Raw Superfood Chocolate Tart
Photo by Amy Angelo
Here’s a super easy chocolate tart, sure to impress every guest on your list. I timed myself when making this and it took me less that 30 minutes from start to finish … including the dishes! A decadent and beautiful dessert doesn’t mean you have to spend hours in the kitchen!
We start off with a simple whole foods based crust made from nuts and dates. Simply combine everything in a food processor until a nice slightly sticky dough is created — this will take 1-2 minutes. Once a nice dough is formed, pack into a lined muffin tin. Next up comes the luxurious chocolate filling. It tastes decadent and rich but is made of ingredients you probably already have in your pantry. Simply whisk together melted coconut oil, maple syrup, raw cacao powder, vanilla, and salt. Pour into tart shells and pop in the refrigerator until ready to use. Feel free to garnish with any superfoods you have on hand.
In this recipe we’re essentially making our own chocolate ganache from scratch. The superstar is of course the raw cacao powder — not to be confused with cocoa powder. Raw cacao powder is RAW meaning it has not been heated at high temperatures or gone through excessive processing. Raw cacao has over double the amount of antioxidants as cocoa powder and 40X the amount of antioxidants as blueberries. It’s also a great source of magnesium, plant based iron, and can even help lower blood pressure — yes please! When ever buying raw cacao it’s really really important to buy fair trade or ethically traded cacao (that goes for any kind of chocolate). The fair trade symbol ensures that the person who grew the cacao beans were paid a living wage. Sadly lots of cacao farmers are mistreated and unfortunately child slavery is a huge problem. Do not fear, there’s amazing fair trade chocolate companies, Navitas Naturals, Theo, and Guittard are a few of my favorites — all of which you can find in any health food store.
Raw Superfood Chocolate Tart
Yield: 7-8 tarts
Crust:
1 cup walnuts, pecans, or macadamia nuts
1 cup medjool dates, pitted, if super hard soak in warm water for 20 minutes + drain
1 teaspoon vanilla
Salt to taste (about 1/2 teaspoon)
Chocolate Filling:
1/3 cup coconut oil, melted, see Chef’s Notes
1/3 cup maple syrup, at room temperature, see Chef’s Notes
1/3 cup cacao powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Big pinch of salt
Optional Garnish: Coconut flakes, goji berries, cacao nibs, hemp seeds, chopped nuts
Crust: line a cupcake pan with paper liners (this recipe makes 7-8 tarts). In a food processor combine all the crust ingredients and puree until a nice dough forms — this takes about 1 to 2 minutes, being sure to stop the machine and scrape the mixture. You’re looking for the nuts + dates to be almost completely broken down, little bits of dates/nuts are ok you just don’t want large chunks. Once a dough is formed, scoop about two tablespoons of mixture into each prepared muffin liner. Mold dough using your fingers into a tart shell around paper liner, going about 1/2 way up the liner .
Chocolate Filling: Whisk together coconut oil, maple syrup, cacao powder, vanilla, and salt until nice uniform syrup is created. Pour chocolate into each tart shell.
Garnish with optional superfoods. Place in fridge for 2-3 hours to set up. Enjoy chilled.
*** Will last 4-5 days covered in the refrigerator.
When pureeing the crust, you want the dates + nuts to break down almost completely but not so much that the nuts release all their oil, you’re looking for the consistency of a larabar or other nut + dried fruit bar.
It’s very important that you coconut oil is melted and your maple syrup is at room temperature. If the maple is cold when it hits the melted coconut oil the mixture will become grainy and harden as opposed to a nice chocolate syrup consistency.
