
Logo by Susan Newman
Many of you know I am vegan and though I do not subscribe to a raw food diet or the raw food philosophy, I couldn’t pass up a chance to try some new vegan desserts. Raw for Dessert arrived promptly. It it a pretty book with some mouthwatering color photos and the whole thing is printed on 100% recycled paper.
As for the desserts themselves, it is mixed. There are several recipes for what look like delicious fruit sorbets but I couldn’t make any of them because they require an ice cream maker, and really who wants to eat sorbet when it is 50 degrees outside?
I didn’t really stop to think what raw meant until I got this book. No flour. Most of the recipes that would normally call for flour require that you make your own flour out of raw nuts, usually walnuts. And the delicious looking chocolate cake is made mostly from medjool dates.
Most of the recipes have very few ingredients but my Bookman who is my kitchen wizard wasn’t prepared to grind 3 cups of walnuts into flour. Nor were we prepared to pay the extortionist prices for three cups of raw organic walnuts at our food co-op.
Another thing I didn’t think about when it came to raw, most of the recipes are fruit based. And well, fruit in Minnesota is usually expensive but this time of year when it is off-season for everything but apples (and with my own apple tree I have had enough of apples for a few months thank you very much), fruit is even more expensive.
We ended up making only one recipe from the book, the freezer fudge. Made mostly of cashews (and here we cheated because we used cashew butter instead of buying raw cashews and creaming them ourselves), it is very rich and has a nice fudge consistency. It is so rich that anything more than one or two bites it too much. So even though the recipe makes what appears to be a small amount, it is more than enough.
I can’t say I was bowled over by the book, but there are several recipes in it I would like to try when the fruit it calls for is in season again. And maybe come spring we’ll invest in an ice cream maker. We have some other books that include recipes for soy ice cream. It would be fun to try them as well as the lighter sorbets in Raw for Dessert.
What a great mission! I like the idea of planting a tree for every book I buy. Regarding eating raw, I have so many food allergies that it would even be hard for me to eat vegetarian, let alone eat vegan – raw just sound impossible. I do love well done pictures in a cook book though so I’m sure I’d enjoy this one. (cook book probably isn’t an appropriate term in this instance…)
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The frustrations of which you write would be an annoyance to me as well; basically, if I can’t make it with what I have, or can easily find at the store, I won’t be bothered. Plus, I need more chocolate than fruit in my desserts to keep me happy! I enjoyed reading your review with its honest evaluation.
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It’s funny that you are reviewing this one today — it just came in at my library and I had to stop and flip through it. The one recipe that caught my eye as one I’d most likely make? The Freezer fudge! (and I’d use the same shortcut as you…) Glad to know it is actually tasty. 🙂
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Heather, I agree, it is a great mission. Heh, you are right, there is no cooking in this book! The pictures are yummy, and there are probably a good many recipes you could make unless you are allergic to nuts, then this book definitely is not for you.
Bellezza, I don’t mind getting special ingredients now and then but to need them for nearly every recipe it gets to be a bit much. There are some good chocolate desserts in the book but not quite enough to satisfy a chocoholic!
Melanie, oh that is funny! The fudge is good and very quick to make. I’d like to try some of the others but they are ones you kinda have to plan for and not just throw together when you are wanting dessert.
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This sounds like a good book for you. I hope you liked the desserts. Sorry about the frustrations.
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This sounds like it would be a fun book campaign. I like their idea and hope they get the word out on green publishers. As for the recipes–I bet some of them are good, though they don’t sound too practical really. Grinding all those walnuts—ack. And nuts are expensive, too. I hadn’t thought what it would be like to not use flour in recipes! Sounds like an interesting cookbook if only to browse through.
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Sounds like these recipes might be a bit complicated for my skill level in the kitchen but thanks for sharing the book and your thoughts on it.
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What a shame! Not eating sugar, apart from in fruit, I really miss dessert and thought that maybe this would be a wonderful store of healthy recipes. But no, I’m not about to grind walnuts, either. One day I’ll have to write a sugar-free cookbook, although it will take me years to find enough recipes to put together! I love the eco-project though. All power to that.
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Make your own flour – phfhh I say, ready made flour is one of the great liberators of women.
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Oh, I can’t warm up to raw food (no pun intended). There’s something about walking into a house and smelling something good coming from the oven. And a nice bowl of soup, or a steamy bowl of oatmeal on a cold winter morning…yum.
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P.S. Love the green books campaign, by the way.
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Like Grad, I can’t imagine living on raw food — for me cooking and warmth go together, they participate in the same pleasure, I would be so sad about that!
Foer has me rethinking my meaty ways (yes, I’m influencable!), but I’m actually not sure what the idea behind raw food is? I have vague memories of “it’s the way the cavemen ate so better adapted to our bodies”, “it requires more calories to digest because fibers are unbroken”, and of course some vitamins do not like heat… What is the overarching theory?
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I liked Jodie’s comment! 🙂
Well, I am not good in the kitchen and so this book would probably not be good for me. I love desserts but stuff has to be easy for me to try it out. But, once the summer rolls around you’ll have to keep us posted if you make any of the sorbets.
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Serena, what I was able to make I liked. I’ll be able to try more next summer when the various fruits are in season again.
Danielle, I think the campaign was a great idea. There is no reason why books shouldn’t be more environmentally friendly. As for the recipes, you’re right, they aren’t very practical. I do look forward to trying some of the sorbets come summer though.
Kathleen, they aren’t complicated recipes at all, there is just quite a bit of preparation involved in many of them.
Litlove, I’ll take a look and see if I can’t find one or two recipes you might like that don’t require the grinding of nuts.
Jodie, I suppose if you have an industrial strength food process grinding all those nuts into flour wouldn’t be a big deal, but we just don’t have the equipment at my house.
Grad, LOL, I totally know what you mean though.
Charlotte, I know I love the way the house smells when my husband is cooking. I think smell is a big part of enjoying food. The raw food folks believe it is more nutritious and healthful and that cooked food contains toxins, at least that’s my understanding.
Iliana, I know what you mean. Even though the recipes are easy the ease of preparation is not there. I’ll be sure to mention if/when I try any of the sorbets.
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I’m starting to shiver just thinking about ice cream and sorbet. Definitely not the time of year for those recipes! The fudge sounds really yummy, though. I like the idea of the Green Books Campaign. It was fun to see all the reviews pop up at once.
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I just found this awesome raw recipe from nutritionals Rose Cole for an eggnog substitute. I can’t believe how good it is, and it’s sugar-free, dairy-free, and RAW! http://ow.ly/BN0C Just thought I would pass it on.
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Readers might be interested in a cookbook giveaway featuring the fruit quince – Simply Quince, a cookbook by Barbara Ghazarian. Quince has to be cooked, though. Visit Cookbook giveaway. Contest ends Feb. 28
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Sounds like these recipes might be a bit complicated for my skill level in the kitchen but thanks for sharing the book and your thoughts on it.
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