When it comes to the weather here in the North East, February is the worst month (in my opinion) because that is when we usually get the worst snow storms. Plus there are no holidays either! So its a tough month to get by! But then comes Valentine’s Day in the middle of the month making February a special month after all! And for me, our wedding anniversary being in February too, I feel doubly excited. My excitement has always centered around making two special desserts – one for our anniversary and one for V-day! But of late with me and hubs not eating too much sweet stuff and our son being away at college, the enthusiasm for baking has definitely dwindled 🙁 I hope my daughter doesn’t read this or she will be very upset that I don’t make treats just for her 🙂
Well the truth is that I still end up making some ‘health-ier’ version of dessert for our special occasion. This year I had planned to make this chocolate pie. However as luck would have it, both me and the Mr caught some bug and we were basically feeling too crappy to do anything special. And I felt like sleeping the entire day! Thankfully I am better today and so decided to finally make this pie. I knew exactly what I was going to do for the filling! And I looked at a bunch of different AIP crust recipes (Autoimmune wellness website and eathealthrive website) and then while making the crust, I inadvertently mixed up the two recipes LOL 🙂 Luckily it still worked out fine and so I am sharing that new recipe here.
The pie filling is a gelatin based filling and I used raw cacao (you could use carob for AIP) and coconut milk as the base. The berries on top were just my last minute thing but it turned out to be a great one since the combination of chocolate and berries is what makes this pie so delicious. The crust is also very cookie/shortbread like and complements the mousse type filling perfectly. OK now I feel satisfied that I did make a new dessert this February too. Happy Valentine’s day to all of you!
- ½ cup plus 2 tbsp coconut flour
- ¼ cup arrowroot flour
- ⅛ th tsp sea salt
- ½ cup coconut oil (melted)
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 tbsp cold water
- 1 tbsp plus 1 tsp gelatin
- ¼ cup water
- About 2½ cups (or 1 and ½ cans)coconut milk (make sure to shake the cans or pour them in a bowl and mix before measuring)
- ½ cup plus 2 tbsp maple syrup (or raw honey or a mix of both)
- ⅛th tsp sea salt
- ¼ cup raw cacao or carob (use carob for AIP)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Mixed berries (fresh or frozen) for topping
- Pre heat oven to 325 F.
- In a mixing bowl, add the coconut flour, arrowroot flour and salt. Mix using a fork and then add the coconut oil, maple syrup and the vanilla. Mixture will be runny. Now add the cold water and mix and the mixture will turn thicker and more doughy.
- On a 9 inch round pie dish, place a parchment paper on the bottom and spread this crust mixture and press using your hands to cover the dish and part of the edges. Prick with a fork all over and place in the oven to bake for about 14-15 mins or until the edge of the crust turns golden brown. Remove pan from the oven and let cool. Turn oven off.
- In a small bowl sprinkle the gelatin. Now add the water to it and mix using a fork so that all the gelatin is wet with the water. Keep this bowl aside covered.
- To a sauce pan, add the coconut milk and heat on medium heat for about 5 mins until there are no lumps. Then add the maple syrup and salt. Let simmer on low heat. Now in a small bowl, add the cacao (or carob) and take a couple tablespoons of the hot coconut milk mixture(from the stove) and add to the bowl to form a thick paste. Now add this paste back to the coconut milk mixture on the stove. Stir on low heat until all the cacao or carob are mixed completely and there are no lumps.
- Now add the gelatin that you had left to bloom before and stir continuously on medium heat for 4-5 mins until all the gelatin is dissolved and you don't see any lumps.
- Let this mixture cool for about 5 mins and then pour it carefully onto the pie crust. Place the pie dish in the refrigerator for about 3 hours for the pie to set completely.
- Place berries on top before serving!
