Vegan lemon cream pie

Do you wake up every morning and fry up a package of bacon and chicken periods? Do you salivate over commercials depicting juicy strips of meat being slapped on grills in slow motion and curvaceous models chowing down cheeseburgers? Is your idea of the perfect meal just a huge-ass steak with maybe some asparagus and egg yolk-filled hollandaise sauce? Then this pie is for you.

Are you a raw food skeptic (like me)? Are you usually a cake person (like me)? Do you believe that, for a dessert to be truly show-stopping, it must have multitudes of layers and frostings and fillings (okay, yes, like me)? Then this pie has your goddamn name written all over it.

Are you located in the Northern Hemisphere (shoutout to all my Australia / New Zealand / Southern Hemisphere homies too, don’t worry)? Are you currently dying of the heat and loathe to turn on the oven? I dedicate this pie to you.

*wipes away tear*

This pie is proof of just how delicious raw desserts can be. I am very glad I had the good intuition to select this recipe as my first “real” recipe (i.e. not a very simple milkshake / smoothie concoction) from Rawsome Vegan Baking.

Miss Emily von Euw mentions in the recipe description how, having brought the pie to a friend’s birthday party, she “took home a plate that was licked clean”. I do not doubt this story. I probably could lick this plate clean single-handedly, actually, and although I might regret that decision to take on an entire pie myself in the aftermath I would probably feel pretty great while I was doing it. (Then again, it was good while it lasted tends to be a characteristic of bad decision.)

Hmmm, what's that? *takes another slice*

So maybe you appreciate your flour and sugar. Maybe you have an in-depth appreciation for butter and all the deliciousness it lends to desserts (one of the greatest hurdles of vegan baking, I might mention). But this pie—this pie might make you reconsider those loyalties. It certainly did for me. Each bite was an existential crisis. AND NO MOM I’M NOT BEING MELODRAMATIC I JUST DON’T UNDERSTAND MY LIFE ANYMORE.

Seriously though.

Really though. This is some quality pie. The cashew filling reminds me a lot of vegan cheesecake. The wonderfully simple oat-date crust is pretty neat too; it holds up very well against the creamy filling and the plethora of coconut whipped cream on top. I added some sliced almonds (which aren’t raw, but I didn’t mind) for, like, the aesthetics. Feel free to use whatever nut you like. The book uses pecans but I didn’t have any on hand.

The book also says the recipe makes 8 servings. But I don’t want to restrain you like that, so I’m going to leave that part out. Yeah.

Here’s the recipe.

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Vegan lemon cream pie

Adapted from Rawsome Vegan Baking by Emily von Euw

Ingredients

Crust

90 grams • rolled oats • 1 cup

263 grams • pitted dates • 1 ½ cups

Filling

184 grams • cashews, soaked for 4 hours and drained • 1 ¼ cups

244 grams • fresh lemon juice • 1 cup

175 grams • pitted dates • 1 cup

28 grams • coconut oil, melted • 2 tablespoons

Topping

Whipped coconut cream, to taste

Sliced almonds, to taste

Directions

Placed oats and dates (amounts under “crust”) in a food processor. Grind for a couple minutes, until the mixture forms a coarse dough that sticks together when pressed. Press into the bottom of a lightly-greased pie dish. Chill crust while you make the filling.

Wash your lovely food processor and add the ingredients under “filling”. Blend until smooth. It will take a few minutes, but be patient—gloriously smooth, creamy filling awaits. Add filling to the prepared crust and smooth over with a spatula.

Top with whipped coconut cream and sliced almonds. Cut into slices. Eat.

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ALL HAIL LEMON PIE!

For some more lemony desserts, check out these other posts.

Lemon blondies with thyme buttercream. Lemon and thyme aren’t just for chicken.

Meyer lemon crepe cake. Is the “meyer” in meyer lemon supposed to be capitalized?? I’m still confused.

Lemon raspberry Eton mess. Complete with vegan meringue!