Chocolate Avocado Dream (Cookies)

On an evergoing search to make delicious, yet healthy cookies and cake (utopian dreams, we all have them, right?!) I came across weird and wondrous mentions of the avocado in cookies, as a replacement for butter. So far I`ve only seen people use this fruit raw for lunch, in salads, or for guacamole. I must admit: I’m not that "hooked" on the taste of avocado - although it’s a quite mild flavour. Therefore my primary concern of course was how much this flavour would shine through in the cookies. 

Now, where all the cookies have been baked and are gone (om-nom-nom), I’m happy to report that I would never have guessed, or even thought of, that there was avocado in those yummy chocolate cookies!

Okay, to be fair there's a lot of cocoa powder in this recipe so the chocolate flavour is quite heavy and dominating. I think next time I'll tone it a bit down, and maybe add some chopped nuts to the recipe - I'll update and share as soon as possible. 

My brother could also happily report that they tasted great the next day - especially when slightly heated in the microwave and topped off with some nice vanilla ice cream. I’m not sure whether to trust him - so I’ll “unfortunately” have to try this out for myself…Soon!

Avocadoes vs. Butter

Earlier on I've, with succes, used different kinds of oil as replacement for butter in cake recipes. However when trying to do the came with cookies I've struggled to obtain the right texture for the batter. I don't really have the time and patience for decorating baked goods, I like them simple and "natural", so the batter needs a consistense that allow be to shape the cookies at least a little and without the risk of them melting into óne big cookie. But I've found, that when replacing butter with mashed avocado you'll maintain one of the qualities from the butter: it's ability to give the batter a nice thick texture. 

However there's a very notable difference in texture of the baked cookies: avocadoes gives you soft, yummy cakes and cookies that aren't crunchy at all, whereas butter will provide a harder cookie with a nice crumble. Which one of these qualities is preferable depends on the cookies you want to make. 

In regards to your health, avocadoes ought to be a better choices since it's loaded with more vitamins and minerals, contains way less (!!!) saturated fats, and about 4½ times less calories. It’s a pure win! =)

Okay, enough with the appraisal: on to the recipe!!  

Ingredients

• 1 avocado (preferably ripe)
• 0.65 dl white sugar
• 0.65 dl brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla powder
• 1 egg (size M-L)
• 1 ¼ dl cocoa powder
• ½ dl white flour
• ½ dl wholemeal flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 60 g coarsely chopped chocolate

Mixing It All Together

1. Preheat oven to 180o C (or 350o F).
2. Mash the avocado - if it isn’t perfectly ripe, and you need cookies now, despair not, cut it into squares and let a foodprocessor or blender do the rest of the work. It will work out just fine.
3. Mix the mashed/blended avocado, white and brown sugar, vanilla powder and egg together in a bowl.
4. Get hold of another bowl and combine cocoa powder, flour and baking soda.
5. Stir the dry ingredients into the bowl with the wet ones.
6. Gently mix in the chopped chocolate.
7. Using two small spoons set the dough on your baking sheet - you ought to get about 16 servings this way.
8. (Optional) If you want to, now is the right time for some easy decoration - just sprinkle a bit of hazelnut flakes or finely chopped almonds on top of the cookies.
9. Put the cookies in the oven and let them bake for about 8-10 minutes