One Creamy Fruit Is The Secret To Better Desserts

Your creamy desserts just got creamier and less dairy-heavy, thanks to a silky, smooth green fruit. While a bit different from your sourdough avocado toasts or green smoothies, avocados prove they're much more than a trendy health food when used as an alternative to creams and butters in your desserts. Jennifer Boggiss, the CEO of Heilala Vanilla, told Tasting Table that it adds a luxurious richness while reducing dairy content. "It works wonderfully in mousses, cheesecakes, and even ice creams," she said. "Its creamy texture blends seamlessly, complementing flavors like chocolate, citrus, and vanilla beautifully."

Not only are avocados naturally creamy, but they're also a great source of healthy fats and fiber that can boost the goodness of your favorite sweets. But, the best part is that it's not even complicated to do. Simply replace the same amount of fresh, mashed avocado with however much butter, cream, or oil your recipe calls for. The catch, however, is that your avocados should be ripe to ensure they deliver as similar of a consistency as possible. Follow our tips for picking the best ones at the store and look for ones with dark green skin with an ever so slight give — soft, but not mushy. Then, to avoid chunks, you can run them through your blender for a few seconds before mixing them into your recipe.

While you can never go wrong with a tray of avocado brownies, Boggiss says avocados are best used in chilled desserts. In the Philippines, for example, people have long been blending or mixing these mashed fruits with sweetened condensed milk and ice. Eaten by spoon or slurped with a straw, the mixture creates the ideal sweet treat for a hot summer day — and just as Boggiss suggests, it can easily be combined with the flavors of chocolate, citrus, or vanilla, to create something just as simple, with even more dimension.

Used as a substitute for the butter and heavy cream, avocado will also mend seamlessly into the flavors of your chocolate mousse — although this is an instance in which you'll want to break out the blender. The same thing goes for your cheesecake, in which case the avocado's texture, taste, and color will lend well to creating a dairy-free key lime or Mexican-inspired avocado and lime flavor. Avocado ice cream, on the other hand, will come out best with the help of an at-home ice cream maker. Even so, because avocados are so naturally creamy, it's not absolutely necessary.

Combined with lime, pistachios, or even Oreo cookies and chocolate chips, avocados can be replaced with or combined with cream and butter — or a plant-based alternative — to make all of your favorite chilled desserts less dairy-heavy or completely dairy-free.