The easiest raw chocolate pudding
(dairy-free and no refined sugar)
Hi friends! How’s the day going so far? Happy to hear that I’m not the only major beast sweat-er. I will also get together some tips on how I learned to read on the treadmill!
So, it’s time to warn you that dessert week on the blog starts now. (I have three dessert recipes planned and they’re all chocolate related. No one’s mad, right?) Another glorious creation will be up tomorrow.
(spoon creeper haha)
To make this lovely treat, I hacked into a Thai coconut. It had been quite a while since I’d hacked one at home.
It instantly brought flashbacks to 105degrees and we each had to chop open an entire case of coconuts.
I think everyone has their own random story/history that comes out over time. Mine is that I went to raw culinary school. It gets the most “huh?” reactions than my other random hobbies. What seems like a lifetime ago, I was really into raw food, and loved experimenting with raw recipes. Quite a few of my early blog recipes are raw! Eventually I made my way back to “cooked,” but am still a huge fan of raw and vegan recipes. I love how pure and naturally beautiful they are, in addition to how they make me feel.
I’ve been a little afraid of using sharp knives since Thumbgate 2014, but I really wanted this chocolate pudding, so I broke out the coconut machete. There are a few methods to opening a Thai coconut, but my standard method is to put one hand behind my back (critical) and use the other to hack a square-shaped hole into the pointy part of the coconut. This way, the coconut is sturdy with the flat side down, and the hand-behind-the-back trick is so you don’t reach down to steady the coconut as you’re hacking (just typing that made me shudder).
It wasn’t my best square, but all digits are intact.
The idea for this pudding came from Matthew Kenney’s lovely memoir “Cooked Raw.” I’ve been a fan of his for a long time, and even had the opportunity to learn from him while I attended 105degrees, which is now M.A.K.E Santa Monica. He’s a true entrepreneur, and has always inspired me with his high attention to detail and many successful projects. “Cooked Raw” is an intriguing and beautifully-written book, with recipes scattered between the chapters. These recipes aren’t super specific, but are how I prefer to cook at home: a pinch of this, a splash of that. I’m determined to make my way through most of these, from truffle mac n’ cheese to an awesome-sounding green juice.
Here’s what I did to make this pudding:
-Hacked open said coconut, and poured the coconut water into a container to store in the fridge. (Perfect to drink after spin tomorrow night!)
-Used a spoon to scoop out the meat, and added it to the Vitamix.
-Next, I added about 1/2 cup almond milk, 4 small dates (= 2 medjool dates), 1 heaping tablespoon of cocoa powder -you can use raw cacao powder and homemade almond milk if you’d like it to be truly raw- a pinch of sea salt, and some vanilla bean.
-Blended on high, and topped with some cacao nibs and a raspberry.
Liv and I shared it, and she kept saying, “MMM. I like this! This is good.”
Amen, little one.
Here are the nutrition stats if you’d like to check them out.
Hope you have a great night!
xoxo
G
Do you measure when you cook or go with the flow? What are your latest fave healthy desserts?
Some more of my favorites:
31 Comments
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Well I now know what I’m making for dessert tonight. Thanks for sharing!!
This looks AMAZING! I guess I will have to work on my coconut opening skills 🙂
Hurrah! A chocolate dessert recipe that doesn’t use “you seriously can’t even taste it” avocado. I like avocado as much as the next girl, but yes, I CAN taste it. This looks glorious – although I might leave the coconut hacking to my husband. Or to the produce team at the grocery.
I really lOVED that you included nutritional stats in this one. I’m really sad that you’ve stopped doing that for your recipes, and I almost feel like it’s a little dishonest for those of us using this blog for weight loss/fat loss recipes, when you yourself used to rely on calorie counting for what seems like years to make sure you were losing weight / maintaining weight loss (and now you just “eyeball” things, but I think you’ve admitted on the blog that calorie counting WAS important to your transformation, and I’m not sure anyone could achieve that kind of transformation without having a good sense of what a calorie deficit is and how to encourage fat loss).
In short, more nutritional stat breakdowns please! For those of us tracking calories and macros, it makes the recipes possible to bake into our daily meal plans, and it’s made the recipes too time consuming to calculate the breakdown since you’ve removed them from the recipe posts.
Have you seen this video on how to open a coconut!? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLHyXW3nzvA seriously this video has saved my fingers, my fear and is the super easiest way to open a coconut.
I have to laugh, I was craving pudding the other day too and I made the same thing 🙂
I’m making this now! I love anything chocolate!
When I bake, I measure things but usually when I cook I just wing it. This pudding sounds delicious!
This looks ah-maze-ing!!! Must make this asap!! I totally go with the flow when I bake or cook…which is why it is sometimes hard to post recipes 🙂 I did a little cashew chocolate smoothie tonight with almond milk, cashew butter, raw cacao and a banana, but I can’t wait to try your variation! Where do you buy your coconuts?
I pretty much never measure when I cook. I like to just guesstimate!
This looks delicious! Thanks for sharing!
Oh my gosh, no way. What a huge hands on project to hack out a coconut. I’ve never done that before nor do I know how to pick the right one!
This looks delicious, perfect way to satisfy my chocolate craving!
http://www.mintnotion.com
This looks delicious! I feel like it could be a fun date night at home recipe too. Cutting up the coconut is an adventure. I have only done it once by myself!
This looks soo good! I’m impressed by your hacking skills, coming from someone who is terrified of huge knives 🙂
Wow this sounds amazing! I can’t wait to try some!
I love that you used normal dates in place of medjool dates! I can never find the medjool ones in New Zealand! This looks amaaazing 🙂
OOOH I AM MAKING THIS.
today
today
today.
I’ve never seen an organic Thai coconut. And now I’m on the mission!! haha. The first thing I DID think about was your thumb situation when I saw the beginning of the post- glad everything is still intact this time around. It’s always the most scary part for me!
I need to check my grocery store to see if they have any of those coconuts! I’d love to make this!
I just got a Thai coconut in our bountiful basket and had no idea what to do with it. Can’t wait to try this!
This looks so delicious! I have been striving to make more raw food into my diet. My father in law has a dairy allergy, so this would be such a hit. Might have to make it this weekend for everyone! Thanks!
My new favorite dessert is chia seed chocolate pudding!!! Love Love Love!!!
I love raw chocolate puddings!!! Perfect thing to whip up to satisfy those after dinner chocolate cravings!!! (Guilty:)
I’m glad you point out your reflection creepers because I always look for the photographer in the reflections! Like in spoons and sunglasses! Lol I think I’m the creeper looking for creepers
This looks fantastic but I will be honest the knife and “hacking” have me anxious just reading about it! So I might just have to enjoy the pictures and imagine the taste 🙂
I had my own “finger gate” several years ago (resulting in a sliced open joint capsule, exposed bone, multiple stitches, etc) and somehow managed to escape my own “thumb gate 2015” last night while thinly slicing an onion (seriously I have no idea how I avoided it because it was a bad slip!) Maybe this is why Matt does most of the cooking in our house? haha
Safety first in the kitchen, Gina! Glad you made this one with ease. Looks delicious! 🙂
Hi Gina,
Just wanted to ask what tool/website you use to calculate the nutrition stats. I wanted to use the tool to calculate information for some of the baked goods I’ve made. Thanks!
Scared to hack my own coconut. What can I sub instead? (I don’t mind if it’s not raw. It just needs to be gluten free.)
you can soak raw cashews in water. i’d use about 1 cup!
Ok, hacking that coconut definitely terrifies me a bit, but at the store I saw coconut meat by the frozen berries– that’d be the same thing, right? Love the simple ingredients for this yummy treat, can’t wait to make it asap!
I’ve never tried raw chocolate pudding before, but this honestly looks better than the “real” thing! I love the ingredient list 🙂 I’m sure it’s delicious!