Banana Chocolate Cream Pie - Oh my! dairy-free, gluten-free, grain-free

I have been craving a pie with a pudding-like filling. The other night I looked at three ripe bananas in the fridge, and the light-bulb went on. I quickly began assembling my ingredients: Dates, bananas, raw cacao powder, vanilla, nuts for the crust. Zoe became very interested. "What are you doing, Mommy?!" she asked. "I'm going to make a banana chocolate cream pie. Want to help?" I said. "YES!" she answered.

We got out the food processor and blitzed some walnuts to add to the crust. I don't know why, but I think the walnuts make this crust taste a little more like a graham cracker crust. Maybe it's just me ;-)

Zoe gets such a kick out of using the food processor. But then, after we finished the crust and put it in the oven, we couldn't get the food processor to work for the filling. The machine was "on," but it just wouldn't go. ...Oh, no. Try and try, and still it wouldn't work. Hmm...

So we threw the filling ingredients into the Blendtec instead. "I don't know if the blender can do this," I warned Zoe. And guess what? It did. It even pureed the dates (which were soft-ish, but not soaked first) like you wouldn't believe. "Yea!" we shouted in support of the blender, bouncing up and down and cheering the blender on.

We waited for the crust to cool before adding the filling, then put it in the freezer, and licked the spoonula and the blender dry.

Next my husband came up from his office, and we broke the bad news to him. "The food processor is broken." Zoe said sadly. "Gone." I added dramatically. He looked at it, and saw that we had put part of the lid on backwards. After turning it around, it worked perfectly fine. "Oops!" I laughed.

A couple hours later, we had such a lovely banana chocolate cream pie—oh my! Haha. We covered the remaining pie back up, and put it in the fridge. (I was only cheating with the freezer to get it to set up more quickly. It's meant to go in the fridge.)

I hope you and your loved ones have as much fun making and eating this pie as we did :-) I think it would be excellent for Easter or Passover, so I'm going to add it to Our Spunky Holiday!

Banana Chocolate Cream Pie—Oh my!

Crust:

This crust is the same one I always use, and have posted before. The only change we made was to substitute some walnut meal that we pureed in the food processor. You could use the original recipe (almond meal flour) if you prefer.

Add to bowl:

3 tbsp flax seed meal OR 1.5 tbsp Chia Seed meal

1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp applesauce

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

8 drops vanilla liquid stevia

1 tbsp honey

1/4 cup coconut oil, liquified

Mix with electric mixer.

Add:

1 cup walnut meal flour (walnuts that have been pureed in the
food processor) OR almond meal flour

1/2 cup coconut flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder (Grain-free Baking Powder Recipe)

Mix again.

Roll out the dough.

See: Video on how to roll out and transfer this dough. Or simply pour the pie crust mixture into the dish and press it into place with your hands.

Bake the crust at 350 degrees for about 12 to 14 minutes.

Allow the crust to cool.

Filling:

Add to food processor or blender:

8 pitted dates (soak first to soften if they are very dry)

3 ripe peeled bananas

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup + 2 tbsp Raw Cacao Powder OR cocoa powder
1/4 cup coconut oil, liquified

Puree till creamy and smooth.

Add to cooled crust. Freeze for a couple of hours (if you want it to set up quickly), then store in the fridge.

♥, Kelly