Friiiiiday.

Ohhh yes.

And what do I have for you today?

A bunch of photos and no recipe.

But it’s coming.

Promise!

In fact, I’m hoping it’s more than one recipe.

Let’s get started.

As mentioned, last week was my brother’s birthday. Also mentioned, was that he is newly vegetarian + on quite the health kick. I thought this would be an opportune time to test out a healthy dessert idea. This is by no means a substitute for birthday cake. Nothing is a substitute for birthday cake. This is just a fun addition to the party.

This dessert starts with crust. A very special crust and a very odd pan. Don’t worry, you don’t need this pan. I was looking for a spring form pan, which was nowhere to be found. My aunt came to the rescue with the Magic Brownie Pan, that my mom gave her. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, just look here.

I’m already starting to ramble and we’re only at photo 2 of 13. Yay!

Basically, you can use any pan, but a spring form will be the easiest to work with.

Okay. The crust. Nothing earth shattering here. You’ve probably seen this done numerous times. Make a nut + date based “dough” to be used as a raw, vegan, gluten free crust. This was my first time trying this method out, and I absolutely loved it.

For the “dough,” I used my recipe for Cocoa Coconut Energy Balls.

So what’s on top?

It was brought on by a dessert my mom used to make, when I was younger.

Yogurt pie.

graham cracker crust + fruit yogurt + cool whip –> freeze –> slice –> frozen dessert

I thought I would give this a try skipping the cool whip addition. I figured plain yogurt + honey + frozen fruit would end up resulting in the same thing.

Wrong.

It worked. –ish

As in, it was sort-of-good.

The crust was more than good.

But the fruit + yogurt part was too icy.

After letting it defrost for about 10-15min, it was tasty, but nothing to write home about. I remembered it being creamier. Frosty, not icy. Does that make any sense?

For some reason, I’m determined to get this right and to also make a vegan version.

After this version, I had 2 ideas.

blend banana in –> hoping this would make it creamier and less icy
blend avocado in –> while this seems ridiculous, adding 1/4 of an avocado to your smoothie will blow your mind

So how did those trials go?

still icy
the avocado was disgusting + tasted like water – this trial was skipped

Today, I experimented with four new versions.

Hello purple!

So what all do we have here?

I bought non-hydrogenated “cool whip” and tried to make a more traditional version. I could have + should have bought heavy whipping cream to make my own, but that did not happen.

For the vegan versions, I am playing around with ground chia seeds, to add thickness and a creamy texture.