November! With shorter and colder days in the Northern hemisphere many of us crave comforting, warming, sweeter foods. If you do not want to put on any weight during the "dark season" you should choose healthy dessert alternatives or skip desserts altogether. Fresh, ripe fruit, fruit salad, or a nutritious smoothie are probably the best choices, but they do not always work when you are entertaining guests. Sometimes a raw cake or a raw tart seem more appropriate.
Apples are the fruits of the season. Let's make something delicious.
I created this recipe as a variation of the apple Charlotte cake or a classic apple tart. I used two very sweet organic apple varieties - Fuji and Honeycrisp - to avoid any additional sweeteners. If you decide to make this tart, please consider that you are working with natural ingredients and may have to adjust the measurements. The ingredients I used produced a nice, thin crust tart.
Ingredients:
for the crust
- 10 soft Medjool dates, pits removed
- 1/2 cup raw hazelnuts nuts
- 1/2 cup raw pecan nuts
- 1 Tbsp virgin olive oil (optional)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- pinch of pink Himalayan salt
for the filling
- 5 medium large sweet organic apples
- 5 Medjool dates
- 1 1/2 Tbsp cinnamon
- pinch pink Himalayan salt
- 1/4 golden raisins
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Method:
- Soak the dates for the tart filling in 1/2 cup of purified water. Reserve the soaking water.
- Soak the raisins in a 1 Tbsp water and 1 tsp vanilla extract. Reserve the soaking water.
- Blend the crust ingredients in a food processor until you have a soft, sticky but not runny mass. Transfer the mass into a 9 inch (23 cm) pie dish and spread evenly. You should be able to make a thin crust. Place the dish in the fridge while you are preparing the filling.
- Peal and core the apples. Cut apples into quarters, cut the quarters into halves, and slice them into thin slices. You can grate your apple on a coarse grating pattern of your box grater, if you prefer.
- Take about 1/3 of the apple slices and blend them in a blender together with dates, soaking water from raisins and dates, salt, and cinnamon. Make a thick sauce.
- In a bowl mix the apple slices with the apple sauce. Add soaked raisins and mix well. Transfer the apple filling onto the tart crust and spread evenly.
- Place the tart in the freezer for two hours before serving.
- Remove the pie from freezer five minutes before serving. Cut into slices, sprinkle with some cinnamon and serve. Enjoy in good company!
Tip: This is a very basic raw tart recipe. You can use pears or even raw pumpkin to make a delicious raw tart or pie for the holidays. I did not add any sweetener since my apples, raisins and the dates were already sweet enough. The added cinnamon helps reduce blood sugar spikes. Experiment with spices. Add fresh ginger if you like. Use nutmeg, cardamom or cloves. Serve with vanilla "nice cream" or a whipped almond cream. And whatever you do, make your dessert as healthy as possible.
In radiant health, passionately raw - Dominique
Dominique Allmon©2022
To learn about health benefits of apples read my article An Apple a Day - Health Benefits of Apples