I’m Stretching: My Vegan Potluck Dessert

My dear friend Joan is vegan. She invited me to a potluck. I was determined to make a vegan dessert that was also gluten-free so as to please as many people at this party as possible. I was pretty stumped. I knew I could do a sorbet or something like that, but I wanted a non-frozen dessert. I knew a chocolate soy pudding-type dish was already going to be making an appearance, so I turned my thoughts to fruit. I’m a sucker for a good crisp; the creativity started flowing.

What if, I thought, I used tropical fruits like mango and banana and used some coconut in the topping along with coconut oil to replace the butter? I was on a roll. I stopped by my local Asian store and found ripe bananas and mangos – and picked up some palm sugar on a whim. I began to get excited. They happened to have some very ripe persimmons (how often does That happen?) so those came home with me too.

I based the topping recipe one a non-vegan version of mine that I love that features oats (from my Bake It To The Limit book). As with many crisps that I made, I allow the fruit filling to remain unsweetened as the topping itself is so sweet – and crunchy – and fabulous. Oh, how I love a crisp. I think they are best served warm. Too hot and the filling spills out too readily; room temp and you don’t get that warm, crispy sensation. 

You could play around with other fruit for the filling; just stick with approximate amounts. While you could add a scoop of ice cream to my Tropical Fruit Crisp with Palm Sugar, I swear it doesn’t even need it!