After discovering the amazing health benefits and deliciousness of raw chocolate and raw desserts this year, as you can imagine I was enthusiastically telling everyone close to me about my wonderful discovery! My boyfriend became curious as he himself has been trying to live and eat healthier recently, and as such has been avoiding refined sugars and sweet cakes and desserts. He has been sampling my raw treats and loving them so he asked me if I could teach him how to make something with raw chocolate. I immediately thought ‘chocolate orange tart!’ as I had been meaning to try one out for a long time.

I absolutely adore chocolate and orange, but you could add any flavour you like to this. I think a mint or ginger version would be really nice too. The best part about raw desserts are how quick and simple they are to make. You can throw this together in 15 minutes, and then it just needs to chill for about an hour. This will keep for months in the fridge, but I bet it wouldn’t even last days! .

Unfortunately when we went to make this today I realised I had forgotten to buy extra agave syrup and I only had a quarter cup left. We were all ready to make it though and didn’t want to wait, so we went ahead and made it with a quarter of the filling. It was still delicious but the ratio of chocolate should have been four times higher than the base, so it would have been even richer. I have left the measurements as they were supposed to be in the recipe so that you can get the full chocolate indulgence!

I enjoy using agave in treats and bakes, but it is not without it’s controversy and many feel that it is too processed and high in fructose for their liking. You could try replacing it with another liquid sweetener such as date syrup instead, but bear in mind that you may have to increase the quantity as agave tastes so sweet.

I have made this tart again at a later date with the correct quantities, so have updated this post to show photos of both versions.



INGREDIENTS:

1 cups of raw cacao powder, sieved

1 cup agave syrup

1/2 cup coconut oil

5 – 10 drops orange essence

1 cup walnuts

1 cup almonds

6 dates

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Soak the almonds and walnuts over night. I explained about the importance of soaking nuts and seeds a few weeks back -to awaken all of the optimum nutritional benefits of the plant, and to neutralise the phytic acids and enzyme inhibitors contained within. Click here to read that post for more information. Blitz the soaked almonds and walnuts in a food processor until they reach quite small pieces, like chunky breadcrumbs. Add the dates and blitz again. Depending on the moisture content of your dates you may need to add more to get a good consistency. It also might help to soak them in hot water for a few minutes before hand. You want the mixture to bind together and be somewhat sticky but not too wet. Add an extra tablespoon of raw cacao powder and the vanilla essence. You could leave these out or substitute with another flavour if you prefer.

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Get a medium spring form cake pan and pop the bottom out. Line the bottom with cling film and insert it upside down so that there is no lip. Spoon the mixture in to the tin, packing in tightly. Smooth it out with the back of a spoon. Allow to chill in the fridge while you make the filling.

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Blend the cacao powder, agave syrup, liquid coconut oil and orange essence in a food processor until very smooth. Taste to check that it is not grainy. Pour it in to the crust and chill in the fridge for about one hour. Decorate with orange zest or orange slices.

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