Saturday, September 22, 2012

Vegan "Cape-pops", and a vegan pear and chocolate pie









Almost cake-pops because they look like cake-pops, but they are not made from cake! In fact these are Cape Gooseberries (therefore I am calling them Cape-pops :-)), dipped in dark chocolate. I left some plain, while I rolled the others in shredded coconut, ground pistachio nuts, and plum powder (my new discovery, I talked about it already in here). I let them set first at room temperature and then, because it was a warm day, in the fridge. These are gluten free too!








But more to come...


I had melted far too much chocolate for the Cape gooseberries, so I made a pie which, I must say, came out better than I had anticipated. But sometimes new discoveries are born out of chance, or leftovers!

I had a few sheets of filo pastry left, I placed them into a 23 cm pie dish lined with baking paper, leaving the corners to spill out. I peeled and cut four pears and placed the slices over the pastry, then drizzled the lot with Frangelico liqueur. I added the melted dark chocolate and closed the four corners of pastry over the filling. I wetted the top pastry with water and I added the rest of the coconut/pistachio stuff on top too (why waste it!). I baked the pie until the pastry was golden, and then I sprinkled a little icing sugar on top (this was the only sugar needed). I pie was perfect! Bittersweet and with an amazing texture, the chocolate had 'melted' into the pear slices... I will need to work on this and make it again, on purpose, and with more filo pastry, but I wanted to share it with you now because to me this was the perfect Vegan pie!!





Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

1 comment:

  1. Wow. I think I figured out how to leave a comment. If so, time to research postal rates between NZ & the US. I want that Pie and some of those Cape Pops.

    ReplyDelete