We don’t eat a lot of desserts or sweets but every year for Christmas Eve, I make up something special for dinner.

This year I was thinking about chocolate and cherries because, you know …… yum!

Mandy from Crio Bru Australia kindly sent me some Vega Real flavour and I turbo-chocolated this tart with it.

Without sounding too food-wanky, the Crio Bru gives it a whole new delicious depth of chocolatey flavour. Vega Real is my favourite flavour but you could use any of the blends (probably not Mint or Mojito though).

What is Crio Bru? It’s ground cocoa beans that you can use in cooking or brew up to make a delicious hot or cold drink. It has loads of health benefits and the perfect substitute for coffee!

You only need a small piece of this tart – it’s rich and filling but I haven’t made it overly sweet. The best thing is you don’t even need to turn on the oven.

I really hope you enjoy it. If you make it for Christmas or any time, send me a photo!

Chocolate Cherry Tart

(Gluten Free, Dairy Free)

Vital Stats: gluten free, grain free, dairy free, vegan, raw

This is what you need:

Base:

1 cup almonds, soaked

1 tablespoon cacao

1/2 cup medjool dates

1/4 cup Crio Bru

Filling:

2 cups cashews, soaked

1 cup medjool dates

1 cup coconut cream (get one in a BPA free can)

2 tablespoons Crio Bru

1/2 cup cacao

1/2 cup coconut oil

1/2 teaspoon Himalayan salt

2 scraped vanilla pods or 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

200g fresh cherries

Garnish:

Extra Crio Bru
Extra cherries

This is how you do it:

Soak the almonds and cashews for a few hours or overnight. This just softens them down and makes them easier to work with and digest.

Process the base ingredients until smooth.

Press into a 20cm baking paper lined flan dish or springform pan. I use the back of a soup spoon to get it nice and smooth.

Place in the freezer until firm.

Meanwhile, infuse the coconut cream with the Crio Bru in a saucepan on a low heat for ten to fifteen minutes. Let cool completely, don’t strain. The whole lot will go into the filling.

Whizz up all the filling ingredients except the cherries. Keep going until it’s nice and smooth.

I like to test it now to check the flavour. If you like really sweet things you may need to add in a drizzle of maple syrup or if you want it really dark and chocolatey, go another tablespoon of cacao.

Pit the cherries (I got a kid to do this!! but you can buy cherry pitters) and place cut side down on the base.

Whack in the filling and smooth the top out.

Cover and refrigerate until set.

Decorate with fresh cherries and sprinkle over some more Crio Bru.

Store in the fridge and bring out just before serving.

You could also use frozen cherries or fresh or frozen raspberries.