Avocado Carob Mousse

I have been looking for very quick and inexpensive recipes lately because, as I get deeper into my school work, I don't have an entire day free to spend making brownies...or the cash to buy special ingredients.

This is why the idea of Avocado Mousse caught my eye—in addition to being an interesting concept, I had all the ingredients already. They were also fairly inexpensive, to begin with. Many variations and sources exist for Avocado Mousse, though they are all basically the same. What varies mostly is how much it yields and the type of sweetener used. Here are just a few:

• My New Roots' Smooth Criminal Chocolate Mousse Tarts
• Sweet + Natural's Chocolate Avocado Mousse
• Jason Mraz's Chocomole
• Choosing Raw's Chocomole

Well, time is money, and I'm short on both, so I chose the quickest and cheapest recipe. Here's what I did.

Avocado Carob Mousse/Pudding
Serves at least 2

Ingredients:

• 1 ripe avocado
• 8 plump Medjool dates, chopped (add more or less to suit your sweet tooth, and soak them if they're too dry)
• 2 Tbsp. carob powder*
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
• water or milk (optional)
• honey or maple syrup (optional)

*most of the recipes called for cocoa powder, but I already had carob and I prefer it anyways.

Instructions:

1. Prepare ingredients (cut avocado, soak dates, etc...)
2. Place avocado, dates, carob powder, vanilla and salt in a food processor and process until smooth.
3. You can either stop now, and have a fairly thick dessert, or you can slowly add water (or milk) and continue in the food processor until you have your desired consistency. I probably added about 1/4 cup of water.
4. If you find it's not sweet enough, you can also add honey or maple syrup to taste, though I found mine was fine with just the dates.
5. Enjoy right away or store in your refrigerator.

I would actually rather call this a pudding than a mousse because it's quite thick and creamy, and when I think of mousse, I assume light and airy. Whatever you call it, it's delicious. I was surprised at how nice the pudding's texture was with an avocado base and I found the recommended 8 dates made it a perfectly sweet dessert. Also, it's so simple, it'd be a great recipe to make for a dinner party...something where you need to serve a lot of people and you're short on time.

I have made this recipe twice, once for myself, and a bigger batch for my family. My mom, myself and my partner liked it, but my dad and sister didn't. Don't pay attention to them...they're full of sugar. Besides, it's 3 against 2.

Anyways...that's all for now. I have decided I need to try and cut back on my posting (not that I want to...I need to), so I can focus on school for the next 2 months. I am going to aim for once a week...but it's so hard to hold back once I've made something.