Five Ways to Eat Avocados For Dessert

In Chile, millions of avocados are eaten every day, spread on fresh bread with a sprinkle of salt—the most delicious way to eat nature's butter. 

Californians also love them in everything savory—from burritos, to sushi, to breakfast. If you're adventurous enough to wrap your mind around the concept though, avocados are delicious as a dessert. You can find them served like this all over Asia and South America—and even in Scotts Valley. Sweetened and cold, the avocado's nutty flavor is overpowering and rich.

A $1 Mini-Avocado Pie dessert special at The Heavenly Cafe in Scotts Valley started it all. It's a three-inch buttery Graham cracker crust with mysterious green filling, a dollop of whipped cream and toasted walnuts tossed over the top. The "beautiful stepsister of keylime pie," as one food blogger called it, is citrusy but with an unmistakeably avocado-y flavor. Different at first, but not bad at all. 

Organic avocados from the Santa Cruz County Farmers Markets are delicious and ripe, which means they are perfect for making into desserts. Old Creek Ranch is bringing their Cayucos-grown Hass avocados (the dark-skinned ones) to markets right now, and you can save a few bucks by picking out some beauties from the reduced-price bin. Pick up a few extras for a sweet experimentation.

Here are a few ways to eat your avocados for dessert:

1. Mango Smoothie with Avocado:

It's like a mango lassi...kind of. Blend one cup of cold milk, one ripe mango (peeled), honey (as much as you want), and one half to one whole avocado, depending on how much avocado you can handle. Good served on a hot day.

2. Creamy Avocado Milk Shake

The avocado milk shake is insanely delicious for the first sips but it is extremely rich. In Indonesia, it's commonly made with a shot of espresso. Check out an interesting read on the secret dessert life of avocados in Indonesia, found on "The Traveler's Lunch Box" blog. 

• 1 ripe Haas (dark-skinned) avocado, peeled and pitted
• 4 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk (you can find organic sweetened condensed milk at )
• 1 cup cold milk, more or less depending on thickness desired
• a few drops orange extract, or some vanilla, rum or coffee (optional)
• Crushed ice and additional sweetened condensed milk for serving

Blend all of the ingredients, minus the ice. You can throw a few ice cubes into the blender if you want a more frothy consistency. Pour over the ice cubes for a creamy dessert.

3. Coconut Avocado Ice Cream

The two are in on the avocado dessert possibilities too. Here is a recipe for coconut avocado ice cream, adapted from Sunset Magazine. You need an ice cream maker for this one. Click HERE to read more about it.

• 2 ripe, medium avocados, chilled
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 (14-ounce) can coconut milk

In a blender or food processor, blend avocado flesh, sugar, condensed milk and coconut milk until smooth. Process in ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions.

4. Avocado Pie

There are a million recipes out there for avocado pies, some calling for cream cheese, some just sweet and condensed milk. Here is one that calls for cream cheese and looks pretty appetizing for a green dessert.

5. Avocado Chocolate Mousse

This recipe is courtesy of avocado.org, and was contributed by Adrian Halmagean.

• 1 ripe, Fresh California Avocado, halved, peeled and seeded
• ½ cup cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• ½ cup agave syrup
• ¼ cup coconut milk
• ¼ cupsliced strawberries

1. Chop the avocado into a few medium-sized pieces and put it in a food processor
2. Add the cocoa powder, vanilla, agave syrup and coconut milk to the food processor and blend on high for about thirty seconds, or until mousse reaches desired consistency
3. Serve it chilled with fresh sliced strawberries.

*Large avocados are recommended for this recipe. A large avocado averages about 8 ounces. If using smaller or larger size avocados, adjust the quantity accordingly.