Creamy Chocolate Avocado Pudding Recipe in 10 Minutes or Less.

No-cook Dark Chocolate Avocado Pudding with Coconut and Bananas is so good and so easy it might become your new go-to chocolate pudding recipe.

Recently, I interviewed Cynthia Stadd, a nutrition professional and eating psychology practitioner about why dieting sucks and how we can all live much happier lives by never submitting ourselves to their evil power ever again.

Ok. That's a definite paraphrase. But, Cynthia has a way of cutting through the bullshit the diet industry piles on about the "right" and "wrong" way to eat and live. I find her approach to health and well being absolutely liberating. You can read that interview here.

But, before our talk, I asked Cynthia what her current favorite sweet treat is. Her response? Chocolate Avocado Pudding made with coconut. I'd made something similar years ago, but kind of forgot about it. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to make some and share the recipe with you, dear reader and fellow baker, even though this isn't technically a "batter" or a "dough".

What this IS, is delicious, so I hope you'll forgive me the detour.

A couple of years ago, I came across a no cook recipe for chocolate pudding that was made with avocados.

I was so intrigued that I whipped up a batch on the spot. It was shockingly delicious. So much so that I was convinced no one would ever guess that it wasn't a traditional chocolate pudding recipe, made from milk and eggs.

To test this theory, I dished some out to my three kids, all teenagers at the time, and asked them if they could guess the secret ingredient. After several serious (and incorrect) guesses, they started throwing out random ingredients, just for the fun of it. "Mustard!" "BBQ Sauce!" "Chicken livers!" "Cow toes!"

It only went down hill from there. But none of them ever guessed that their chocolate pudding contained avocados. In fact, 2 of them swore they hated avocados, even though they had just licked their bowls clean. They were flabbergasted.

Besides being amazingly delicious, Chocolate Avocado Pudding is Quick, Easy and Adaptable

First of all, this chocolate pudding takes about 5-10 minutes to make. You just dump all the ingredients into a blender or food processor and mix. I generally use my Vitamix blender. But a food processor works just as well.

Second, this isn't one of those recipes where following it to the letter is necessary. View the recipe more as loose guidelines than hard and fast rules. The mild, creamy nature of avocados makes a fantastic background for pretty much any other flavor. Feel free to swap out ingredients willy-nilly to suite your nutritional needs and taste buds.

For Vegans

The only thing you need to do to make this chocolate pudding vegan, is substitute another variety of liquid sweeter for the honey. Maple Syrup, sorghum syrup, agave syrup or brown rice syrup are all great options.

For People Following a Paleo Diet

If you follow a Paleo diet you might want to substitute the bittersweet melted chocolate for unsweetened melted chocolate and just increase the amount of sweeter to taste. Since cocoa powder and unsweetened chocolate will add quite a bit of bitterness to the chocolate avocado pudding, you might need to add as much as double the amount of sweeter called for in this recipe. Start with ⅓ of a cup of additional sweeter, taste and add more until it's as sweet as you like.

Recipe Notes and More Options:

1. While many recipes for chocolate avocado pudding contains cocoa powder, this recipe uses both cocoa powder and melted bittersweet chocolate. This combination produces a rich, deeply dark chocolate pudding that can be sweetened to the level that meets your personal tastes.

2. Using a combination of honey and sorghum syrup adds flavor complexity to this chocolate avocado pudding that compliments the chocolate and balances the savory elements from the avocados and salt. Having said that, feel free to use any kind, or combination, of natural liquid sweeteners. Agave syrup, maple syrup or brown rice syrup would all be delicious.

3. This chocolate avocado pudding recipe has a fairly pronounced banana and coconut flavor. Bananas, coconut, chocolate, and cinnamon is a wining flavor combination in my book. But, if you'd prefer the flavors of banana and coconut to hang out in the background, barely detectable, this recipe is easy to adjust. Simply use only one banana instead of two and replace the coconut milk with a mild nut milk like almond or cashew. You can also omit the cinnamon, of course, or replace it with instant espresso powder.

4. Other ideas for flavor additions: ½ teaspoon of cardamom, a pinch of ground hot chili pepper, or 1 teaspoon of almond extract. You could also replace some of the coconut oil with peanut butter or another nut butter, or add a swirl of salted caramel sauce.