It has been a very long time since the last time I tasted tiramisu. I can say that I am not a fan of coffee but who can resist the fluffiness of the tiramisu.
Yesterday It became my mission to make a raw vegan tiramisu. Before I have to be honest, I wasn’t really sure if I wanted to make it, because it looked very hard, and I usually put off things that I think take a long time or looks difficult.
But this time, nothing’s stoppin’ me. I even went to buy this young coconut to show my devotion, and believe me, that thing was almost impossible to crack, had to use a hammer, two great knives, and a lot of energy to break it open, but it was worth it!
I decided to use coffee extract rather than the coffee itself because I think it would have a stronger flavor, and I (don’t think) coffee extract contains less caffeine. That if I am not mistaken.
So without further ado here is the recipe:
- 1 cup raw cashews, pre-soaked
- ½ cup young coconut meat
- ¼ cup virgin coconut oil
- 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- A tiny pinch ground vanilla powder/seeds from one vanilla bean
- A tiny pinch of Himalayan/sea salt
- ½ cup walnuts
- 4 pitted dates
- 2 tablespoons white grape juice
- 1 tablespoon & 1 teaspoon pure maple syrup/agave syrup
- 1½ teaspoon coffee extract
- 1 teaspoon ground vanilla powder
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon rum extract
- 1 cup blanched almond meal/flour
- 1 tablespoon cacao powder
- Cacao powder
- Cream: Be sure to soak the cashews for at least 30 minutes. An hour or two is recommended though.
- Use a knife, hammer or other device to open a young coconut (this part may be a little difficult, look up youtube tutorials if you need help on how to open a young coconut), keep the water (for drinks later) and scoop out the flesh, measure out ½ cup, and reserve the rest for other recipes later.
- Once the cashews are done soaking, drain the water and put it in a high speed blender like Vitamix. Add the young coconut meat, coconut oil, pure maple syrup, vanilla extract, vanilla powder/seeds and salt. Blend on full speed until everything becomes a thick cream, it should not have any lumps. The consistency should be completely smooth. I used a food tamper to help with this.
- Scoop out all the cream into a bowl, cover it with foil, then put it in the fridge for an hour while you prepare the next set of ingredients.
- Ladyfingers: Put the walnuts, dates, white grape juice, pure maple/agave syrup, vanilla powder, coffee extract, vanilla extract and rum extract in a high speed blender. Use a food tamper to help as the ingredients may be a little hard for it to work on its own. Blend on full speed until everything becomes wet and mushy. It’s alright if you have some chunky pieces.
- Spoon the mixture out and add the blanched almond flour and cacao powder. Mix it up until it’s completely even.
- Assembling: Align parchment paper on a 8×4 inch bread pan (or any other pan you want to use).
- Take the parchment paper out and lay it on a flat wooden surface. Spread the ladyfingers dough out and make two equal sized, flat rectangles/squares. Doing this now will save mess later. Be sure to have them evened out and flat on the surface. Flip them over so both sides can be pressed on the flat surface.
- Put the parchment paper with one of the flat dough in the baking tray, then take the cream out of the fridge, spoon half of the cream on top of the ladyfingers layer. Try and flatten it as much as you can and even it out.
- Once that is done, carefully grab the second ladyfingers rectangular/square and put it on top of the cream.
- Once again, scoop the second half of the cream on top of the ladyfingers layer, evening it out with your hands or a spoon. Try and have the surface as flat as you can.
- Use a small fine mesh strainer and put some cacao powder in it, to sprinkle evenly across the top of the tiramisu.
- Put it in the freezer for about 40 minutes to an hour to harden, then cut into squares and serve.
