Growing up we didn't eat dessert often in my home and as a consequence dessert cooking; pastries, chocolate, etc... was not part of my cooking education. I'm not complaining about this, while I lack many of the kitchen skills to deal with sweet ingredients I also lack much of the weakness to eat sweet foods. Don't get me wrong I'm hardly impervious to sweets but there are lots of them I don't want. For instance: I'll eat most cakes if you put a piece in my hand but I'd rather have fresh fruit and forget the icing, typical icing like you get out of the can on the supermarket shelf I won't touch. Also, I like apple pie but I will actively refuse cherry, banana cream, pumpkin and a whole host of other pies. I'll eat most homemade ice creams but very few store bought. In short I'm a picky dessert eater, I'll eat my greens, no problem, but I don't do a good job cleaning my plate when it comes to desserts.
It was therefore a bit of a surprise to me to find myself playing around with dessert recipes. Mom asked me to make chocolate pudding from a recipe she had in a magazine. Discovering how easy pudding is to make; cornstarch, flavor, sugar and milk, I decided to branch out and experiment with other types of pudding. Given my lack of interest in typical desserts, what isn't so surprising is that I quickly ventured into the unusual.
This is one such recipe. Before you get too concerned it has been taste tested by people with more conventional dessert taste.
Avocado Lime Pudding
This recipe makes 4 servings:
In a medium sauce pan cook the butter/oil and masa flour as you would a white roux. I wanted this recipe to have a South American flare so I choose to make my pudding thickener with masa flour instead of all purpose flour or cornstarch. If you have never used masa flour to make a roux I recommend it, it doesn't have quite the thickening power that wheat flour does but it is close and the masa flour adds a nice nutty, sweet taste to whatever your thickening. The flavor in pudding is reminiscent of Indian pudding. If you don't have access to masa flour then leave out the butter/oil, and flour. Instead add 4 tablespoons of cornstarch to the cold ingredients.
Once the masa flour and butter/oil have developed into a roux add the rest of the ingredients and stir constantly until mixture comes to a boil and thickens. If the avocado is in a big lump at first don't worry as the mixture heats the avocado will break apart and mix evenly with the milk.
Remove from heat, pour into serving dishes and refrigerate for 1 hour before serving.
A note about this recipe:
We work very hard in this household to limit the amount of fat we eat, so when I started making puddings I used the milk we had on hand which was non-fat. I quickly discovered that pudding needs a little fat. That is how I came to use avocado, avocado has "good fat" and a mild flavor which is masked by most other ingredients. If you are concerned about fat in your diet there are quite a few applications where avocado can be a substitute for cream including most puddings. If for instance you would like to make chocolate pudding combine cocoa powder with the avocado before mashing then add it to the milk, sugar, and cornstarch. Avocado can also be substituted in soups that call for cream. It cannot be a substitute in applications where the "fat" needs to be cooked such as in biscuits or sautes. Mashed avocado is not going to taste just like cream but it is very close, give it a try you might like it.
It was therefore a bit of a surprise to me to find myself playing around with dessert recipes. Mom asked me to make chocolate pudding from a recipe she had in a magazine. Discovering how easy pudding is to make; cornstarch, flavor, sugar and milk, I decided to branch out and experiment with other types of pudding. Given my lack of interest in typical desserts, what isn't so surprising is that I quickly ventured into the unusual.
This is one such recipe. Before you get too concerned it has been taste tested by people with more conventional dessert taste.
Avocado Lime Pudding
This recipe makes 4 servings:
- 1/3 cup masa flour (corn flour)
- 1/3 cup butter (Smart Balance in my case) or oil of your choice (olive or canola)
- 1 avocado mashed
- zest of 2 limes
- 1 tablespoon of lime juice
- 1/2 cup of sugar (I use 1/4 cup brown and 1/4 cup of splenda)
- 1/4 teaspoon of salt
- 1 teaspoon coconut extract
- 2 cups of no-fat milk
In a medium sauce pan cook the butter/oil and masa flour as you would a white roux. I wanted this recipe to have a South American flare so I choose to make my pudding thickener with masa flour instead of all purpose flour or cornstarch. If you have never used masa flour to make a roux I recommend it, it doesn't have quite the thickening power that wheat flour does but it is close and the masa flour adds a nice nutty, sweet taste to whatever your thickening. The flavor in pudding is reminiscent of Indian pudding. If you don't have access to masa flour then leave out the butter/oil, and flour. Instead add 4 tablespoons of cornstarch to the cold ingredients.
Once the masa flour and butter/oil have developed into a roux add the rest of the ingredients and stir constantly until mixture comes to a boil and thickens. If the avocado is in a big lump at first don't worry as the mixture heats the avocado will break apart and mix evenly with the milk.
Remove from heat, pour into serving dishes and refrigerate for 1 hour before serving.
A note about this recipe:
We work very hard in this household to limit the amount of fat we eat, so when I started making puddings I used the milk we had on hand which was non-fat. I quickly discovered that pudding needs a little fat. That is how I came to use avocado, avocado has "good fat" and a mild flavor which is masked by most other ingredients. If you are concerned about fat in your diet there are quite a few applications where avocado can be a substitute for cream including most puddings. If for instance you would like to make chocolate pudding combine cocoa powder with the avocado before mashing then add it to the milk, sugar, and cornstarch. Avocado can also be substituted in soups that call for cream. It cannot be a substitute in applications where the "fat" needs to be cooked such as in biscuits or sautes. Mashed avocado is not going to taste just like cream but it is very close, give it a try you might like it.
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