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Raw Hazelnut Chocolate Pie

If you’ve been following me on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or Snapchat you’ll probably know that I’ve become a 100% raw foodist for 7 days as part of my nutrition course assignment. We were given a list of popular diets to choose from and I was instantly drawn to the raw diet. I’m so intrigued by the lifestyle, food and health claims the raw food community swear by. 

Needless to say such a huge change in my diet all of a sudden was not easy, and much harder than I expected! Especially the first 3 days. Yesterday was my last day and I sill haven’t had a cooked meal yet! I’ll talk about my experience in more detail in the next few days.

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Right now, I want to share with you this raw hazelnut chocolate pie. One thing that I have learnt from doing the raw diet is just how many ingredients aren’t actually considered 100% raw! So it was a challenge coming up with a dessert that was considered fully raw. Whenever I made ‘raw’ dessert in the past I always used maple syrup to sweeten, but the process of making maple syrup involves boiling so it’s definitely not raw! However, some seem to consider certain ingredients as raw even though technically they’re not and maple syrup is one of them.

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So to sweeten, I’m using my favourite sweetener of all – dates! Although dates don’t give the same smooth, creamy texture that you can achieve by using a liquid sweetener, but I thought I would give it a shot anyway. 

In the interest of making this dessert 100% raw, I decided not to use vanilla or salt but I would HIGHLY recommend using both. They really do bring recipes to life and give them an extra lift that makes such a big difference to the taste. 

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Raw Hazelnut Chocolate Pie

Serves – 10

Base
  • 1 cup (130g) hazelnuts – soaked for at least 8 hours
  • 1 cup (170g) soft dates – if not soft, soak them overnight to make them easier to blend, then drain and rinse before blending.
  • 1 tbsp raw coconut oil
  • Pinch salt
Pie filling
  • 1 cup (130g) hazelnuts – soaked for at least 8 hours
  • 1 cup (170g) soft dates – if not soft, soak them overnight to make them easier to blend, then drain and rinse before blending.
  • 2 tbsp raw coconut oil
  • 1/4 cup (4 tbsp) milk (I used homemade almond milk but any will work)
  • 1/4 cup (4 tbsp) cacao powder (or you can use cocoa)
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract – optional
  • Pinch of salt – optional
Chocolate frosting
  • 1 avocado
  • 2 tbsp almond butter
  • 3 tbsp cacao (or cocoa)
  • 3 tbsp sweetener of choice (I used raw honey)
  • Pinch salt – optional
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract – optional
Instructions
  • Base – blend all the base ingredients together until you have a dough like mixture. Press it down into a lined 8″ cake tin. Place in the freezer while you make the filling.
  • Filling – Blend the dates along with the milk and coconut oil until you have a smooth paste, then add in the hazelnuts and continue blending.
  • Add in the remaining ingredients and continue blending until you have a smooth mixture.
  • Take the base out and pour the hazelnut mixture on top.
  • Frosting – blend all the frosting ingredients together and then pipe on top using a piping bag, or simply spread the mixture evenly on top.
  • Leave to chill in the fridge for a few hours to set.
  • Enjoy!

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If you liked this raw hazelnut chocolate pie you might also like these raw desserts: