The raw food diet does not allow cooking at temperatures higher than about 115 degrees Fahrenheit. According to Victoria Boutenko, author of "Green for Life" and leading raw food speaker, cooking food at higher temperatures may reduce the food's content of minerals, vitamins and other essential nutrients. So, to maximize the total nutritional value of their diet, raw dieters stay away from high-temperature cooking. Regular sugar, also known as cane sugar, can be made only through a boiling process. So, if you eat cane sugar, your diet is not 100 percent raw. Desserts often contain other cooked or baked ingredients, such as pie crust or cream fillings. There are, however, a horde of desserts that are both delicious and 100 percent raw.
Raw Food Equipment
To make sophisticated prepared raw food, including desserts, you will need a few pieces of equipment. Use a powerful food processor to make sweet smoothies, sweet spreads and cream filling. A second piece of equipment that will come in handy is a dehydrator. A dehydrator dries the food by blowing low-temperature heat on it. A dehydrator is the raw dieter's oven. With this tool, you can make cake, cookies and pie crust almost the way non-raw dieters would make them, as long as the ingredients are raw.
Sugar Substitutes
One thing nearly all desserts have in common is their sweetness. Because you cannot sugar-sweeten your desserts, you need to use alternative sweeteners that work in different contexts. Honey, raw agave syrup, sweet fruits, such as dates, pineapple and banana, and Sucanat, a brand of dehydrated pure cane juice, are nutritious raw sweeteners. Sucanat is one of the only raw sweeteners you can use to make simple icing. To make simple icing, blend Sucanat until it is a fine powder. Slowly add water to the powder. Stop adding water when the mix can be spread but is still thick. Add a few drops of lime juice. After spreading the icing on top of your cake, cookies or truffles, put the icing in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.
Raw Cake
You can make cake, even if you don't own a dehydrator. The secret to raw cake making is to mix sticky ingredients with ingredients that absorb water. To make chocolate cake, blend nuts, for example walnuts, until they are finely ground. Add cocoa powder, vanilla powder and pitted dates and process until you have a thick mixture. If the mixture is too thick to stick together, add a little water. If it is not thick enough, add minced dried fruit to absorb the liquid. Spoon out and decorate.
Raw Dairy and Dairy-Like Desserts
Many raw dieters are vegans. If you are not a vegan, you have more choices available to you. For a delicious topping on fresh fruit, blend or stir egg yolks and honey. Carefully mix the egg mixture with whipped raw, unpasteurized, cream. Even cheesecake, which traditionally requires baking both the crust and the filling, can be made raw. To make raw cheesecake crust, blend dry walnuts and pitted dates until you have a thick mixture that sticks together. Press it into a small pan. To make raw cheesecake filling, blend together 1 cup of pine nuts, 1 tbsp. of raw salt and 2 cups of sunflower seeds, soaked for four hours. Add 1/3 cup of cold-pressed virgin coconut oil and the juice from two limes. Aim for a very thick and creamy consistency. Add minced sweet fruit and honey. Scoop the filling onto the crust. Let it rest in the refrigerator for an hour or two before serving it.
References
- Raw School.com: Basic Raw Food FAQ
- GoGreen: Raw Chocolate Recipes
- The Raw Way; Pumpkin Pie Recipe; Linda Reeves
- "Journal of the American Dietetic Association"; Total Antioxidant Content of Alternatives to Refined Sugar; Katherine M. Phillips, et al.; January 2009
- "Green for Life"; Victoria Boutenko; 2005
- Food.com: Raw Food Cheesecake Recipe
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