Gingerbread Crawkies

This is my raw version of gingerbread cookies. Just the spices alone are enough to bring you back to those Christmas memories as a kid. If you chill the dough for a while, you can roll it out really thin and then even cut them into little gingerbread men. I didn't have any cookie cutters, otherwise I would have done that. If you have a dehydrator, you can use that to make a crispy cookie. I don't have one, so I put my oven on the lowest temp and baked them for about an hour. I saved half of the dough and rolled them into balls and kept them in the refrigerator to save their nutritional value and have snacks for my daughter. Both are great, but I gotta admit, the crispy cookies are my favorite. Oh yea, and you can use fresh grated ginger instead of powdered if you prefer.




Gingerbread Crawkies

Makes about 18-20 cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup dates, soaked for about an hour, pits removed
1/2 cup hazelnuts, ground to a flour
1/2 cup flaxseeds, ground
1 cup oats, ground to a flour
1/4 cup coconut flakes
1 tbspn raw honey or agave nectar
1/4 tspn sea or crystal salt
1 tspn cinnamon
1/2 tspn ground cloves
1/4 tspn ground ginger
1/4 tspn cardamom


1. Combine everything except honey and dates.
2. Blend dates into a paste. You may have to add a little water to get the blender going.
3. Combine date paste with the dry ingredients and stir in honey. Work the dough a little bit and refrigerate to get a hard dough that you can roll out really thin.
4. Cut into shapes and bake, dehydrate, or just keep it raw.

Raw Blueberry Cheesecake

This is creamy, rich, satisfying, and perfectly tart and sweet. It might be my favorite dessert I've ever made. No one would know that it is free of wheat, sugar, and dairy, totally unprocessed, and not heated! There are a lot of amazing raw food dessert recipes out there, but many times they are time-consuming, require dehydrating for hours, and have expensive and hard-to find ingredients. Though you have to soak the nuts in this recipe for a few hours and allow the cheesecake to chill, the actual time it takes to prepare it is only about 20 minutes. The ingredients are easy to find as well. If you know a day in advance that you want to serve this cake you can have it in the freezer overnight and then thaw a few hours before serving. If you have a gluten sensitivity or don't like to eat raw oats, you can substitute them for almonds. You can also use any other berries. I think raspberries and blackberries would be great. I had frozen blueberries on hand so that's what I used. If you use a more sour berry, you may want to add a little more honey to the sauce. I'm bringing this to a Thanksgiving party...maybe you should too!

Raw Blueberry Cheesecake

Serves: around 10

Ingredients:

Crust:

1 cup walnuts
1 cup dates, pitted
1 and 1/3 cup oats, ground into a "flour" consistency

Filling:

2 cups raw cashews
6 tbspns lemon juice (you'll need around 3 lemons)
4 tbspns raw honey
4 tbspns water
about 2 inches of a vanilla pod or around 1/2 tspn pure vanilla extract


Sauce:

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries (or other berry of choice)
2 tbspns raw honey
large splash water or nut milk if you have any on hand

1. Start by placing the cashews, walnuts, and dates into 3 separate bowls and covering them with water, preferably filtered. Allow them to soak for around 4 hours, and strain.
2. For the crust, place dates and walnuts in a food processor or blender and mix. You may need to add a splash of water to get the blender going. Continue processing until most of the walnuts are broken up into small pieces.
3. Transfer the date-walnut dough to a bowl. It will be a little runny, but the oats will stiffen it up. Add the ground oats and stir. You can grind the oats in a coffee grinder, or just in a blender for a few minutes to get the flour consistency. If you are using almonds, you need to grind them to a flour, but don't over-process as to get almond butter.
4. Work the dough a little bit and press it into a pie pan covering the entire bottom. Place this in the freezer while you work on the filling.
5. For the filling, if you're using a fresh vanilla pod you'll want to trim off about 2 inches and grind that into a powder. Then add the vanilla, cashews, raw honey, lemon juice and water to the blender. Mix until creamy and smooth. You may have to stop the blender every so often to stir the ingredients because it is so thick. Add more water if necessary, but do it slowly so you don't get a filling that is too runny.
6. Once smooth, pour filling over crust and tap pie pan against a hard surface to remove any bubbles. Cover with plastic wrap or a lid and place in the freezer.
7. For the sauce, blend berries, honey and large splash of water or nut milk for a few seconds. You want a saucy consistency, but still some berry chunks so try not to over-process. Sweeten more if desired. Set sauce aside in a separate bowl in the fridge until right before serving.
8. For best results, the cheesecake should set in the freezer for around 3 hours and then thaw in the refrigerator for around 1 1/2 hours before serving. Like I mentioned, you can also freeze overnight, but then you'd obviously need more time for thawing. When ready to serve, pour sauce over cheesecake and slice. Enjoy!