Lime Banana Chocolate Cream Pie

After Matthew Kenney, Level 1 was finished, I hopped on the plane to route via Denver to San Francisco to visit friends and spend Thanksgiving with them. My friend Yelena is the co-owner of the Arizmendi Bakery and she organized a Thanksgiving Dinner for all the workers and friends, to which I was invited. Of course, the requirement was to make something raw, ideally a dessert, but all I had was a food processor, so I came up with a simple nice recipe for a lime banana chocolate cream pie that you can easily replicate at home with minimal equipment. Here is the recipe, I hope you enjoy it as much as the workers and friends of the Arizmendi Bakery :-)

Lime Banana Chocolate Cream Pie
(makes two normal size 9 inch pie pans)

Crust
3 cups walnuts
1 cup cacao nibs
½ t salt
2 t vanilla powder (or extract)
4 T coconut butter
10 to 15 medjol dates

In a food processor with the s-blade, food process first the walnuts, salt, vanilla and cacao nibs, so they are still chunky. Then one by one, add the dates and little by little the coconut butter, until the dough sticks together and can be pressed into a pie pan.

Banana cream filling
5 bananas
juice from 2 limes
zest from 1 lime
1 inch piece ginger, microplaned
1 pinch salt
1 t vanilla
2-3 T coconut butter

Process all ingredients in a food processor until smooth and creamy

Chocolate cream filling
2 avocados
1/3 – 1/2 cup water
1 cup cacao powder
2 T coconut butter
4 dates
2-3 T honey
1 t vanilla
1 pinch salt

Process all ingredients in a food processor until smooth and creamy

Assembly:

Pour the banana filling first and then add dollups of the chocolate cream filling. Use a chop stick or back of a spoon to swirl the chocolate filling into the banana filling. Don´t swirl too much to avoid the two from blending together completely.

Sprinkle with some dried shredded coconut, if you like and let set in the freezer for about 4 hours or in the fridge overnight before serving.