Throwback Tuesdays - Uncooking with Pecans!

Hey everyone! I hope all of my fellow Northeastern friends are doing ok in this shitstorm snowstorm. I left work at 3:00 today and my 7 minute commute took me a half hour. It was like a giant slip and slide outside, it was pretty scary actually. Even worse when my windshield froze over directly in front of my face. Very awesome.

Now I'm cozy at home and here to post another Throwback recipe! The post I chose today is actually a 3-in-1 recipe for my raw pecan pie truffles, dip and cereal puffs. I'm actually going to just copy and paste the entire post over here because you'll get Isobelle's recipe for raw cocoa puffs as a bonus! We must keep that recipe active as well since it's so yummy!

OK, here it is!

After the great response I got from the Raw Cocoa Puffs that I made using Isobelle’s recipe, I decided to contact her to see if she would mind if I just posted the recipe here for you. She said yes of course because she is a total sweetheart and also that she misses everyone  She also suggested that I try playing with the flavors to create new puffed cereal flavor combos and I IMMEDIATELY thought of one flavor – maple pecan AKA pecan pie!! More on that later.

First, here is Isobelle’s amazing Raw Cocoa Puff Recipe:

Raw Cocoa Puffs (Isobelle’s Recipe in her words):

(Serves 2)

 1/2 cup almonds, ground

4 dried plums (or dates, but I recently discovered I’m allergic)

3 tbsp. cacao/cocoa

1 tbsp. pure maple syrup

1 tbsp. softened coconut oil

1/8 tsp. sea salt

 Grind the almonds, sea salt and cacao in a blender or food processor until a fine meal forms. Add in the dried plums/dates, maple syrup and coconut oil – blend again until everything begins to stick together.

The ingredients should form a ball of dough in your food processor.

 (This part takes a long time – but it’s so worth it!)

Take a small piece of the dough and roll it into a ball in your palms. Now, repeat 30, 40, 50 times maybe. It depends on how big or small you make your cocoa puffs. This is a great exercise for practicing patience.

 Dehyrating Method:

Place the balls on your dehydrator tray and dehydrate for 3.5-4 hours. If they aren’t crunchy enough for you by the end of that time, increase to 5 hours.

Sounds amazing right?! Well I decided to take Isobelle’s advice to try and come up with new flavors and combined two of my favorite flavors: maple and pecan. The result tasted EXACTLY like pecan pie!! The dates and maple syrup combine and create an amazing caramel like taste. So delicious!

I’m going to give you the recipe for the “dough” and three ways to use it. Because I love you all that much  I call it mostly raw because from what I understand maple syrup isn’t totally raw? I’m totally over that and fine with it 

(Mostly) Raw Pecan Pie “Dough”

1 1/2 cups chopped raw pecans

4 pitted medjool dates

Scant 1/4 cup maple syrup

1 teaspoon cinnamon

pinch salt

Grind pecans, cinnamon and sea salt in your food processor until it forms a very fine meal. You can leave it a little chunky if you prefer though. Add dates and maple syrup and process until it forms a ball of dough. Your dough will be sticky but should be fully combined.

So here is where we get creative. This recipe is really simple and really versatile and I’m going to show you a trio of preparations. Up first is the puff cereal form inspired by Isobelle!

Pecan Pie Puffs

All you do for the Pecan Pie Puffs is follow the directions in Isobelle’s recipe for rolling out little puffs. It will be tedious work but the resulting cereal will be totally worth it! I dehydrate mine at 104 degrees and it has taken way longer than 5 hours probably because the dough is so sticky. Mine has been going for almost 7 hours already and I’m going to leave it overnight to dry and crisp up. Hopefully it’s not over dried! I tried one half dehydrated puff and it was amazing!

Pecan Pie Dip/Spread

The second “preparation” is to leave the dough as is! This stuff is an amazing dip for apples, graham crackers, ginger snaps, bananas, pretzels… you get the point. Yum!

Pecan Pie Truffles!!

Yeah I did it. FINALLY. I can’t even tell you how long I’ve wanted to make Pecan Pie Truffles and it finally came together without me even realizing it! I took some of the dough and refrigerated it for about an hour and a half so it would stiffen up a bit. I simply rolled it into a ball and then rolled the truffle in chopped pecans. This makes it look pretty and also helps you hold the truffle without getting very sticky. I store these in the fridge to keep them firm but they are equally yummy at room temp (and it mimics the gooeyness of pecan pie!).

Isn’t it pretty?! You can get away with making these truffles small too because they are sweet and decadent. But guess what! No guilt!! It doesn’t get any better than that!

Thank you so much Isobelle for allowing me to share your amazing recipe and for inspiring me to get back into the kitchen and create a recipe! You are awesome 

So there you have it. A (mostly) raw, healthier version of a pecan pie. It is so silly that I’m so proud of a recipe that has 5 ingredients but I just love how it came out.

******

Ok my friends, so that was my Throwback recipe for today! I hope you try it because it is really really delicious! Everyone that is being screwed over by the snow and cold please stay warm, dry and safe.  We already have several inches on the ground and the worst is supposed to happen overnight. Stay safe my friends!