Recipe inspired by: My determination to resolve dilemma with mushy avocado

With the ridiculous amount of avocados I consume, I would say I have become quite proficient in projecting when they will reach desirable ripeness.  However, occasionally under rare and unusual circumstances, I miscalculate and end up with ones that are too mushy to use in salad – like this summer in LA when it was 250,000 degrees with heat wave and they went from green and firm to black and super ripe in a flash.

Fear not, though, fellow avocado lovers!  No avocados shall be wasted on us. Ever.

Don’t get me wrong, I like my chocolate ice cream rich and creamy with full dairy fat and full sugar (and whatever it is Häagen-Dazs puts in – If they said there is baby octopus in it, I would probably be OK with that).  And I would have been happily settled with making guacamole if this was less than decent.  Well it is actually more than decent.  As a matter of fact, I totally nailed it. Take THAT, heat wave.

The recipe itself is VERY short, as basically you mix up everything in food processor and it’s done.  So I thought I would share a few notes for successful execution to justify this still is a cooking blog.

1. If I have an overripe avocado, I usually go ahead and mush them with a bit of lemon juice, wrap it and put it in freezer for later use.

2. BONUS: For this particular recipe, if you already have frozen avocado, you can take it out of freezer and leave it for a little while until it is still frozen but not as rock hard, and mix all ingredients in food processor – Then you don’t have to wait for it to get frozen, you got soft serve ice cream instantly.  Ah-mazing.

3. If you used fresh avocado and did freeze the mix, it will get pretty hard – here are a couple of tricks to eat it in perfect texture, which could be also applied to any ice cream actually: (a) Put it in refrigerator for about 30 minutes. So if you know you will be having this for dessert, transfer the container from freezer to refrigerator when you start eating your meal. By the time you finish, it will be soft enough to scoop but not melting  (b) OR, if you are in hurry, microwave the container for 20-30 seconds.

4. No baby octopus was harmed during production of this ice cream.

RECIPE (I suppose this would be 2~4 servings depending on portion size – However, I will not judge if you eat all by yourself)

Ingredients:

• 1 ripe frozen or fresh avocado, peeled, pit removed
• 1/2 cup soy milk
• 3-4 tablespoons raw cacao powder or natural, non-alkalized cocoa powder (adjust based on the size of avocado)
• 3  tablespoons agave syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• handful of pistachio or hazelnuts, toasted for topping

Method:

1. Mix all ingredients in a food processor until VERY smooth.
2. If using frozen avocado, you can spoon it into serving dishes and eat immediately. If using fresh avocado, scrape the mixture into a container (Tupperware is OK) and put it in freezer for a few hours. You can stir it every hour or so if you are at home and would like to. I usually don’t and it still seems to come out OK (see #3 above for lazier/easier way).
3. Add topping of your choice – I like adding some crunch with nuts, but any berries would be great and pretty, or you can be even more decadent and add a dollop of whipped cream.