Avocado for dessert?

My aunt loves dark chocolate. Understand me now…she LOVES dark chocolate! So it didn’t surprise me when she offered me some wondrously smooth dark chocolate pudding…until she said, “It’s made with avocado.” Never dreamed I’d have avocado for dessert!

I looked again at the smooth mixture and took a tentative bite. It was delicious and chocolatey…and not green! I wouldn’t have believed it, but it’s true. Avocado is so good, it’s even good for dessert!

Recently I was looking at that recipe and thought, “I need to post this just for fun.” I went online and actually found several recipes like it, but not this particular one. I like to give credit where credit is due, but I just couldn’t find the exact match to this. I’ll share the recipe in a moment, but first, let’s look at the best way to get into that avocado goodness.

Choose carefully

Avocados are famous for ripening when you’re not looking. I mean by that, you might check them every day or even twice a day, but if you forget to check, they go bad. From hard and green to rotten overnight. The best bet is to choose one right before you’re going to use it.

A sweet lady in the grocery store told me to choose the one that has the slightest bit of “give” if you squeeze it lightly using your ring finger – in other words, your weakest finger. If it gives just a little, that one should be ready to go. If it’s mushy, too late. You can use the perfectly ripe avocado that day or put it in the fridge for maybe 1 or 2 days, but that’s about it.

First cut is just like a peach

Remember when I was cutting up peaches to freeze? (see that article here) The very first cut you make on an avocado is exactly the same. Wash it and line up a pretty good-sized knife (I use a small chef’s knife) with the center of the avocado longways. Cut all the way to the pit and, rolling the avocado in your hand, cut all the way around it.

Now grasp both halves and twist. It should come right open. You can use a grapefruit spoon to scoop out the pit and scoop the flesh from the skin, but I think there’s a better way! (Don’t get me wrong, grapefruit spoons are a “must have” tool…just not for this purpose. I’ll address its other uses soon though!)

Cut the half into strips

Still cutting longways, cut the half without the pit into 4 strips. You should be able to grasp the skin from either end and simply peel it away from the flesh. No grapefruit spoon needed…it will come right off!

Sometimes you’ll find a little bruise or black spot right up by the skin, and peeling away the skin will often take that bad spot right off with it. If not, just trim it before serving or eating.

(Note: if you’ve left your avocado too long and the skin is too dry, it may break as you try to bend it away from the flesh. THIS is where you need the grapefruit spoon to rescue you!)

Removing the avocado pit

Avocados also turn black when left out in the air. Somehow, the pit protects against that somewhat. That’s why you wanna leave the pit in the second half until you have finished with the first one.

Now that we’re ready to take it out, give a smart whack of the cutting edge of the knife right into that pit. It should be hard enough to stick into the pit and allow you to turn it enough to loosen it from the flesh. Thump the handle of the knife right in front of your hand on the edge of the trash can, and that pit should come right off.

Repeat cutting this half into strips. Trim any dark spots and chop and/or mash if using in a recipe. And here’s the pudding recipe!

Avocados for Dessert – Avocado Chocolate Pudding

• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 small avocado, mashed
• ¼ c almond milk (I used coconut)
• 2 Tbsp maple syrup (this is where I got creative!)
• ½ c dark chocolate chips, melted (I used semi-sweet)
• 3 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

Blend all ingredients together till smooth and chill.

Pretty simple overall. You can combine everything with a food processor to make sure the avocado gets completely mashed and mixed in…so the green doesn’t show.

As I said, I found some other recipes that were very similar, and they actually inspired me to try some substitutions for the maple syrup (something I don’t keep on hand).

Fun experimenting

First, I tried 3 Tbsp of defrosted cranberry juice concentrate. There are lots of fancy chocolate recipes with red fruit in them so why not? I had some trouble getting it to mix well, so I added another ¼ c coconut milk. That made it a little too runny BUT after chilling, it was perfect. Nice deep, dark chocolate taste with just a hint of fruitiness. Fabulous!

The second batch, I used 3 soaked dates as the sweetener. I wanted those dates to chop up in the food processor just as small as possible so they would be fully incorporated. To soften them up, I put them in a small bowl just barely covered with water and microwaved them on high for 1 minute.

They were super hot! I carefully scooped them out with a fork and dropped them in the food processor. I saved their water just in case, but I had no trouble mixing up this batch. Though it came out a little more textured than smooth after chilling, it was the sweetest of the two batches by a mile.

The recipe I found that inspired me to play around a bit with the sweetener? This one by Minimalist Baker – Chocolate Peanut Butter Avocado Pudding (but I think banana should be part of the title as it is a key flavor in the mix).

Super easy in the food processor. Obviously, a different taste with the banana and nut butter in there (I actually used sunflower seed nut butter! And I cut back on the honey by 1 Tbsp), but no less wonderful. My sweet tooth was definitely happy after this experiment.

I’m not a huge dessert fan, but if I’m gonna eat it, I want something really chocolatey. Any one of these options is a winner in that department. And with only 4 small servings (that last one says it makes 6), it’s the perfect decadent dessert without many leftovers! Give it a try…even if you don’t love avocados, I bet you’ll love this. Tell me about it in the comments below!