No Bake Blackberry Tarts with Cashew Cream
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These No Bake Blackberry Tarts with Blueberry Cashew Cream are a fun and tasty dessert that happen to be healthy for you. No baking required, this easy to make dessert is perfect for Summer time BBQs and parties and you don’t even have to turn on a oven! Sound good?
So as I was rearranging the old cookbook collection I came across some wonderful old favorites and one’s cover art made me think of tarts. Fruit tarts to be exact. This cover photo of the glistening berries all nestled in the lemon curd looked scrumptious. And that got me thinking.
It’s summer time and I love individual desserts like these tarts. These No Bake Blackberry Tarts with Blueberry Cashew Cream have no sugar added, are dairy free and gluten free. The tart shell is made from nuts and dates with a cashew cream filling, making this a healthy and delicious, easy to make dessert. Yes, sometimes I even make a healthy dessert. More for my own creative outlet and to see how good I can make.  🙂
So for the cream filling, it’s basically a magical thing. A simple thing to make and oh so tasty. Cashews are soaked overnight in a 2:1 water to nut ratio and puréed with a few other goodies for a delicious cream.
The amazing crust for these is no bake as well. It comes together using one of nature’s perfect foods, the date. And if you’re not a fan of dates, no worries, you really don’t taste them as they basically are the glue that holds these walnut and almond tart shells together. Pretty cool, no?
I could easily eat the nut mixture on it’s own, which gives me another recipe idea actually.
Place the walnuts and almonds in a food processor and pulse for two minutes to start breaking down the nuts to a meal like consistency. Remove the pits from the dates and discard. Add the dates, water and kosher salt and pulse again for a minute or two until the dough comes together.
I use non-stick tart shells, but if you don’t, grease the tart shells with a little oil or vegetable spray. Divide the nut dough into each tart shell and form the shell, pressing down and up the sides to completely cover the tart pan. Refrigerate for 10 minutes to firm up.
Drain and rinse the soaked cashews with cold water. While soaking, any dirt and dust is removed as well as tannin. I read that tannin is basically nature’s very own pesticide that keeps predators from eating them. The soaking process makes the nut easier to pureé and better for digestive reasons, too.
Place the drained cashews in a Vitamix or other high powered blender with almond milk, the maple syrup and vanilla. Blend on high for at least two minutes.
I used ground vanilla beans and boy are these guys potent. I highly recommend these, but found they also tend to darken the cream, so I added freeze dried blueberries since the cream was almost a grey color. This made it look a little more palatable to me visually. Maybe next time I will just use the liquid vanilla. I love the freeze dried fruits you can get now and when pulverized add so much and not the water content in recipes. Pretty cool.
Spoon the cashew cream into each of the tart shells and top with the blackberries, though feel free to use any berry you prefer.
Keep these refrigerated until ready to serve. The longer the cashew cream sits the thicker it becomes so I would blend the cashew cream together right before serving and top with the berries if you prefer.
This recipe makes 4 tarts and we had 2Â one evening and the next these were so delicious. These are quite filling so you could easily split this with someone, too.
A dessert that happens to be healthy for you, sign me up.Â
For other tart recipes, try my Strawberry Tarts with Chocolate Cookie Crust or these Macadamia, Ginger and Caramel Tarts. Â Enjoy!
This recipe appeared first on Kevin Is Cooking in June 2016 and has been updated with a new video.
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No Bake Blackberry Tarts with Blueberry Cashew Cream
Ingredients
- Tart Shells
- 1 cup raw unsalted almonds
- 1 cup raw unsalted walnuts
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 8 Medjool dates pits removed
- 2 tbsp water
- Cream Filling
- 2 cups raw unsalted cashews (soaked in water overnight)
- 1/4 cup almond milk
- 3 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tsp ground vanilla beans or 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 cup freeze dried blueberries optional
- 2 cups blackberries washed, or berry of choice
Instructions
- Soak 2 cups of unsalted cashew in water overnight (see Note 1). Remove the pits from the dates and discard. Soak the dates for 5 minutes with enough hot water to just cover, set aside.
- Place the walnuts and almonds in a food processor and pulse for two minutes to start breaking down the nuts to a meal like consistency. Add the drained dates, water and kosher salt and pulse again for a minute or two until the dough comes together.
- Divide the nut dough into each tart shell and form the shell, pressing down and up the sides to completely cover the tart pan (see Note 2). Refrigerate for 10 minutes to firm up.
- Drain and rinse the soaked cashews with cold water. Place the drained cashews in a Vitamix or other high powered blender with almond milk, the maple syrup and vanilla. Blend on high for at least two minutes. Add freeze dried fruit if you like at this stage.
- Spoon the cashew cream into each of the tart shells and top with the blackberries. Keep these refrigerated until ready to serve.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
This sounds so delicious! I love cashew cream and love using the dates in the nut crust. They would give that sweetness without added sugar that’s so good. I wish I had blackberries and cashews so I could make this today!
You can also make this with other fruit, too Cathy! Hope things are well for you. 🙂
Every Thanksgiving we host a big dinner party for friends and I always struggle with desserts… we have one friend with a dairy allergy and another with a gluten allergy. Now I have the perfect dessert to serve both of them! Thank you thank you thank you!
That’s fantastic as I was wondering if I should post this as I often times do more desserts on the indulgent end of the spectrum! This is deliciously filling and super healthy for sugar, dairy and GF reasons. Glad I did and have a great weekend Brian.
Just beautiful photos! Your dessert looks so decadent yet not a lot of ingredients. Love it! Pinning this for later! This is giving me some good ideas.
Thank you so much for the kind words Theresa. These are quite filling and so good for you, too. Can’t beat it! 🙂
Goodness I love the story your pictures tell! That overhead shot of the shells and then the finished tarts… I need these in my life! I could eat that cashew cream with a spoon…for days…
Very kind words, thanks Annie! I swear, each component in this can be devoured (I mean savored) on it’s own, so good.
As someone who has little desire to turn the oven on from June-September, I’m totally digging these no-bake tarts! Nicely done!!!
Thanks Brian, appreciate it. The cream is super tasty and filling, and can be easily switched up with different fruit as a flavoring. Actually each component in this could be eaten completely on it’s own. Gotta love Summertime! Hope your time on the Cape was a fun one.
That’s a really interesting recipe, thanks! I’m intrigued by the cashew cresm, the tart shells, and the filling.
The cream is super tasty and filling, and can be easily switched up with different fruit as a flavoring. Actually each component in this could be eaten completely on it’s own.
Those tarts look berry good 😉 What a life saver as well – I have two friends that can’t eat dairy or gluten and I never know what dessert to offer. The only diary and gluten free dessert in my repertoire is my healthy avocado chocolate mousse which is delicious but I would love to offer them a different dessert for a change 😉 So excited to try your Blackberry Tarts! Pinned!
Thank you Miriam, glad I could assist here with these for your friends. 🙂 Although if I was a guest that avocado chocolate mousse sounds perfecto! Have a great weekend.
Yea so these photos are GORGEOUS! And isn’t cashew cream just the GREATEST thing ever?? When I started excluding dairy out of my diet I discovered cashew cream…and never looked back 🙂
Thanks Mila. These are so good and yes, that cream. Wow. Surprisingly filling, too.
Well these tarts are all sorts of fabulous, Kevin!! No bake, healthy and packed with fresh fruity flavor?! LOVE! And that blueberry cashew cream sounds absolutely delicious! Seriously, I want to stuff my face with these tarts of repeat! Gorgeous photos, buddy! Pinned! Cheers!
Thanks Chey! I’ll warn you that one of these is quite filling, but oh so tasty!
Hey Kevin! These look and sound wonderful! I always look forward to fresh berries. I think I’ve mentioned before that I love dates so these tart shells are calling my name! I don’t have small tart shells, but I do have a muffin top pan that I think would work, they just wouldn’t have the pretty fluted sides! 🙂
I swear the tart shell made of the nuts and dates alone ids a dessert! Make sure that muffin pan is well greased so they pop out after refrigerating. THEN fill with cream. Good stuff Dorothy. 🙂