This healthy chocolate pie crust recipe is ridiculously easy.
As in, I made it in about 30 seconds.
Yes, a 30-second healthy pie crust.
This recipe saves you precious time, so you can spend that time on the important part: the filling!
Like this No-Bake Chocolate Pumpkin Pie.
Or my favorite chocolate fudge pie, but I won’t link to that one today because you’re probably bored of my incessant mentioning of it!
Anywhoos… in addition to its simplicity, this healthy chocolate pie crust is great for numerous other reasons: It’s chocolate. (Yay!) No lard, no partially-hydrogenated oils, and no ingredients you can’t pronounce. (You can pronounce “cocoa” right?) No added sugars, no flour, and it’s also gluten-free.
Healthy Chocolate Pie Crust
Healthy Chocolate Pie Crust
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder or cacao powder
- 1/2 cup raw cashews (or almonds, walnuts, pecans, or macadamia nuts)
- 1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut (See nutrition link below, for substitutions)
- 1/8 tsp salt
- scant 1/2 cup pitted dates (8 small dates) (Readers have said that raisins work as well)
Instructions
Healthy Chocolate Pie Crust Recipe: Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend. Then transfer to an 8-in baking dish or aluminum pan (as shown above). Using a piece of wax or parchment paper, smush into the pan and pour desired filling on top or refrigerate until ready to use. (Notes: I like Sunmaid dates, as they’re softer. Also, you can probably use a blender, but I haven’t personally tried it and therefore cannot vouch for it. And feel free to double or triple the healthy pie crust recipe for a bigger pie.)
I can’t show you what went on top of this particular healthy chocolate pie crust, as it’s scheduled to be Mothers’ Day dessert, and my mom reads my blog.
Happy Mothers’ Day to the most compassionate, selfless woman I know.
(Do you think we look alike? Just a little?!)
Pie crust: Love or Hate?
If we’re talking about that traditional flaky stuff, I’m going with yucky. When I lived in China, we frequented a restaurant that made really good apple pie. Except… I dislike crust, and my sister loathes apple pie. (Really. I don’t know how.) So we’d save money by sharing a slice: I’d eat all the filling and leave her the crust. Win for me, win for my sister, and big win for my mom who was paying!
Also, are you making anything for Mothers’ Day? I just took breakfast out of the oven: Fat-Free Banana Bread.
Incredible crust. Used very fine pecans (like a powder) and walnuts.
Hi Katie.
I used the chocolate pie crust for the peanut butter cup pie. It was divine! But it was a little crumbly. What could have gone wrong or how can I fix it?
Thank you
Depending on your dates, you might have to add a tiny bit of water. Should fix it right up!
Just wanted to let you know that i made this crust, but substituted oats for the coconut, since i didn’t have any, and it turned out to be fantastic! thanks again for another win that i can share with my non-vegan friends!! 🙂
Thank you for this recipe as I have a milk allergy and am looking for new ways to bake and cook…
Oh…I loved to see the photos of you and your mum. How beautiful! I am a mum too, and it made me cry with joy that you appreciate her so much. You are lucky to have each other.
hey!
I’m allergic to coconut, can i sub the coconut with something else?
thx!
The 30-Second Chocolate Pie Crust is so delicious! I really liked it! I don’t have a food processor so I cut the dates into tiny pieces and mixed it all up in the blender. I used cashew meal instead of whole cashews (a good bit less than 1/2 cup since I figured that whole nuts would have lots of space in between them in the measuring cup). I did end up moistening everything with a little light coconut milk which I had leftover from the Chocolate Greet Yogurt Pie – also fabulous – and it held together nicely. Thank you for the great recipe!
My husband and I changed our way of eating about 5 months ago as we were getting very unhealthy. I was preparing for a luncheon and wanted to serve a healthy but tasty dessert. Came across your recipe for chocolate pie crust but couldn’t find a filling for it that suited what I wanted. I started thinking that it might make good cookies so I put a batch in the food processor, added 2 tablespoons of natural peanut butter, rolled it into balls (1/16th of the recipe) and rolled them in a combination of ground almonds and sesame seed. OMG! They are to die for. My husband loves rum balls…might try adding rum flavouring next time. Thanks so much for the awesome start to an amazing treat that we could enjoy along with our company!!
Hi you little genius! I am dying to make your 30 second Chocolate Pie Crust. 2 problems. I don’t have a food processor, just a teeny little bullet type blender—what do you suggest. And in the 30 second pie crust–will Almond or Hazelnut meal suffice for the raw nuts? Thanks for all your wonderful recipes. I have to convert to GF and sugar free but the ones I have been able to try work well. I appreciate all you do! marleen
I’ve never tried, so you will have to experiment. But perhaps you can process it in multiple batches?
Hi, Katie!
I love your recipes, and have used many of them as a starting base to creatively modify for my diet. Today, however, I saw your No-Bake Peanut Butter pie and had to give this a spin (mainly because of what ingredients I had on hand). For starters, I used two very ripe bananas and 1 cup of cooked beats to puree with the rest of the ingredients in the pie base (except subbing for the oil, I used unsweetened applesauce). I also added about 1-1/2 tablespoons of cocoa powder plus the same amount of sweetener, and 3 small dates, and 1 cup of tahini in place of the peanut butter, in my Vita-Mix. For the crust, I used 8 small dates, 1 cup of pretzels, (skipped on the coconut and added salt), and about 2 tablespoons of chocolate milk to provide a little extra moisture. The above changes made the crust plus whipped velvet-red pie base look (and taste) spectacular!!! Thanks for your healthy, inspir-sensational recipes!! 🙂
Hi Katie! I am diabetic and I cannot eat neither dates nor raisins. Is there another possible substitution for this recipe? I bought your book and some recipes call for this chocolate pie crust. Thanks!
Karla
Just substitute your favorite pie crust of choice for those recipes. It will still work!
Great, thanks!!
This is delicious but SOOOOOO crumbly! I added a tablespoon of coconut oil, which helped. Even then it made a huge mess in my kitchen. Is there a way around the crumbliness?
If your dates are not as soft as Sunmaid, you may have to add a little water to add moisture. Then it will stick together. Hope that helps!
Hi Katie,
This looks great and I’m excited to try it for cheesecake. One quick question – would it be possible to use date syrup instead of the dates? I have a jar of the pure kind, without any sugar, which is pretty thick (thicker than the cheaper kind cut with sugar and water, which I also have, but not as thick as date paste, which I gather is what you’re going for here). TIA!
Same beautiful smile!
Thanks for your great recipes. Wondering, when you’re working on your site, if you could rearrange comments so they are in un-chronological order– with the most recent comments and replies on the top. To find your reply, I needed to scroll down from comments starting in 2012! Lots of time I could be putting to better use— like baking!
My husband is allergic to tree nuts, any substitutions for the cashews?
You could possibly use sunflower seeds. If you try it, definitely be sure to report back!