Four tropical flavours of raw vegan Moon Pie!!

Despite being in Australia and so probably not being an official entrant, I couldn't resist participating in Heathy's Moonie Pie Challenge!! The moonie pies on Heathy's gorgeous blog looked so delicious and I just had to try them! So I downloaded the recipe and started un-cooking! The challenge is to make two changes to her moonie pie recipe and blog about it. The winner does a moonie pie swap with Heathy and the winning moonie pies are featured on her blog.

So what is a moonie pie, you ask?! A moonie pie is a raw version of the American 'moon pie' - a marshmallow sandwiched between two biscuits, covered in chocolate. For all the Aussie readers, think of something between a wagon wheel or mallowpuff biscuit. The raw version of the moon pie is basically a creamy coconut-cashew-vanilla filling sandwiched between two layers of raw cacao-date-walnut cake then dipped in raw dark chocolate! SOOOO YUMMY!

As usual I couldn't pick one flavour to experiment with, so I decided to try 4 different varieties of moonie pie: custard apple (a.k.a cherimoya), guava and raspberry, rose and pistachio, and tiramisu!

The guava and raspberry moonie pie is divine - the acidity of the raspberries perfectly offsets the sweetness of the chocolate and the guava adds a delicate perfume to the pie…

The custard apple adds a tang that is just to-die-for and is really well complemented by the vanilla filling!

The tiramisu flavour is perfectly suited to moonie pies - a hint of coffee and marsala wine!

And the rose and pistachio moonie pie reminds me of eating rahat lokum (Turkish delight) and pistachio baklava…. so yummy!

It is hard to pick a favourite, but I would have to say the guava and raspberry! Well, what did you expect, this blog is called guavablossom, isn't it?! ;)-

Here are the details of the changes I made to Heathy's recipe:

I couldn't find agave powder for the filling anywhere, so I had to adjust the coconut oil and lecithin quantities in the vanilla filling recipe. I increased the coconut oil to 1 cup and used 4Tbsp of lecithin instead of 2, and the filling set perfectly!

I split the recipe into 4, which turned out to be 170g of filling and about 240g chocolate cake for each variation. Here are the variations:

Custard apple (a.k.a Cherimoya) moonie pie - to 170g vanilla filling, add 80g deseeded custard apple. Mix lightly so that the bits are visible when you bite through the moonie pie.

Guava and raspberry moonie pie - blend 170g vanilla filling with 50g deseeded guava flesh and 50g raspberries. Once blended, add an additional 25g raspberries and mix very gently so that the raspberry bits are still visible.

Rose and pistachio moonie pie - blend 170g vanilla filling with 2tsp rose water. An optional addition for colour is to add a few raspberries or a hint of beetroot juice, though I just used the blender after the guava and raspberry moonies :) Instead of walnuts in the cake, use pistachios, and omit the cacao powder.

Tiramisu moonie pie - blend 170g vanilla filling with 2tsp of Marsala wine. Stir 1tsp espresso-ground coffee beans through 240g of the walnut chocolate cake.

And what to do with the left over chocolate topping? Pour into chocolate moulds!

And that's all for this post! Good luck to all the participants and to Heathy with the difficult decision of choosing a winner!

Guava cream éclairs topped with vanilla-bean white chocolate

I was so so excited to get the first little pink guava of the season and I wanted to do something really special with them. After a couple of weeks with my head burrowed in Jane Austen’s Emma, however, they had started to get a little too ripe… and… ended up as jam! Although there's nothing quite like sweet home-made guava jam on a hot croissant first thing in the morning, it wasn't worthy of being the first guava recipe on a blog entitled 'guavablossom'! While munching on the croissant, and with cuisine Française obviously on my mind, I decided to turn the jam in to a pretty baby pink cream filling for crisp éclairs! The combination of vanilla, white chocolate and guava makes me swoon, and I'm sure it will please you too! Enjoy!


Makes around 15 éclairs

Guava jam
1 cup guava pulp (see Method)
1/2 cup sugar
squeeze of lemon juice

Choux pastry
100g butter
15g sugar
pinch of salt
250mL water
125g flour, sieved
4 eggs, beaten

Vanilla-bean white chocolate topping
100g white chocolate
25g butter
1 vanilla pod

Guava cream filling
200mL cream
1/2 cup guava jam, ingredients above

Method
To obtain 1 cup of guava pulp, place peeled and chopped guavas in a food processor for a few seconds and then use a sieve to get the hard seeds out.

To make the guava jam: Place guava jam ingredients (guava pulp, sugar and lemon juice) in a saucepan and bring to the boil while stirring, then simmer for 10 minutes. The guava jam can be prepared ahead of time.

To make the Choux pastry: Put the butter, sugar, salt and water in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Pour in flour and stir quickly over low heat until mixture leaves the sides of the pan and forms a ball. Remove from heat, cool slightly, and beat in eggs one at a time until you obtain a smooth glossy paste.

Using a piping bag with a 1cm-diameter plain nozzle, pipe the Choux pastry in straight lines about 10cm long on to a greased baking tray. Bake in a 200C oven until crisp, around 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare the guava cream filling. Whip the cream and then gently stir in the guava jam with a spatula.

Once the éclairs are out of the oven allow them to cool. Using a small knife make two slits in the side of each éclair (near each end). Pipe the guava cream slowly in to the slits. Alternatively, you may cut each éclair in half lengthways and then pipe the guava cream in to each éclair.

To make the topping: Melt the white chocolate and butter in the microwave. Cut the vanilla bean in half lengthways, and scrape the seeds in to the melted white chocolate and butter mixture and stir. (Keep the vanilla pod to scent your sugar jar or to make some vanilla-scented olive oil.)

Drizzle the melted white chocolate mixture on to the éclairs and... voilà!

(Note the photo of the infamous guava blossom above, which my kind friend Vidya sourced and drove me to one sunny Saturday!)