Name: Chocolate Coconut Pie with Strawberries
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 265 min
Ingredients: 130 grams soft dates; 2 tablespoons coconut oil; 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract; 2 tablespoons cocoa powder; 1/4 teaspoon sea salt; 3 tablespoons nondairy milk (oat, almond); 150 grams unsweetened shredded coconut; 400 ml canned full-fat coconut milk*; 100 grams dark chocolate, finely chopped; 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract; 150 grams strawberries, halved; 1 teaspoon maple syrup or honey; Pistachios and shredded coconut

This post was originally published in April 2019. It has been updated with improvements to the text and recipe as of July 2020.

If you’ve been following OE for a while, you know I have a thing for coconut milk ganache. And a thing for chocolate tarts or pies without tops. What can I say, everyone loves chocolate!

Unlike some of the other gluten free tarts I’ve shared, this one doesn’t use any oat flour. It’s a date sweetened coconut macaroon base, with a little cocoa tossed in, and it’s very good. It’s also totally grain free and this recipe is ‘pegan’ i.e. vegan and paleo, which is a thing.

This is about as simple as you can get for a dessert, with a press in base and pour in filling – it would be possible not to bake the base but I think it tastes much better and holds together more effectively when baked. The date mixture is blended up in a food processor, or mashed with a fork if you have a strong arm and soft dates. Mix it with the coconut, press it into a springform, and bake. That’s it!

Chocolate ganache pie with a slice cut out to show interior texture.

Ingredients

Dates
Coconut oil
Vanilla
Cocoa powder
Sea salt
Non-dairy milk
Unsweetened shredded coconut
Full-fat coconut milk (canned)
Dark chocolate
Strawberries for topping

Left: chocolate coconut pie base in springform pan. Right: unset ganache poured into the pie base.

Method

For the Base

Preheat the oven and grease a small springform pan with coconut oil. You can use a small tart pan if you prefer. Blend the dates, coconut oil, vanilla, and salt in a food processor until a rough paste forms. If you don’t have a food processor, mash those dates by hand instead.

Add the milk and blend again, then add to a large bowl with the shredded coconut and mix until very well combined. It’ll be stiff, don’t worry. This mix is pressed into the prepared pan – as evenly as you can make it – then baked for about 15 minutes. It needs to cool fully before adding the ganache.

To speed the process a bit, pop the base into the freezer before adding the ganache. This serves a couple of purposes. It’ll help your ganache set more quickly, and it’ll also prevent any of the liquid ganache seeping into the bottom of the pie. No one likes a soggy bottom.

For the Ganache

To make the ganache, heat coconut milk in a small saucepan and pour it over chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Wait about 30-60 seconds before whisking it to form a glossy liquid. See below for notes on the coconut milk.

Pour the ganache into the baked macaroon base, then cool to room temperature before refrigerating until fully set. Top with the fruit and serve immediately.

Close up of strawberry topped chocolate ganache pie.

Tips and Notes

Don’t mix up cocoa powder and chocolate drink powder! I get a lot of questions about this – they’re not the same thing. If the ingredient list includes anything like sugar or milk powder, that’s hot chocolate powder, not cocoa powder for baking.

I recommend making the whole chocolate coconut pie the night before you plan on serving it so that it has plenty of time to set, and then top with be berries right before eating. If the fruit sits there too long the filling will soften.

A note about the ganache. I use a whole can of full fat coconut milk, water too, for this recipe. But make sure you’re familiar with the brand you’re using and know that it has a high cream to water ratio. If there’s quite a lot of water in there, remove a couple tablespoons of it – you want about 65/35 or higher cream to water. Less than that, and the filling will be too loose and won’t cut well.

If you’re looking at the ingredients and thinking ah, but a chocolate bar isn’t sugar free! You can certainly use sugar-free chocolate for this recipe (it’s easy to find in the baking section) and sweeten the filling as you prefer.

The tart is quite rich, so if you want to cut that a bit, serve it with some nondairy yogurt. Small slices are best for this one.

Top down view of chocolate coconut pie with a slice cut out.

Substitutions

The easiest thing to change with this recipe is the topping. Prefer raspberries? Go for it. If you want a more classic chocolate coconut cream pie, then top with coconut whipped cream instead of fruit.

Otherwise, I don’t recommend changing things up too much here. If you want a different kind of base, there are several chocolate tart recipes on OE you can check out instead. This chocolate orange tart uses oats and seeds, for example, and my chocolate hazelnut tart is a grain-free hazelnut cookie crust. The macaroon base here is great, though.

You can use lighter chocolates for the filling (60% dark, milk chocolate, even white chocolate) if you prefer a much sweeter dessert. Chocolate chips will do the trick if you have them on hand – chocolate chips are really expensive in Europe so I never use them.

Sweetened shredded coconut will make it much sweeter, too. Flaked coconut will change the texture pretty significantly and I don’t recommend it.

More Recipes with Chocolate Ganache

Vegan Chocolate Tarts with Apricots
Chocolate Raspberry Cake
Chocolate Banana Babka
Vegan Coconut, Orange, and Chocolate Cake
Chocolate Hazelnut Tart

Chocolate coconut pie topped with strawberries and pistachios.

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