Top of the morning to ya!
Err, sorry about that – it seems the closer we get to St. Patrick’s the day, the more and more I want to crack out an Irish accent. And, if you kindly ask my husband, he will be the first to tell you that I cannot do accents. At all. Period. They all end up sounding the same – no real distinguishable nationality but particularly amusing since they make me sound like a cartoon character. It’s entertaining…for everyone else but me.
So, in lieu of punishing everyone with my terrible Irish accent, I thought I would show my love for this holiday in the next best way I know: food!
After racking my brain for all of last week trying to come up with something that was simple, delicious and festive, without the need for artificial food dyes, I finally came up with the perfect recipe. And it’s awesome! Like, really super amazing awesome!
So, my gift to you this St. Patrick’s Day: Raw Chocolate Mint Tarts!
These Raw Chocolate Mint Tarts are out of this world! As with all my recipes, they are gluten free and vegan but they are also the first raw recipe that I have created – yay me!! Plus, you only need 11 simple ingredients to pull these together.
I’ve always been a little scared of the whole raw food movement, assuming that the yummy looking recipes that I would see all over Pinterest would be terribly difficult to make but, I can assure you, these amazing little tarts are actually really, really easy! The most time consuming part is just waiting until you can enjoy them. Since they set up in the freezer, it’s really the waiting game that is the worst part of these recipes so I would suggest making them in the morning so that you can enjoy them in time for dinner or even a late afternoon pick me up.
Everyone knows that mint and chocolate is the best pairing ever – except my husband…but he doesn’t count in this example. If mint and chocolate got married, these would be their beautiful little babies and all the other kids on the street would be jealous of them and their perfect deliciousness. They would rule the world in chocolate mint harmony. They are pure perfection. The best food to ever have graced this earth and all other foods will bow down to their glory! Muahahahahaha!!
Whoa! Grab a hold of yourself, Savanna! Sorry, I got carried away there. Can you tell I really love mint chocolate? Moving on…
Let’s just say, these Raw Chocolate Mint Tarts are the perfect dessert for your St. Patrick’s Day celebrations.
The recipe for these Raw Chocolate Mint Tarts is really versatile – you could easily change up the flavour of the middle layer to satisfy your latest chocolate pairing craving. Cherry, peanut butter, raspberry, keylime…I have all sorts of great things in store for future versions of these tarts. This first time though, I thought I would embrace the fact that St. Patrick’s day is this Tuesday and opted for a delicious mint flavoured centre. It does not disappoint!
Entirely raw, these tarts are made up of three tasty layers. The first layer is made up of a deliciously rich, but mildly sweet, raw brownie base. Then, it get’s topped with a light and creamy avocado mint coconut cream layer. Finally, the whole thing gets topped off with homemade chocolate. See? Pure flavour perfection! Each layer is placed into the freezer while the next one is made, helping the tarts to set up and allowing the flavour to build and reach it’s fullest potential.
The tarts that you see in these photos were made in a regular muffin tin, using liners. What you don’t see, is that we also made 12 mini tarts in a silicone tray. So, really, we did make a family of Raw Chocolate Mint Tarts, complete with big guys and lil guys 😉 The mini tarts are the perfect portion controlled snack to keep in the freezer whenever you’re craving something sweet. Once set, you can pop them out of the tray and store them in a freezer safe tupperware container for easy access. It would be best to eat these within a week, to ensure maximum flavour, but something tells me that they probably wouldn’t last that long in most peoples’ homes.
What’s your favourite thing to make for St. Patrick’s Day? Do you have any awesome family dishes or traditions that you follow?
In our house, I think it’s safe to say that these Raw Chocolate Mint Tarts will be a yearly occurrence from now on. In fact, we’ve enjoyed them so much that I may have to make a second batch in time for Tuesday – whoops!
If you make these at home, be sure to share them on Instagram with us. Tag your creations with #glutenfreeveganpantry so that we can check out how you’re enjoying the recipes so far.
Lots of love & happy eats,
Savanna
- Brownie Crust
- 1½ cup unsweetened shredded coconut
- ¼ cup extra virgin coconut oil
- 5 pitted dates
- ½ cup cocoa
- Avocado Coconut Mint Layer
- 1 can coconut milk, refrigerated
- 1 avocado
- ¼ cup finely chopped fresh mint
- 2 tsp mint extract
- 2 tsp agave nectar
- ¼ cup cacao nibs
- Chocolate Top
- ½ cup extra virgin coconut oil
- ½ cup cocoa
- pinch sea salt
- 2 tbsp agave nectar
- Brownie Crust- Place all ingredients into food processor and mix until blended, scraping sides of food processor as needed. Place approximately 1 tbsp of crust into the bottom of a regular muffin tin. If not using silicone tray, be sure to use tray liners for easier access once frozen. If using mini muffin trays, use approximately 1 tsp of brownie crust per muffin. Place into freezer to set while making the next layer.
- Avocado Coconut Mint Layer- Remove can of coconut from fridge, flip upside down and open can. Carefully pour off the liquid until just the coconut cream remains. Depending on what brand you use, you may have more or less liquid. Place coconut cream into a medium bowl. Add avocado, chopped mint, mint extract and agave nectar. Using an electric mixer, mix on medium-high speed for 4-5 minutes, or until mixed into a light, mousse like batter. Stir in cacao nibs. Remove the trays from the freezer and place the avocado coconut mint cream on top of the brownie crust, using enough so that each muffin cup is approximately ⅔ of the way full. Return trays to the freezer.
- Homemade Chocolate Top- Place coconut oil, cocoa, salt and agave nectar into a small sauce pan. Heat over low heat for approximately 30 seconds, or until coconut oil has melted. Whisk ingredients together to form melted chocolate. Working quickly, remove trays from the freezer and spoon the melted chocolate over the avocado coconut mint layer. As you move from tart to tart, you will notice that the first few chocolate toppings have already started to harden. Once all tarts have been topped with chocolate, allow to sit on the counter until all the chocolate has hardened. Return to freezer for 4-5 hours.
Savanna is the photographer, food stylist, head taste-tester and she-brains behind Gluten Free Vegan Pantry. 
Did you use sweetened or unsweetened cocoa?
Unsweetened 🙂
Has anyone tried replacing the agave nectar with liquid stevia drops?
I think this would be a perfectly fine substitute and shouldn’t have any affect on the outcome of the recipe.
I really want to try these but detest coconut! Do you think it would be okay to omit the coconut in the crust?
Leaving the Coconut out should be just fine. Let me know how it turns out!
Hi, I`m wondering if this would be okay to leave out and not keep it in the freezer? Would it melt away?
I`d try them tomorrow 🙂
These definitely need to be cooled to come extent, otherwise they will become quite soft and messy. If you don’t want to store in the freezer, at least make sure to keep them in the fridge.
Looks fantastic! Since the recipe says ‘raw’ can I assume you used raw cacao nibs/cocoa? I only ask since the raw cocoa is so much ‘weaker’ than reglar cocoa, want to make sure I dont use the wrong one and make the not chocolatey enough 🙂 Thanks for a great recipe?
Hi Karin,
I used Camino cocoa for this recipe. Hopefully that helps!
this looks amazing! I can’t believe they are raw-vegan AND GF! amazing!
These are one of my favourite desserts on here -they’re such a treat!
I love the colors of these Savanna! Beautiful photography. And lol on the accents. I have a friend like that — every accent sounds the same, but they’re all funny in an endearing kind of way. Are you an Aquarius by any chance? 🙂
You’re too kind! This was definitely one of my favourite foods to photograph so far – they are so pretty that they basically made any angle look good! I hope others find my accents endearing LOL I have fun with them and have learned to laugh at myself, so it’s all good. I’m a Capricorn, through and through but you were pretty close!
Haha. Well, the reason I asked is because that friend is an Aquarius with a Capricorn rising sign. So it still makes sense somewhat 🙂 Just the way you described it sounded so similar to him.
I’ve always wondered about the whole “rising sign” thing – I’ll have to go do some astronomy reading this afternoon 😉
Also, I emailed you about sharing one of your recipes on a link love this weekend. Let me know what you think, when you have a chance 🙂
Hehe. I’m not an astrology expert by any means. I do know three main important areas that sort of help me get a sense for people sometimes — sun, moon, and rising signs. Sun is what you’re actually like {in your case capricorn}, moon is related to your emotions — so often how you feel on the inside about things, and rising sign is what you may come across as to others on first impression. This is a totally loose explanation, and there are of course so many other factors involved, and these things can be very subtle too. Anyways, getting nerdy here and you can read up on it more anyhow 🙂 But it makes sense to me why your writing and funny accents reminded me of my friend!
This all sounds so interesting! I would love to find out what my moon is since I feel like my emotional side is very different from the typical characteristics of a Capricorn. A task for this weekend, perhaps?
These chocolate cups look so good…. and healthy! I definitly have to try them! Pinned!
Thanks so much, Azu!
They were so much fun to make and even more fun to munch on. Let me know if you try them – I would love to hear how you like them! 🙂