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Healthy Dessert Tips

Raw Dessert Tips

The following healthy dessert tips are from Alison's upcoming cookbook, Desserts for Every Body.

 

A “raw” food is exactly that—it's raw and hasn't been cooked. This means that all the delicate vitamins, phyto-nutrients and enzymes that are originally within the food have not been cooked out, damaged or destroyed. Since these highly nutritional aspects of the whole food are left in tact, raw desserts are actually quite good for us, and most can safely be eaten almost everyday. You can't say that about most baked desserts, which are filled with sugar, flours and dairy products.

 

Dehydrated foods are considered raw foods. Most enzymes and many vitamins are destroyed at temperatures over 120 degrees, and some even suffer over 105. If a dehydrator is set within 105-120 degrees, it will take the water out of the food without cooking it. As long as the heat stays low, a raw food will remain truly raw even if left in the dehydrator for 12-plus hours.

 

Nuts and Seeds

 

When preparing raw desserts, nuts and seeds are used as a base for crusts, fillings and dough. They are used for cakes, cookies, pies, tarts, frostings and even whipped cream. When pureed to various degrees, their high fat content gives them just the right texture to thicken, fluff, and add bulk. If truly raw, soaking these power-packed nuts or seeds for 8-plus hours before eating will activate the enzymes within them, bringing their full nutrition to life and adding new tastes and textures to the food.

 

Unfortunately, many of the raw nuts and seeds we find on the shelf are not living up to their full nutritional capacity. The fat and enzymes within them need to be kept at cooler temperatures to stay alive without becoming rancid or dead altogether. Most commercial nuts and seeds have been stored and transported in temperatures above ideal, or have spent too long in transit time from the farm to the consumer's table.

 

The popularity of raw foods has brought many natural foods markets to add raw, organic vacuum-packed nuts and seeds to their inventory. These are generally more expensive, as the companies who produce these have taken the extra care to keep these raw nuts really raw. Special equipment and cooler packaging procedures ensure that the nuts are still alive by the time they reach your table.
You can find these raw vacuum-packed items on the shelf at your local natural foods market, usually in the baking section or near the bulk food aisle. Truly raw nut and seed butters will be kept in the refrigerated section.

 

Sprouted Grains

 

Grains don't always have to be cooked to be used in desserts. Sprouted, uncooked grains add texture, protein, fiber, flavor and bulk to cookies, cakes and doughs for all purposes. It's a cinch to sprout grains, too, but it does take some forethought, as it takes most grains about 2 days to complete the sprouting process.

 

Sprouts are usually eaten when the sprout is about the size of the soaked grain. The grain, which will still be mostly in tact, is eaten along with the sprout.

 

Sweetening Raw Desserts

 

Since refined, cooked and processed sugars are not used in raw foods, other forms of sweeteners are employed—the most common being dried fruit purees, chopped or grated fresh fruits, raw agave nectar, and raw, unfiltered honey. Be mindful that many raw foodists are vegan, and honey is not considered a vegan alternative.

 

Sweeteners that are mildly cooked or refined—such as maple syrup, agave nectar, date sugar or stevia—are also used in small amounts by some raw chefs. A few recipes in Desserts for Every Body call for these and they can easily be replaced with raw honey, raw agave nectar or fruit puree, if desired.

 

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