I’m sorry for the delay in posting last week, it’s been so hectic moving into my new place! We have been running around so much, going to Ikea 3 times in 3 days and assembling furniture, I feel like I haven’t even had time to think! Luckily things are finally starting to come together and soon I shall be able to move into my new place. I can’t wait for that feeling when everything is sorted and I can snuggle up into my new bed in my new room, and have a whole new place to blog from!
Anyway, enough about that, let’s get onto the most important thing: food. This weekend just passed the lovely couple I’m staying with had friends over, and I offered to make dessert. It seemed only fair to offer some of my cooking skills up to compliment the amazing main meal they had planned. If you’ve noticed this about me, normally my first instinct with dessert is to head towards something sugary and chocolatey, because those sorts of things make the best desserts! I mean its not the same to have a dessert without sugar, right? Well prepare to be proven wrong, because I certainly was!
As I mentioned last post, the people I am staying with are on a no sugar diet, which has really opened my horizons to how nicely you can eat without the addition of sugar. It’s gotten me to try new recipes and new ways of cooking that I would have never thought of, which has been really fun! I think I will need to grab a couple of them for my archive so I can cook them in the future, they are that good!
So when I offered to make a dessert, I decided to try a sugar free one so that they were able to eat it as well. This is not normally my domain, and I was a little hesitant to cook this, but it ended up turning out really well! Of course, I had to pick one that was nice and chocolatey, because it’s my favourite, and I feel that this really hid the fact that there was no sugar in it, you wouldn’t have even known!
I ended up making a dark chocolate and coconut tart with raspberries, as it combined flavours that I know are delicious. As soon as I started baking the crust, I knew I had made the right decision. The whole house smelt like a bounty, yum! It was surprisingly easy to make, and was so delicious that I can’t wait to make it again!
The best part is that it is gluten, nut and sugar free, so it really avoids all most of the intolerances that you often need to cater for. And even though it was free of all of this, you wouldn’t know because the flavour was so delicious!
Ingredients
- 2 cups of desiccated coconut
- ¼ cup of rice malt syrup
- 1 tablespoon of cacao powder
- ½ cup of unsalted butter, melted
- 1 can of coconut cream (about 260ml)
- 220g of 85% cocoa dark chocolate (I used Lindt but use whatever you can find), broken into chunks
- ½ teaspoon of vanilla essence
- 1 tablespoon of rice malt syrup
- 1 punnet of fresh raspberries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius. In a medium bowl combine the melted butter, coconut, rice malt syrup and cacao powder until evenly mixed.
- Get a tart tin or a round shallow tin of your choice, and grease with butter. Get your coconut mixture and press into the tart tin base firmly, ensuring you get up around the sides as well. The crust should be even and about 5 mm thick.
- Place the tart crust in the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the crust has darkened slightly. Remove from the oven and allow the tart to cool and harden for at least an hour. The crust might have risen in the oven, but don’t worry, it will deflate as it cools.
- To make the filling, heat the coconut cream, rice malt syrup and vanilla essence in a small saucepan until it simmers, stirring occasionally.
- Meanwhile, break the dark chocolate into chunks and place in a medium bowl. Once the coconut cream is simmering, pour all but about 3 tablespoons worth of the mixture over the dark chocolate. Whisk until the chocolate has melted into the coconut cream and combined completely, and until all the chocolate is melted. If the mixture starts to curdle, add in the remaining coconut cream and stir to combine.
- Once you are happy with the consistency of the filling, pour into the tart crust. Use a spatula to evenly spread the mixture, and place in the fridge to cool.
- To serve: take the tart out of the fridge about half an hour before, and cover in fresh raspberries.
And that’s really all there is to it! It’s actually quite an easy recipe, as long as you leave enough time for the tart to set! It is a great recipe for a dinner party as you can make it ahead and leave it in the fridge until you are ready to go!
This dessert was so decadent and delicious, you wouldn’t even know that it was sugar free! It is one of those desserts that you want to eat more of, but you really only need a small slice. The raspberries really cut through the richness as well, so I would highly recommend adding these on at the end, plus it makes the dessert look pretty!
This dessert may have changed my mind about sugar, gluten, and nut free desserts. I’m glad I tried something new, it really opened my eyes to the fact that not all recipes like this have to be boring and complex. You can make a quick, simply and delicious dessert that ends up being quite healthy! Or at least, healthier than what I was going to make!
Hopefully I can write again soon, I promise for all the time I miss out on writing right now, I will make up for it when I am well established in my new place!
Until next time, happy eating!
Ella xx
