When my family requested a curry for Thanksgiving I wanted to come up with a festive but lighter dessert that would sit well on top of a heavy curry! This fluffy mousse was perfect topped with a small scoop of cashew ice cream (I love the So Delicious brand), a few slivers of candied ginger, and a smattering of toasted maple almonds.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup of raw cashews soaked in water for 2 hours
- 1/2 cup of melted coconut oil
- 1 large can (796ml) of organic pumpkin puree or the equivalent amount of pureed roasted fresh sugar pumpkin.
- 2 tsp. of pumpkin pie spice
- 1/2 tsp. of cardamom powder (ground fresh from the whole pods is always best) *
- 1 tsp. of true cinnamon
- 1 tsp. of vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp. of maple syrup
- several chunks of crystallized ginger to garnish
- one recipe of maple almonds (recipe follows)
* If using whole cardamom pods, gently crush the pods with a pestle to expose the seeds.
Remove the husks and then crush the seeds with your pestle into a fine powder.
Drain and rinse the soaked cashews.
In a high speed blender combine the cashews with the melted coconut oil until smooth and creamy.
Add the pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice, cardamom powder, cinnamon, vanilla, and maple syrup to the cashew cream and blend until smooth and well combined.
Spoon the mixture evenly into 6 1/2 cup mason jars or 12 1/4 cup mason jars.
Place the filled jars in the refrigerator to set while you prepare the almonds.
To make almonds:
You can either dehydrate these for 12 hours prior to preparing the mousse or just toast them on a parchment lined baking sheet in a 350 degree oven.
- 1 cup of raw almonds (soaked overnight and first dehydrated if you are going for the dehydrator option, otherwise just raw almonds is fine.)
- a few tablespoons of maple syrup
- a pinch of sea salt
- 1/2 tsp. true cinnamon
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. In a small bowl combine the almonds with maple syrup, sea salt and cinnamon. Mix well to coat. Spread the maple coated almonds onto a parchment lined baking sheet and bake until the almonds are toasted and the maple syrup has mostly evaporated. (about 25 min.) Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Once cooled, chop into smaller pieces. If using the dehydrator, spread the mixture onto a teflex sheet and dehydrate at 117 degrees F. for 12 hours.
To serve, add a scoop of ice cream of your choice, a sprinkling of maple almonds and a tsp. or so of chopped crystallized ginger!
