Top of the morning to ya!

Err, sorry about that – it seems the closer we get to St. Patrick’s the day, the more and more I want to crack out an Irish accent. And, if you kindly ask my husband, he will be the first to tell you that I cannot do accents. At all. Period. They all end up sounding the same – no real distinguishable nationality but particularly amusing since they make me sound like a cartoon character. It’s entertaining…for everyone else but me.

So, in lieu of punishing everyone with my terrible Irish accent, I thought I would show my love for this holiday in the next best way I know: food!

After racking my brain for all of last week trying to come up with something that was simple, delicious and festive, without the need for artificial food dyes, I finally came up with the perfect recipe. And it’s awesome! Like, really super amazing awesome!

So, my gift to you this St. Patrick’s Day: Raw Chocolate Mint Tarts!

These Raw Chocolate Mint Tarts are out of this world! As with all my recipes, they are gluten free and vegan but they are also the first raw recipe that I have created – yay me!! Plus, you only need 11 simple ingredients to pull these together.

I’ve always been a little scared of the whole raw food movement, assuming that the yummy looking recipes that I would see all over Pinterest would be terribly difficult to make but, I can assure you, these amazing little tarts are actually really, really easy! The most time consuming part is just waiting until you can enjoy them. Since they set up in the freezer, it’s really the waiting game that is the worst part of these recipes so I would suggest making them in the morning so that you can enjoy them in time for dinner or even a late afternoon pick me up.

Everyone knows that mint and chocolate is the best pairing ever – except my husband…but he doesn’t count in this example. If mint and chocolate got married, these would be their beautiful little babies and all the other kids on the street would be jealous of them and their perfect deliciousness. They would rule the world in chocolate mint harmony. They are pure perfection. The best food to ever have graced this earth and all other foods will bow down to their glory! Muahahahahaha!!

Whoa! Grab a hold of yourself, Savanna! Sorry, I got carried away there. Can you tell I really love mint chocolate? Moving on…

Let’s just say, these Raw Chocolate Mint Tarts are the perfect dessert for your St. Patrick’s Day celebrations.

The recipe for these Raw Chocolate Mint Tarts is really versatile – you could easily change up the flavour of the middle layer to satisfy your latest chocolate pairing craving. Cherry, peanut butter, raspberry, keylime…I have all sorts of great things in store for future versions of these tarts. This first time though, I thought I would embrace the fact that St. Patrick’s day is this Tuesday and opted for a delicious mint flavoured centre. It does not disappoint!

Entirely raw, these tarts are made up of three tasty layers. The first layer is made up of a deliciously rich, but mildly sweet, raw brownie base. Then, it get’s topped with a light and creamy avocado mint coconut cream layer. Finally, the whole thing gets topped off with homemade chocolate. See? Pure flavour perfection! Each layer is placed into the freezer while the next one is made, helping the tarts to set up and allowing the flavour to build and reach it’s fullest potential.

The tarts that you see in these photos were made in a regular muffin tin, using liners. What you don’t see, is that we also made 12 mini tarts in a silicone tray. So, really, we did make a family of Raw Chocolate Mint Tarts, complete with big guys and lil guys 😉 The mini tarts are the perfect portion controlled snack to keep in the freezer whenever you’re craving something sweet. Once set, you can pop them out of the tray and store them in a freezer safe tupperware container for easy access. It would be best to eat these within a week, to ensure maximum flavour, but something tells me that they probably wouldn’t last that long in most peoples’ homes.

What’s your favourite thing to make for St. Patrick’s Day? Do you have any awesome family dishes or traditions that you follow?

In our house, I think it’s safe to say that these Raw Chocolate Mint Tarts will be a yearly occurrence from now on. In fact, we’ve enjoyed them so much that I may have to make a second batch in time for Tuesday – whoops!

If you make these at home, be sure to share them on Instagram with us. Tag your creations with #glutenfreeveganpantry so that we can check out how you’re enjoying the recipes so far.

Lots of love & happy eats,

Savanna

