breathe for fear

that everything will come crashing down

around me.

tiptoe now.

one more

last secret

I made these brilliant

raw vegan

mini mango lime cheesecakes

exactly one year ago

and I forgot to share them with you.

but I never forgot the taste:

creamy sweet rich-mango luscious

perfect perfect

(like a Weis bar, but better,

because vegan)

and the base

so nutty wonderful.

one night

my parents and I

ate these mini mango cheesecakes while watching Chocolat

into the early hours of the morning.

we saw the stars.

Raw Vegan Mini Mango Lime Cheesecakes

Makes 9 mini cheesecakes

Crust

1/2 cup raw almonds
1/2 cup pitted Medjool dates
1/4 cup sesame seeds
pinch of salt

Filling

1/2 cup raw cashews, soaked for six hours or overnight, drained
1 cup chopped mango
2-3 tb agave nectar, to taste (depending on sweetness of mango)
1 tb fresh lime juice
1 tb coconut oil, melted
pinch of salt

To make the crust, pulse the almonds in a food processor until finely chopped. Add the dates, sesame seeds, and salt and pulse until mixture is combined.
Divide between nine holes of a muffin tin (I used a silicone muffin tin), pressing down firmly to create the crusts for the cheesecakes.
Clean the food processor bowl, then tip in the soaked (but drained!) cashews and pulse several times to break them up. Add all remaining ingredients and process until the filling is a smooth puree. This could take a few minutes and, if it makes your heart sing, feel free to scrape down the sides of the bowl a few times.
Pour the delicious creamy mango filling evenly over the prepared crusts (not directly into your mouth), then freeze for at least two hours. Before serving, thaw for a few minutes at room temperature (or a bit longer in the fridge) for optimum creamy delicious miracle of wonderment and joy.

P.S. For a similar recipe but far nicer photos (the camera that took these photos a year ago was a sad old beast only able to work on a macro setting), check out at my mini raw vegan huckleberry plum cheesecakes.

Submitted to Ricki’s Wellness Weekend and Healthy Vegan Friday.

Pistachio Rosewater No-Bake Vegan Heavenly Bites

Posted on November 11, 2012 by Hannah

If there’s one thing I’ve missed about home over these past three months of travelling, it’s my food processor. No, wait. I mean my entire kitchen and pantry. No, wait! I mean my family and friends. I’ve definitely missed my family and friends the most. Yep.

But, you know, I’ve been in constant contact with my loved ones through email and Skype. I know how their lives are progressing, and I’m constantly sending hugs and kisses through the computer screen (hang on, does that make me sound less than reputable?). What doesn’t work virtually, however, is making vegan nut-based treats in a food processor.

I’ve missed making my raw vegan heavenly bites. I really have.

Now that I’m looking to settle in Toronto (at least for the winter months), I have high hopes of getting back to regularly making treats such as today’s Pistachio Rosewater No-Bake Vegan Heavenly Bites. In fact, this recipe might even be the first I recreate upon finding my own kitchen, because gosh golly Miss Molly, they’re utterly fabulous.

Vibrant with green-flecked and distinctly-delicious pistachios and sesame seeds, given body via rolled oats and sweetness through agave, and dazzled into exotic excitement by a sprinkling of rosewater, these no-bake (high raw) pistachio rosewater bites are perfect for those moments where you want something sweet yet healthy, easy to make yet complex in flavour, and just a tad little tiny bit addictive.

I hope you like these as much as I did, back in Australia, and intend to, here in Canada.

Pistachio Rosewater No-Bake Vegan Heavenly Bites

Makes 15-20, depending on the size you roll them

3/4 cup pistachios
1/4 cup sesame seeds
3/4 cup rolled oats
2 tb coconut
pinch salt
1/4 cup agave syrup
1 tsp rosewater (or more, to taste)
1 tsp vanilla extract

In a food processor, pulse the pistachios, sesame seeds, rolled oats, coconut, and salt until finely chopped.
Add in the agave, rosewater, and vanilla, and pulse until the mixture starts to clump together and can be pressed/rolled into balls. Taste and add more rosewater, if your heart desires it so (keep in mind that the rosewater flavour develops over time).
Roll into balls and store in the fridge or freezer.

Note: I’m planning to add a little ground cardamom next time, too. I believe that will be marvellous.

Submitted to Ricki’s Wellness Weekend and Healthy Vegan Friday.

Raw Vegan Mini Huckleberry Cheesecakes

Posted on September 28, 2012 by Hannah

take one idyllic mountain escape

complete with breathtaking, soul-melting sunsets

downy-soft ducklings

and unwavering friendship

mix it together with a cascading bowl

of bejewelled and just-picked radiant huckleberries

juicy golden farm-fresh plums

creamy cashews and queenly coconut oil

sweet Medjool dates

cashews sesame sunflower seeds

perhaps a luminescent sprig of emerald mint

and you will find that

the epitome of sweet-fresh-creamy-rich-zingy-refreshing-luxurious perfection

(on a caramel nutty base)

is encapsulated in

the most gorgeous

raw vegan mini huckleberry plum cheesecakes

you ever did see

or taste.

so go on.

taste.

Raw Vegan Mini Huckleberry Cheesecakes

Makes 12 mini cheesecakes

For the crust

½ cup raw cashews
½ cup raw sunflower seeds
¼ cup sesame seeds
¾ cup Medjool dates
pinch of salt

For the filling

1 cup raw cashews, soaked for 8 hours or overnight, then drained
1 overflowing cup of mixed fresh huckleberries and juicy sweet golden plums (if you also have a ripe peach from your farm on hand, you might as well throw that in too)
3 tb agave or maple syrup
1 tb lemon juice
2 tb coconut oil, melted
pinch salt

For the crust: pulse the cashews, sunflower seeds, and sesame seeds to a fine crumb in a food processor or blender). Add the dates and pinch of salt and pulse until fully combined and starting to stick together.
Divide mixture between twelve muffin cups (I used a silicone muffin tray), pressing down firmly.
For the filling: pulse the cashews in a food processor or blender until starting to break down and become smooth, then add the fruit, agave (or maple) syrup, lemon juice, coconut oil, and pinch of salt, and keep processing until the puree is smooth and delicious. So very, very delicious.
Very delicious.
Pour the filling over the date-nut crusts in the muffin cups, and then place in the freezer for at least two hours to set.
Share with friends, preferably in the sunshine, with laughter abounding and happiness threading through your universe.

Submitted to Ricki’s Wellness Weekend and Raw Foods Thursdays.

Fresh Huckleberry Plum Smoothies, and Being Laura Ingalls Wilder in Carmel Valley

Posted on September 7, 2012 by Hannah

With two days in San Francisco under our belts, Jeniqua and I set off on Saturday morning to wend our way, via Caltrain, bus, and private vee-hick-el, to her current place of residence in the mountains. For the sake of Jeniqua’s (and the owner’s) privacy, I shan’t give exact coordinates, but suffice it to say that I’ve spent the past week on a mountain farm in the Monterey/Big Sur/Carmel Valley area, and

was

breath-taking

idyllic

real

above-clouds

warm-earth

sweet

fresh

breath-taking.

When we arrived, I discovered I’d be sleeping in my own private attic-loft, and my heart fell in an instant for this room that made me feel like I was Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Oh, how I adore the words that flew from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s pen, and oh, how I dreamed as a kid of living her life (minus the malaria and periods of near-starvation and farming struggles, but plus an extra-strength Almanzo, if you please).

As I stepped into the attic I felt my heart leap again in my chest, for the farm’s owner and Jeniqua’s friend, Lloyd, had placed not only a fresh bouquet of flowers by my bed, but a little box of chocolate covered cacao nibs on my pillow too.

Thank you, Lloyd. You are magical and made me feel truly welcome.

(I also appreciated honing my mountain goat skills by climbing up and down the near-vertical steps to the attic, particularly at 3am with a head-torch strapped to my head.

Yes, a head-torch. Sometimes I’m so glamorous I can’t even stand it.)

One of the most wonderful parts of my farm visit was the abundance of fresh fruit always readily available, including fruit I’ve never had the chance to try before.

Like huckleberries.

Sweet, tart, tangy, juicy, delicious huckleberries, which I spent two hours sorting and picking over one afternoon, neck burning in the sun as I swatted bugs away from my (mine, all mine!) bounty.

Once the sour green huckleberries and twigs had been removed from the ripe glowing berries, Jeniqua and I called in Lloyd and the WWOOFers with the promise of frosty sweet huckleberry smoothies.

Listen ye well: our smoothies were magnificent. Into one batch went huckleberries, burstingly-ripe yellow plums, almond milk, vanilla, and ice. Into another went peaches, huckleberries, agave, ice, and almond coconut milk.

All sweet, all locally picked or foraged, all refreshing, all perfect.

Fresh Huckleberry Plum Smoothie

Serves 1 (ingredients are estimated; adjust to taste, and add sweetener if needed)

1/2 cup fresh huckleberries
2-3 ridiculously ripe and sweet little plums
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 – 2/3 cup almond milk
1/3 cup ice

Blend all to a gloriously thick magenta creation.
Drink in the sun with friends, happy.

Question Time: Have you had huckleberries before? What did you do with them?

Ooh, I finally have something for Ricki’s Wellness Weekend and Healthy Vegan Friday again!

Wayfaring Chocolate

adventures in chocolate, travel, cooking, and living

Category Archives: Raw

Chocolate Peanut Butter Coconut Squares, Vegan and No-Bake

Vegan No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Coconut Squares

Raw Vegan Mini Mango Lime Cheesecakes

Raw Vegan Mini Mango Lime Cheesecakes

Pistachio Rosewater No-Bake Vegan Heavenly Bites

Pistachio Rosewater No-Bake Vegan Heavenly Bites

Raw Vegan Mini Huckleberry Cheesecakes

Raw Vegan Mini Huckleberry Cheesecakes

Fresh Huckleberry Plum Smoothies, and Being Laura Ingalls Wilder in Carmel Valley

Fresh Huckleberry Plum Smoothie