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Quick and easy, this no bake, paleo strawberry cream pie can be whipped up in a matter of minutes for a light, creamy dessert.
Through blogging, I have made some great friends. I've also found a lot of great people who think like me and with whom I can talk with about food and health topics. There are days when we surf Pinterest together and chat about the great (and not-so-great) recipes we come across.
One of those days a friend of mine came upon a strawberry pie on Pinterest made with strawberry Jello and Cool Whip. Her immediate reaction was “Yuck!”
OK, I get it. We're real food bloggers. We do n0t use packages of artificially flavored and colored foodstuffs made with questionable ingredients, and I was supposed to wholeheartedly agree.
And so I did.
Kind of.
But only after admitting that I used to make a strawberry Valentine's Day pie made by mixing ice cream with strawberry Jello myself.
My first strawberry cream pie
Yep, I said it. When I was a kid, I used to make a totally artificially flavored strawberry cream pie. I also made Fluff and Nutter sandwiches and numerous other non-paleo treats that would make most of you cringe. So were the days…
That pie recipe was in one of my favorite kid's holiday cookbooks, and I used to love it. But even if I were to want to make a pie with strawberry Jell-O and Cool Whip here and now, it's not a possibility. I can't find either of those ingredients here in Spain. By now I wouldn't want them anyway, but sometimes I'm happy that scarcity keeps me from possibly falling into those sorts of dietary trap again. 😉
In any case, once you get accustomed to eating real foods, you tend to crave only real foods. I haven't really craved Cool Whip in a long time. For now, I'd much prefer whipped cream that is either made with whipping cream or coconut cream, and I'd much rather make strawberry gelatin with fresh strawberries too.
Making a paleo version of the strawberry cream pie
I was pretty sure that I'd be able to come up with my own version of the Valentine's Day Strawberry Cream pie. Not only would it be just as quick and simple to make, but that it would be healthier.
In the end I like my paleo version quite a bit more than the original one I made as a kid. Interestingly enough, even my husband who normally won't even look at any dessert that isn't made with chocolate, admitted that he quite liked this pie too. (Of course, if it had been made with chocolate, he'd like it even more. Sigh. New post idea?)
This pie is super quick to make, and sets pretty quickly because it uses both gelatin and the fat and thickeners in the coconut milk to help solidify it into a pie that holds its shape when you slice it. Despite that, it's nice and light in texture (not in fat, of course).
The texture of your pie will depend a lot on the fat content of your particular coconut milk (and any thickeners in it).
If you use a brand that doesn't have a nice, thick layer of coconut cream floating on the top when you chill the can in the fridge, you may need to add more gelatin to the recipe to get the pie to hold its shape.
That's also why I don't think this would work with a homemade coconut milk. (If you were going to try using homemade coconut milk, you'd definitely need to increase the amount of gelatin, and I'm still not sure it would work.)
Enough said? Let's no-bake a pie!
Paleo Strawberry Cream Pie
Easy Paleo Strawberry Cream Pie
Makes 2 6-inch pies
Ingredients
For the Filling
- 13.5 oz. coconut milk 1 can, chilled for several hours
- 10 strawberries large (Or around 180g strawberry puree)
- 2 Tbsp. gelatin
- 3 Tbsp. honey
For the Crust
- 10 dates pitted
- 1 1/4 cup shredded coconut
Instructions
- Soak the dates in a glass of water while you gather the rest of your ingredients.
- Add the shredded coconut to a food processor and begin to process it until the coconut begins to stick together.
- Drain and add the dates to the food processor, one at a time, and continue to process the mixture until the dates are well chopped and a paste is formed.
- Press the coconut date mixture into the bottom of your pan(s). I was able to make two 6 inch pies with mine, but you can probably make one larger, 8-9 inch pie with the same ingredients. I pressed some of the mixture up the sides of the pan, which is a good idea the first time you try the recipe with a new type of coconut milk. (Some coconut milks set more solid in the refrigerator than others, in which case you would need to add more gelatin to make a pie that holds its shape when sliced.)
- Remove your can of coconut milk from the refrigerator and scoop the solidified cream off the top and put into a blender.
- Pour the remaining liquid in the bottom of the can into a saucepan along with the gelatin, and heat over low to medium heat, stirring constantly until the gelatin is well dissolved. If your can of coconut milk was mostly coconut cream and there was very little liquid left, you may need to add a couple of tablespoons of water to fully dissolve the gelatin.
- Once the gelatin is dissolved, add the honey to the warm gelatin mixture and stir until it is completely incorporated.
- Add the gelatin, honey mixture to the blender with the strawberries and coconut cream and process until it's a smooth puree.
- Pour the filling mixture into your prepared crusts, and refrigerate until set. (It's best to give yourself at least an hour, but it does tend to set pretty quickly.)
- Slice, serve, and enjoy!
Nutritional Information
If you love light, fluffy desserts and want to change things up a bit, you can also make a strawberry mousse with the same ingredients used in the filling. I'm about to post my paleo strawberry mousse recipe on Rubies and Radishes and will link from here when I get it up.
Can you use a substitute for the honey. I need it to be sugarfree. Thanks. I am looking forward to trying it.
Hi Mary,
I would think adding something like stevia would work. Any of the types of sweeteners that you usually use should work.
I love this pie, even my non-paleo friends go back for seconds! I’m making this for a large crowd this weekend, do you think I could double this and make it in a 9×13 pan to cut as bars?
Hi Stephanie
I hope I’m not answering too late. I was out all day yesterday, but yes! You should have no problem doubling the recipe.
Thanks so much for your kind words, and enjoy your get-together! 🙂
I could not find pitted dates at the local grocery store so I settled for dried chopped dates. Would that still work? If so, would you use the same process? How much of the chopped dates would you recommend?
Hi Tara,
Sure, you can definitely use those.
Basically, the dates are there just to help hold the crust together. I normally don’t even measure mine out (unless I’m working on elaborating a recipe) and use the same basic concept to make a paleo type crust for a variety of pies.
The base of my crust is normally a mix of coconut and/or nuts like almonds. I grind up the nuts and/or coconut until it starts to clump together and then add a few dates to sweeten and help bind everything together. If it’s not holding together when you press it into the pan, you can add more dates as needed. If it’s a little soft, don’t worry. It will harden up again in the fridge (unless you’ve really gone overboard on grinding into a liquid paste).
How much fat does the coconut milk need to have? I cannot find any coconut milks with fat content above 4.5grams. And none in cans. I did find evaporated coconut milk, but it only has 2 grams /2 tablespoons. Please advise and thank you!
Hi Mimi,
It’s not necessarily about the fat content. You need to look for one that gets thick when placed in the fridge.
To be honest, since I made this recipe, I’ve been moving away from cans, and wanted to try experimenting with making this with some of the more common coconut milks that can be found in the tetra brick type containers- or even seeing if I can adapt this recipe to use homemade coconut milk and more gelatin (although I’d imagine that the texture wouldn’t be as nice).
We were dealing with a family emergency, and I never got around to it- and in the chaos, not only did I not get around to trying it, but I also forgot about answering your comment- so I apologize.
I do plan on trying to adapt this recipe using other options and updating the post with the ideas. I think if you can find something labeled coconut cream, that should work wonderfully. (You don’t want to use the super sweet coconut cream meant for piña coladas, though- or it will make the final recipe way too sweet!)
Oh no! Made this pie as per instructions, except using just a bit more gelatin (green Great Lakes), and it is not firming! Been in the fridge for hours. Was so excited to serve it to family, and taste it myself (just like my Grandma’s!), and now I don’t know what to do because it’s runny. I used the full-fat Native Forest coconut milk. Any advice? I have it in the freezer, but hope it doesn’t get ruined.
Hi Stephanie,
I’m sorry it isn’t working out for you. This is one of my favorite recipes, and I make it quite a bit, and have made it with a few different coconut milks that can be found locally here, but I’m not familiar with Native Forest coconut milk. (I live in Spain.)
When you had your coconut milk in the fridge, did it mostly thicken up, or was it mostly liquid?
All of the brands that I have used here mostly thicken up in the fridge, leaving only a little bit of liquid in the bottom of the can.
I’m suspecting that if yours isn’t setting like mine, it’s because the coconut milk you used is a lot more liquid when cold, and doesn’t have the same sort of thickeners in it.
Honestly, if it hasn’t set by now, it probably won’t, so I would propose saving it into something useful by adding more gelatin to it. I’d probably proceed by dissolving more gelatin into a tiny bit of water and then pouring the liquid part of your filling into the mixture, stirring well until fully incorporated. You may need to slightly heat it to get it all mixed in, but I wouldn’t heat it too high or you’ll affect the fresh taste of the strawberries. How much gelatin you’ll need will be a bit of guesswork depending upon how liquid-y your mixture is right now.
You may not end up with a pie that is as creamy as mine (because mine works with the creamy thickness of the cold coconut milk to help thicken it, and not just the gelatin), but you should end up with something tasty still, and useable (with more of a consistency of gelatin).
I’m really sorry that the recipe didn’t work out exactly as written for you. Thank you for your comment, though- it really will help me make notes on the recipe that will hopefully prevent this from happening to other people. It is very important to me to have good, solid, easy to follow recipes on my blog, and comments like yours help me target problem areas that can be dependent upon using different brands of the same ingredients. Up until now, I hadn’t heard of any issues, but I had already figured that using homemade coconut milk wouldn’t work in this recipe. I hadn’t thought about how the more natural coconut milks, though.
I hope you are still able to fix it, and that it is still tasty.
Happy New Year.
The green Great Lakes is collagen, not gelatin. You need to use the red Great Lakes, which is gelatin.
Thanks Rosemary!
Yes, we realized what the Stephanie’s issue was. Well, I didn’t catch the problem, Daphne did. 😉
I haven’t used the green Great Lakes, which is why I didn’t notice what her problem was. I really appreciate it when people comment to help each other out, so thank you! 🙂
You need to use the red Great Lakes gelatin. The one in the green can doesn’t gel! You should be able to add the correct gelatin to it and let it firm in the fridge. I’ve done this before many times with gummies. Not sure if it will work in this pie.
Thanks, Daphne!
I totally overlooked that!
I was worried about the coconut milk because some varieties don’t use the same thickeners and thought that might be the problem. I didn’t notice that she had specified the green variety.
I really appreciate your help. 🙂
Would almond meal work in the crust instead of coconut?
Hi Amanda,
Yes, definitely. While I haven’t made it with only almonds and dates, it should totally work.
I often do a mixture of coconut and almond with the dates. If you process the coconut long enough, it starts to turn into coconut butter which helps hold it together. Of course, the same happens with almonds, they turn into almond butter. You don’t really need to process that long, though, because the dates really help hold everything together. It’s more about a matter of taste, and if you’re trying to use less dates.
I hope that makes sense. Play with it until you get the consistency you want, and you should be fine! 🙂
I was wondering if this recipe would work with blueberries instead of strawberries?
Hi Kat,
I haven’t tried it to know how it would turn out, but I imagine that it would work well. The consistency of the pie is mainly determined by the coconut milk and the gelatin, so the strawberries are there mostly for flavor.
You might have to play with the recipe a little to get the consistency right (You could probably get away with less blueberries and since they probably bring less moisture, you may not need as much gelatin), but I’m sure it would be tasty. 🙂
In any case, when going for a pie consistency, erring on the side of too much gelatin is probably a good thing- so as not to have a runny pie.
Oh, that’s beautiful! And so easy, too! Thanks so much for sharing it!
This is so pretty!
Thanks, Bethany! 🙂
This pie looks incredible! I love that its paleo and no-bake!
Thanks, Bethany!
It’s super easy to make, too. 🙂