Tag: Chocolate Dessert

  • Experience Nutrition: Chocolate Goji Berry Cream Pie: Delicious Plant-Based Desserts by Melanie Albert, Part 2 of 4

    Experience Nutrition: Chocolate Goji Berry Cream Pie: Delicious Plant-Based Desserts by Melanie Albert, Part 2 of 4

    By Melanie Albert, Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition, Intuitive Cooking Expert, and Award-Winning Cookbook Author

    Continuing to share with you delicious, beautiful, and “healthy” plant-based desserts: Berry Cashew Cream Pie, Chocolate Goji Berry Cream Pie, Aromatic Apple Berry, and Raw Carrot Cake. The desserts feature berries, chocolate, goji berries, and amazing aromatic culinary experiences with hand-grinding spices, including cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and cardamom.

    We created these desserts at our hands-on Holiday cooking class at The Farm at South Mountain and I have to say they were all so created with so much mindfulness and heart. Plus, they were delicious.

    Today’s dessert, featured on the cover the the January 2019 issue of Natural Awakenings  Arizona, is the Chocolate Goji Berry Cream Pie. Links to the other plant-based dessert recipes:


    Chocolate Goji Berry Cream Pie

    Try this simple chocolate dessert recipe for your family and friends. This gourmet-quality pie is so much fun to make and is beautiful and delicious. Learn to quickly and easily melt chocolate chips right in your oven. Enjoy the pie with superfood goji berries. If you have extra chocolate pie, cut it into small pieces and freeze for snacks.

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    Chocolate Goji Berry Pie

    Pecan Crust

    Simple Ingredients

    • 2 cups raw pecans
    • ¼ cup maple sugar
    • 1½ tbsp coconut oil
    • ½ tsp sea salt

    Simple Steps

    • Pulse pecans and maple sugar in food processor.
    • Add coconut oil and sea salt.
    • Pulse to combine well.
    • Press and shape mixture into the bottom of a 10-inch springform pan.

    Thanks to my friend Nathalia, from Brazil  for capturing the focus of making the crust for the chocolate pie.


    Filling

    Simple Ingredients

    • 2½ cups vegan dark chocolate chips
    • 2 packages organic soft silken tofu (260g packages)
    • 1 tsp vanilla extract or 1 vanilla bean, scraped
    • Pinch of sea salt

    Simple Steps

    Melt Chocolate Chips

    • Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
    • Pour the chocolate chips in a single layer onto a flat baking sheet.
    • Place in the oven to melt for no more than 3-4 minutes or until melted. Be careful that you don’t burn them.
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    Melt Chocolate Chips in the oven.

    Blend the Filling

    • Place tofu, vanilla, sea salt, and melted chocolate chips into a food processor.
    • Blend until smooth.
    • Pour mixture into pie crust and chill for at least 30 minutes.
    • Top with nuts, and fresh fruit or goji berries.

    Chocolate Pie Plating Mise en Place

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    Chocolate Goji Berry Pie Plating Mise en Place
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    Simplicity of the Chocolate Goji Berry Pie

    In awe of the beautiful chocolate pie created at the Dessert Cooking Class at The Farm at South Mountain.

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    The beauty of the Chocolate Goji Berry Pie prepared during the Dessert Cooking Class at The Farm at South Mountain.

    While making this pie for the Arizona edition of the January 2019 issue of Natural Awakenings magazine, I had the fun opportunity to create a “birthday pop-up celebration” for urban farmer, Billy Anthony, of the Soil & Seed Garden at The Farm at South Mountain.

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    My honor to celebrate Billy Anthony’s Birthday with the Pie Pop-up.
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    Thanks so much to Billy and Bailey for the Soil & Seed CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).

    What fun celebrating Billy’s Birthday…thanks so much for “playing”!

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    Billy Anthony’s Chocolate Goji Berry Pie is ready to enjoy.

    The beauty of food…Chocolate Cream Pie with Persimmons & Berries


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    Enjoying the Chocolate Goji Pie creations.

    Yummm…And, the perfect setting, at The Farm at South Mountain to enjoy…

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    Thanks Billy Anthony for growing the beautiful produce at the Soil & Seed Garden at The Farm. And, Happy Birthday.

    Happy Birthday to you, Billy Anthony…wishing you another wonderful year. Thanks so much for so passionately growing all of the incredible beautiful, tasty food at the Soil & Seed Garden at The Farm at South Mountain, Phoenix.


    Thanks to Natural Awakenings AZ magazine for featuring my Plant-Based Chocolate Pie on the cover and Plant-Based Dessert recipes in the January 2019 issue.

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    Natural Awakenings Arizona, January 2019
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    Natural Awakenings Arizona, January 2019. Start the New Year Off Right

    Join our Simple Daily Plant-Based Eating Tips Facebook Page


    Purchase Melanie Albert’s award-winning cookbook, “A New View of Healthy Eating:  Simple Intuitive Cooking with Real Whole Foods”


    PUBLIC COOKING CLASSES IN PHOENIX, ARIZONA

    Phoenix friends…hope you or your kids can join us at one of our hands-on intuitive cooking classes this season… Vision Board & Appetizers,  Foods for Addiction Recovery, Spring Farm-to-Table,  Raw Farm-to-Table, and Kids Food Art.


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    Purchase Tickets for the Get Clear for the New Year Vision Board & Farm-to-Table Plant-Based Cooking Class at The Farm at South Mountain, Phoenix, Arizona, Saturday, January 12, 2019, 1-3pm

     

     


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    Purchase Tickets for Whole Foods for Addiction Recovery with New York “Spiritual Adrenaline” Author Tom Shanahan and Phoenix cookbook author Melanie Albert. The Farm at South Mountain, Phoenix, Arizona, Sunday, February 17, 2019, 11am-1pm


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    Purchase Tickets for Spring Farm-to-Table Plant-Based Intuitive Cooking with Melanie Albert and Soil & Seed Garden Farmer Billy Anthony. The Farm at South Mountain, Phoenix, Arizona, Sunday, March 3, 2019, 10:30am-1pm

     


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    Purchase Tickets for Raw Farm-to-Table Plant-Based Intuitive Cooking with Melanie Albert and Soil & Seed Garden Farmer Billy Anthony. The Farm at South Mountain, Phoenix, Arizona, Sunday, April 7, 2019, 10:30am-1pm


    BB-05-Kids-MelanieAlbert-A-DSC_0453 (2)Purchase Tickets for Farm-to-Table Kids Food Art Cooking at The Farm at South Mountain with Melanie Albert, Sunday, February 10, 2019, 11am-noon


    Purchase Tickets for Farm-to-Table Kids Food Art Cooking at The Farm at South Mountain with Melanie Albert, Sunday, March 24, 2019, 11am-noon

    Happy Cooking!

     

     

  • A New View of Healthy Eating: New Year 2017 Decadent Chocolate Vegan Dessert

    By Melanie A. Albert, intuitive cooking expert, author, and speaker. Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC

    While I’m still on my vacation sitting at my parents’ pool with the view in Cocoa Beach, I am thinking about New Year 2017 celebration, with a decadent chocolate dessert. I hope you enjoy this amazing recipe, which is totally healthy, gluten-free, vegan, and totally delicious, for your New Year celebration.

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    Excerpt from new cookbook, A New View of Healthy Eating: Raw Chocolate Bliss

    Enjoy this rich, intense raw chocolate dessert, created with raw cacao powder, local Arizona dates, fresh raw almond butter, and vanilla bean, on a pecan maple sugar cinnamon crust.

    Raw Pecan Cinnamon Crust

    SIMPLE INGREDIENTS

    • 1 ½ cups raw pecans
    • 3 tbsp maple sugar
    • ½ tsp sea salt
    • ½ tbsp cinnamon, freshly ground

    SIMPLE STEPS

    1. Blend all ingredients in food processor until finely minced.
    2. Press crust into 10-inch springform pan using your palms.

    Chocolate Filling

    SIMPLE INGREDIENTS

    • ½ cup raw almond butter
    • ½ cup date paste
    • ¼ cup agave nectar or maple syrup
    • 1 ½ tbsp tamari (gluten-free soy sauce)
    • 1 cup raw cacao powder
    • 1 vanilla bean, scraped
    • ½ to 1 cup water

    SIMPLE STEPS

    1. Gather mise en place.
    2. Make almond butter. Place raw almonds in food processor and blend until smooth and creamy.
    3. Blend date paste. Soak dates in water for 1-2 hours until soft and pliable. Pour off water. Add to high-speed blender and top with water to cover fruit. Blend starting on low, then moving to high, until smooth.
    4. Blend all ingredients in food processor until smooth and thick.
    5. Add water if difficult to blend.
    6. Pour filling into crust.
    7. To set, freeze for about 20 minutes or refrigerate for an hour.
    8. Use a knife dipped in hot water for a few seconds, wipe water away, then slice.
    9. Plate with fruit or sorbet.

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    A New View of Healthy Eating Book is available now, with shipping from Phoenix or Cocoa Beach.

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    Share your Raw Chocolate Bliss with us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/NewViewHealthyEating