Vegan White Chocolate Pie

You just have to be a kid at heart to enjoy this vegan White Chocolate Pie. It's part pie, part candy, part ice cream, part cheesecake, and fully dreamy. A gluten-free shortbread crust cradles a filling of white-chocolate silk, and on top goes an easy but yummy raspberry drizzle.

I love white chocolate -- unabashedly and unapologetically -- and if you do too, I have the perfect dessert for you today: my vegan White Chocolate Pie with a raspberry drizzle.

White chocolate is one of the handful of things I hated giving up when I became vegan, and although you can buy white chocolate chips that are vegan online, it's never really been quite the same. Until I learned to start baking with cocoa butter.

I buy cocoa butter mainly for skincare products that I make at home (and love! White chocolate vanilla body butter, anyone?). But since the kind I buy is also organic and edible, I have been increasingly using it in my baking. It's been quite a revelation.

Cocoa butter (also called cacao butter) has an addictive chocolate aroma, but it really doesn't have a strong chocolate flavor. And since it's the stuff that white chocolate is made of anyway (usually with milk added in the storebought versions), it lends itself perfectly for use as white chocolate in vegan baking.

How to make the perfect white chocolate pie crust:

• My crust of choice is a gluten-free almond crust that comes together quickly in the food processor. I throw in superfine almond flour, sugar, vanilla and a bit of oil and process it together, then pat it into the pie pan. The rest of the pie is no-bake but the crust does need a 10-minute turn in the oven.
• If you want a no-bake crust, try this pie with my Oreo crust, which I shared in this vegan Peanut Butter Oreo Pie. It is not gluten-free, but it comes together in five minutes in the food processor and it tastes like heaven. Besides, a chocolate crust with a white chocolate filling...it's a no-brainer!
• You can also just go with a walnut-graham-cracker crust like the one in my vegan Mango Cheesecake Recipe.

How to make the silky pie filling:

• Melt your cocoa butter thoroughly in a double boiler. Now that's just a fancy term for a bowl with the cocoa butter placed on top of a saucepan with water inside it. You don't want your butter to be in direct contact with the water at any time, but you want to let the heat from the water boiling in the saucepan underneath help it melt.
• Now this is an important step, so make sure you follow it. Add the sugar to the bowl with the hot cocoa butter after it's melted, and let it be for a couple of minutes. I do this because I don't use powdered sugar in this recipe -- I prefer the regular. But since we are not baking the filling, if you add sugar as is to the filling, it will be too grainy. Letting it hang out with the cocoa butter for a few minutes will warm the sugar up (it won't melt), and when you make your filling in the food processor, the sugar will effortlessly melt into the rest of the ingredients.
• Use the coconut oil because coconut oil will help the pie hold its shape, along with the cocoa butter itself.
• This is a soft pie, almost like a chocolate silk pie, and you need to freeze it for best results. Cut while frozen and serve. It will melt as you scoop it up with your fork, and will dissolve on your tongue beautifully.
• I love the raspberry drizzle on this pie -- it's just raspberry jam mixed with a tablespoon of water -- and it complements the white chocolate perfectly. You can leave it out, but I think it makes this already amazing pie even more amazing. Plus, it looks pretty.
• Finally, this is a rich pie, so don't eat it all at one sitting (you'll be tempted to, and I won't blame you, but please, don't). Cut yourself a thin slice and sink into a cloud of deliciousness. And be sure to share!

Ingredients for the vegan White Chocolate Pie:

• Almond flour
• Maple syrup
• Pure vanilla extract
• Sugar
• Coconut oil
• Cocoa butter or cacao butter
• Vegan cream cheese
• Raw cashews
• Raspberry jam (optional)

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Looking for more tasty vegan pies and tarts?

• Vegan Peanut Butter Oreo Pie
• Vegan Salted Chocolate Hazelnut Tart
• Vegan Pumpkin Praline Tart, gluten-free
• Vegan French Apple Tart
• Vegan Sweet Potato Pie

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Vegan White Chocolate Pie Recipe