Raw Vegan Noncotti

I'm really not sure why I made this. I have absolutely no idea why it seemed so intriguing to me. It's not my thing at all. I don't really do raw food- well tomatoes, avocado, cucumber and fruit I guess. But I don't think I'll ever embrace a raw food diet. It seems somehow, well, wrong to my mind. Vegan is another concept that I will never fully embrace. What, give up cheese? Or butter? I'm quite happy to eat vegetarian foods, and the occasional vegan meal or snack. I don't go out of my way to avoid vegan foods, but similarly I don't really search them out. Which is why I have a tag label accidentally vegan on my low GI blog.

But for some reason after I read my friend Hannah's post last week, I was too intrigued to move on- despite her inclusion of carob, which I definitely don't eat. And found myself the very next day with ingredients to hand- nearly everything was already in the pantry-  I just had to buy some pecans. Too easy. It just had to be done.

I couldn't help but baulk at Hannah's chosen name for this dish. It's raw, so by definition can't be biscotti- Italian for twice cooked. So I initially dubbed them uncotti, but it's a bit too close to uncouth. So now I'm trying noncotti. Reminds me of nincompoop for some reason. Which is more pleasing.

Raw Vegan Noncotti

1 cup pecans
1/4 cup desiccated coconut
1/2 cup cocoa
pinch of Maldon salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
15mL coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla paste
1 tblsp agave syrup


Place pecans, coconut, cocoa, salt and cinnamon in a food processor, and process until the mixture is finely crumbed.

Add coconut oil, vanilla paste, agave syrup and process until well combined, and the mixture holds together like a firm dough.

Shape the dough into a log on a biscuit tray lined with baking paper (resisting any temptation to take pictures at this rather scatological phase). Cut into more attractive strips.

Best served the next day to let flavours blend and the cocoa take up some moisture.



Notes
I harboured grave fears as to how my husband and son would perceive this treat that I had made (partly) for them. I greeted their suspicious looks calmly and told them it was Pecan Slice. It didn't work. My 10 year old son rejected it after one bite because the cocoa was too dark- he isn't a great fan of dark chocolate as yet, despite liking blue cheese and eating kilos of it without bothering with crackers or quince paste.

I offered up a piece to my husband the day this was made. He didn't like it, and wouldn't eat any more. With such vast quantities of cocoa it is rather like eating a big big truffle coated in too much loose cocoa. It can be rather drying on the tongue. This effect was less the next day when the cocoa had had more time to soak up moisture from the coconut oil and agave syrup. I liked them ok the first day, but they were better the next day I think.

I always like to have fancy cocoa in the cupboard for this sort of thing. Supermarket brands just don't cut it. Nice chocolate shops sell much more delicious cocoa. It's worth splurging on.

Hannah's recipe used vanilla extract. I had a tub of delicious vanilla paste in the cupboard so substituted some of that.

This was a fun experiment but I won't be adopting the raw vegan lifestyle anytime soon.

This post is linked to Weekend Cooking, a fabulous weekly meme at Beth Fish Reads.