So if you’ve read this blog before, you’ll know that I’m not a raw food person. I live in a mostly cold climate that requires the consumption of soups, stews, curries, roasted veggies and, ahem, certain hot beverages involving whiskey. I love experimenting with living food recipes and eating at raw restaurants for sure, but as a lifestyle it’s not for me. I am, without a doubt, a dessert-for-breakfast kind of person though. Like, for sure.

Enter raw desserts. These treats are generally made from fruit and nuts (or raw cacao, irish moss, coconut meat etc). Oh, and they’re free of refined sugars, gluten and animal products. That’s breakfast material right there! Insanely delicious, filling and healthy breakfast material to be specific.

There is so much local fruit available right now: berries, peaches, plums, first apples and pears, all at the same time! It’s a miracle really. I make a simple crumble mix from dates and nuts to scatter on top and a vanilla almond cream to make it seem a bit more indulgent. An initial word on the almond cream: it’s amazing. Some vanilla bean makes it so lovely. I have a high speed blender so I can whip this cream up pretty easily, but I’ll add instructions for food processor usage as well. It might not be as smooth, but the flavour will still be outstanding.

RAW FRUIT CRUMBLES WITH ALMOND CREAM
Print the recipe here!
SERVES: 4-6
NOTES: If you are using a food processor for the almond cream, pulse the soaked almonds until they’re about one stop short of becoming almond butter, then add the other ingredients and put it to high until the cream is as smooth as possible. Also, I painstakingly peeled all of the almonds once they were done soaking. You don’t have to do this! It will taste just as good.

ALMOND CREAM:
1 cup raw almonds, soaked overnight
1/2 cup water (plus extra, I needed another tbsp, but this could vary)
1 tbsp extra virgin coconut oil
1 tbsp agave nectar (or maple syrup, raw honey etc)
seeds from 1/2 a vanilla bean (or 1 tsp extract)
teeny pinch of salt

CRUMBLE:
1 cup nuts or seeds of your choice (I used a mix of pecans, walnuts, almonds and hemp seeds)
3/4 cup pitted medjool dates
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
a smidgin of seeds from the vanilla bean (or 1/4 tsp vanilla extract)
pinch of sea salt

ASSEMBLY:
1-2 cups of sliced/chopped fruit per person
maple syrup, agave nectar or honey
ground cinnamon

Make the almond cream: place the soaked almonds and water in a blender. Turn the blender onto a low-medium speed to break up the nuts and stop when the pieces are starting to form a puree with the water. Add the coconut oil, agave nectar, vanilla bean seeds, salt and more water if necessary. Turn the blender to high until the mixture is as creamy and smooth as possible. This took a couple minutes for me. Scrape almond cream into a container and chill thoroughly.

For the crumble: Place all of the ingredients in a food processor and pule until the nuts become large crumbs and the mix holds together when you pinch it. Set aside or keep in the refrigerator if you’re making it ahead. Also, if you press this mix into a pan it’s like homemade Larabars! Awesome.

To assemble: Place sliced/chopped fruit into a bowl and drizzle lightly with maple syrup/agave/what have you. Sprinkle a teeny bit of cinnamon (or cardamom!) if you’re into that. Spoon some crumble mix evenly on top of the fruit and put a fat dollop of almond cream on there.