By Alethea Mauro
Who seriously doesn’t love cookies and cream? It didn’t become one of the top ‘Worlds favourite ice cream’ for nothing! I am always drooling over the many Pinterest cookies and cream dessert creations thinking ‘give me, give me, give me’, except that dairy and I are definitely not the best of friends and I would no doubt pay later if I did indulge in the dairy laden creations – so, of course I just had to create my own version of this favourite combo!
Now there are a few steps, but really they are all fairly easy it’s just that you need a little time to put it all together. BUT if you love a good dessert but can’t eat dairy then I say it all worth it! I struggled to stop spooning mouthfuls straight out of the bowl!
Ingredients:
Basic Chocolate cake:
1 1/3 cups gluten free plain flour
1 tsp bicarb soda
1 cup of raw sugar (I use organic panela)
1/3 cup cocoa/raw cacao
1 cup coconut milk
110g coconut oil, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 free range eggs, lightly beaten
Cream:
2 cans of full cream coconut cream (cream part only), chilled in fridge overnight.
honey, to taste (i use about 1/4 cup)
1 tspn vanilla extract
6 chocolate or choc chip GF cookies, roughly chopped. If time poor you can buy some nice gluten-free cookies from your local supermarket.
Chocolate ‘custard’:
1 large ripe avocado
1/4 cup of raw cacao (you can add more to taste)
1/4 cup coconut milk
3 tbsp honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
Method:
Chocolate Cake:
Pre heat oven to 180 degrees. Grease and line base of a 20cm spring form cake tin.
1.In a large bowl sift flour, bicarb soda, cocoa. Stir in sugar.
2. Combine coconut milk, eggs, coconut oil and vanilla essence in a jug. Make a well in the centre of the flour mix and pour in milk mixture. Using an electric mixer, beat on a low-speed till combined and then increase speed to high and continue to beat for a further 3 minutes. Pour mixture into tin and bake for 35-40 minutes or until it springs back when touched in the centre.
Meanwhile, prepare your cream and custard as follows:
Chocolate Custard:
Cut your avocado in half and scoop the flesh and put into the bowl of food processor and add all the remaining ingredients . Process the mixture until smooth, scraping mixture down the sides from time to time. Taste the custard mixture and add more honey or cacao to taste – as some of you may like it sweeter or more chocolatey. Place bowl into fridge until ready to assemble the dessert.
Cream:
Chilling the coconut cream over night is really important as you want the cream to be very hard and to have separated from the watery liquid, if it’s not cold enough it will not whip properly and be a big sloppy mess!!
1. Scoop the hardened cream part out and place into a large bowl (or bowl of a food mixer), make sure you get any of the coconut liquid (you can keep the coconut liquid to pop in a smoothie!!). Whip the cream with your electric hand mixer or mixmaster until it is fluffy. Add the honey and vanilla and whip it again. Pop in the fridge until assembly time.
To assemble:
1.Once the cake has cooled, cut into two layers. I find that a large bread knife is an easy way to cut the cake in half without breaking the cake. However, if your cake does fall apart at this stage, don’t worry as it gets layered in a bowl and won’t be noticeable!
2.In a large glass bowl (trifle bowl would work well) – or if you don’t have a glass bowl in a deep ceramic baking dish would be fine (at the end of the day it’s all about the taste), place a layer of the cake on the bottom.
3.Grab the cream from the fridge and stir in the chopped cookies (keep a few pieces for a garnish). Scoop half of the cream on top of the cake and spread to the edges.
4. Spread the chocolate custard layer next over the cream layer and then top with the 2nd layer of chocolate cake.
5. To finish spread the remaining cream mixture over the cake and sprinkle with the cookie garnish. I have drizzled a little bit of chocolate Coconut Butter, but it isn’t needed and was just a case of having it in the cupboard.
Enjoy!
