Chocolate Cream Pie
Justine, my new pen pal in San Francisco, recently went gluten-free. We have been corresponding about her quest to find a good gluten free pie crust for the holidays. I have had much fun chatting with Justine via email, enjoying her determination and attention to detail. Justine, here is my take on a flaky gluten-free crust. Please let me know how it turns out.
1½ cups blanched almond flour
¼ teaspoon celtic sea salt
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ cup grapeseed oil
2 tablespoons agave nectar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- In a medium bowl, combine almond flour, salt and baking soda
- In a small bowl, combine grapeseed oil, agave and vanilla
- Stir wet ingredients into dry
- Pat dough into a 9.5 inch glass pie dish
- Bake at 325° for 10 to 15 minutes, until golden brown
2 cans coconut milk (14 ounces)
pinch celtic sea salt
¼ cup arrowroot powder
½ cup agave nectar
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
2 cups dark chocolate 73%
- Bring coconut milk and salt to a boil in a medium pot
- Sift arrowroot powder into the pot, whisk vigorously by hand or with a hand blender for 2 minutes
- Whisk in agave and vanilla
- Remove from heat and let stand for 1 minute
- Add chocolate, stirring vigorously until completely melted
- Chill in refrigerator for ½ hour until cool
- Place in cooled pie crust
- Serve
Serves 12
The idea for this delicious gluten-free, dairy-free chocolate cream pie recipe was inspired by Heidi of 101 Cookbooks. Although her recipes are not gluten-free, this site is currently my favorite food blog as I find Heidi's recipes completely innovative and her photos mouth watering.
The gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan pie crust recipe above can be used, of course, for any pie, not just the chocolate cream pie. Enjoy!
Posted on November 21, 2007 in desserts by Elana
you might also like: Chocolate Cake — Coconut Flour Continued
or Cream Cheese Frosting
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27 comments
Elana-
I just tried your pie crust to make a strawberry pie (the rest of my family got it with regular crust). I had to use honey instead of agave since I'm at my parents' house, but it is YUMMY! I made my own "flour" from slivered almonds, but this was terrific! I've never liked regular pie crust anyway so I may convert to this one full timje.
Zebe - I so enjoy hearing about all of your experiments and adventures. For me, that's the whole idea --take the recipes and adapt to the ingredients you have on hand and whatever mood you are in. Way to go :-)
Elana
Elana,
Could you also use this for quiche? Ever since going gluten free I have missed making quiches.
mama4ever -I think this might work for a quiche, though not entirely sure; if you try it let us know how it goes.
Elana
can I substitute anything else for dagoba chocodrops ?
Hi Carol-
I enjoy cooking with dagoba chocodrops and use them in all of my recipes that call for chocolate so am not sure what would work best as a substitute; please feel free to experiment with replacement ingredients and let us know how it goes.
Thanks,
Elana
Elana
Would it be possible to make your recipes printer friendly so they are easier to print.
Thank You
Ricci,
Yes! There is a 'print this post' text link at the bottom of every recipe on my website.
Elana
I am writing in response to the woman who has bladder problems. I soooo used to have that problem and I also know the perfect woman to help her. Please give her my e-mail so I can help her get out of pain!!
I have a friend that has a continual bladder problem. If you have any help for her that would be great. Her e-mail is klsjjones@sbcglobal.net.
I'll let her know you might email her.
Thanks,
Lori
Sydney,
I have forwarded you her email address and hope that the two of you have a productive conversation.
Thanks,
Elana
Could I make this in a glass bowl instead of a pie crust?
What would you say is the next best thing to arrowroot powder for the chocolate cream recipe? Do you do much baking w/ cocoa powder? This is another recipe I'd like to tackle, sounds divine!
-C -I think that might work, though haven't actually tried it myself, could turn out to be a pudding type dish.
Stephanie -Arrowroot is my go to thickener, not sure what would work instead. Feel free to experiment, just be sure to let us know your results!
To Stephanie:
I know that an equal amount of cornstarch to arrowroot powder works as a substitute, however, I use arrowroot to replace cornstarch in all recipes since I find that I am intolerant to corn. Also I am eerie about all of the possible additives used in cornstarch and have heard negatives things about it's effect on our health, especially those who are more sensitive. If you're fine, maybe give it a try!
Shannon,
Thanks so much for the tips!
Elana
Elana, I really appreciate the work you do on this blog, and your patience at all the recipe-adapting questions! I believe you recently changed the way you refer to chocolate (removing references to Dagoba chips and substituting the phrase "dark chocolate 73%"), but now it doesn't sound right. Could you possibly weigh it and convert it to ounces? 2 cups of Dagoba chips = how many ounces of regular unsweetened baking chocolate? If I recall correctly, I think a cup of regular semisweet chocolate chips is about 6 oz. on the scale. That could mean this recipe uses 12 one-oz. squares or 1 1/2 boxes of Baker's unsweetened baking chocolate. Am I right? I would love to try this recipe, it looks wonderful.
Thanks.
I made this for Thanksgiving and it was a hit! I almost didn't bring it to the gathering becuase I goofed and didn't sift the arrowroot powder, so it was all lumpy. I decided not to be embarassed and brought it anyway, turns out I saved the day for a few people who keep Kosher and couldn't eat any of the other desserts- they loved it! Some even thought the lumps were little tapioca balls;)Thank you for your wonderful recipes! I tell everyone about your website!
Tammy -I think that's a good idea, though am a little concerned that some people might be confused by the weight instruction...I'm going to mull over your suggestion before I make any more changes. Thanks so much!
Laney -What a great story. I'm so glad you made this and took it to the dinner even though it wasn't perfect. Good for you!
Are Arrowroot Powder and Arrowroot Flour the same thing?
TIA!
Yael
Yael,
As far as I know arrowroot powder and arrowroot flour are the same thing --however, it is always important to check and see what your ingredients are made of by calling the manufacturer if you have celiac disease or are gluten intolerant.
Elana
Elana - Thanks so much for creating this blog and all the recipes in your pantry! I'm recently diagnosed as having a gluten allergy and I thought I would have to make my own recipes, but then I found your blog. With your help I'm ready to bake!
I'm wondering how milk substitutes for coconut milk? I used to be intolerant of dairy but I'm not anymore, special thanks to God for the help there. Can I try your recipes with milk when you call for coconut milk or would there be too many differences in those two products?
[...] came from Nourishing Traditions and I tweeked it a bit to be grain and dairy free. I adapted Elana’s recipe for pie crust but ended up adding extra almond meal (I used almond meal instead of blanched almond [...]
[...] just patch as you go, as you would with any crust. Elana of Elana’s Pantry also provides this gluten-free, almond-flour-based pie crust; I haven’t tried it yet, but since I just ordered a big bag of almond flour last week, [...]
Elana - I love your recipes.
Just wondering if you thought I could use this crust for a pumpkin Pie?
I had never heard of dagoba chocodrops until reading in your site (as well as cooking with kudzu or blanched almond flour as opposed to almond flour). I wondered how regular GFCF chocolate chips would work in this recipe? I use Enjoy Life chocolate chips and they are very tiny so I often use less than most recipes call for as most recipes call for a much larger chip. Is the dagoba chip normal or mini-sized? I guess if I knew about the weight of 2 cups dagoba I could sub equal weight of my mini-sized chips. I hate to experiment with such expensive ingredients until I better understand their function and interaction in the recipe. Can't wait to make this!
I made this yesterday with a number of changes and substitutions.
For the crust, I used only half the agave and a combination of toasted hazelnut oil and grapeseed. I also added about half a teaspoon of good cinnamon and a little more than half a teaspoon of instant espresso (little granules).
For the filling, I couldn't find the Dagoba chocodrops, and besides, they have sugar in them, which I can't tolerate. I used six blocks of unsweetened baker's chocolate and about 3/4s of a bar of Green and Black's baking chocolate (72% with added cocoa butter). I only added probably 1/3 cup of agave. Everything else went according to recipe.
Mind you, I can't eat refined sugar, and don't sweeten most of my things at all (I've only recently learned I can tolerate agave). But it is sweet enough for me the way I made it. I could probably cut the agave to 1/4 cup and add a smidge of stevia. I'm using raw, dark agave, and it's important to the flavor (as opposed to using only stevia) because it gives it a full roundness (I find stevia very flat tasting).
It set up perfectly and cuts nicely.
Also, I didn't have a good glass pie dish. I used one of the "large" cheapy pie tins you can get from the store, and it was just fine. I do suspect the glass would have made the crust better, but I didn't have the resources, sadly.
The amount of chocolate I used pretty much entirely eclipses the taste of the coconut milk. My coconut averse husband pronounced this pie completely fabulous. :)
If you wanted a more milk chocolate taste, rather than dark chocolate, I'd say start out with four squares of baking chocolate and go from there.
can you make the filling in a blender? I have a blendtec and with 3 small kids in toe I am looking for the fastest recipes possible. thanks
I sort of made this the other day, with some necessary variations and it turned out amazing! - completely different really, but I love my accidents. I used a buckwheat chocolate crust and raw organic cacao nibs. Then I ended up freezing it for a few hours in the prebaked crust and in place of chocolate. Surprisingly it tasted like cookies and cream cheesecake (to me anyway) from the good old days (when I was unwittingly poisoning myself)
I'm looking forward to trying this recipe when I have all the ingredients on hand. Bought your book - amazing - so much to try! Thank you for taking the time to share your experiences with us!