No-Bake Mini Chocolate Pudding Tarts

For the Secret Recipe Club this month, I was assigned Natural Noshing.   Nora, who thought she was lactose-intolerant, discovered years later that her health issues were actually due to gluten-intolerance.  So after taking recipes and tweaking this and "putting a healthy spin" on that, Nora created healthy, easy-to-make, delicious gluten-free recipes.

You really should check them all out!  One is a chocolate pudding with the secret ingredient of avocados.  By an interesting coincidence, I had purchased a couple of avocados with the idea of making someone else's version of a chocolate-avocado pudding.  What convinced me to try Nora's was her extra step of serving the pudding in cute little nut tart shells. Nora is so very creative! Just about every ingredient has several options.  You could almost make this pudding every week for a year and never make the same exact recipe twice! Visit her site for all the options.

My accidental tweak was to omit the coconut because my eyes *blipped* over the ingredients list and totally missed it.   My on-purpose tweak  was to garnish with chopped peanuts.  I think Norah doesn't list it as an option, but I could have *blipped* on that as well.

There's only a little honey in the pudding, because theHubby doesn't care for a strong honey flavor in anything except honey cake.  BTW leave out the honey in this recipe for a vegan version.

Next time I'll layer pudding & peanuts better.

Instead, I added (relatively) quite a lot of extra sugar in order to reduce the avocado-y taste.  But it worked, because when I shoved a shooter in front of him, he ate it all, proclaiming it a "keeper."

No-Bake Mini Chocolate Pudding Tarts
Adapted from Natural Noshing
Yield: 12 mini-tarts plus 6 shooters (or double the tart ingredients to make 24 mini-tarts)

2/3 cup salted dry-roasted peanuts
4 pitted large dates (such as medjool),  or 6 smaller ones
2 tsp. of hot water, plus more as needed
2 ripe avocados
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 Tbl. honey
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon (optional)
1 pinch kosher salt
finely chopped salted peanuts, for garnish


Line a 12 mini-cup muffin pan with plastic wrap.  For ease of handling, cut a piece of plastic wrap twice at long as you think you need, then use it to line half the muffin pan because it still wasn't long enough.  Repeat for the other half.

Combine peanuts, dates and hot water in a food processor; process for 30 seconds or until the mixture forms into a ball. If necessary, add an additional teaspoonful of hot water and process for another 10 seconds.  Repeat as necessary until the mixture holds together.

Divide mixture into 12 balls and place in prepared mini-muffin pan.   Using yet another sheet of plastic wrap, press balls gently along bottom and sides to create shells.  Note--wax paper will not work.  Refrigerate for at least 10 minutes to firm up the shells.

Meanwhile, if you don't have an extra processor work bowl, rinse out the "dirty" bowl and wipe dry (no need to wash).

Cut avocados in half, remove pit and scoop out flesh; discard pit and skin (you can check out this page on how to remove pit, but photos have inconveniently disappeared).  Place in work bowl. Add remaining ingredients except chopped peanuts.  Process until mixture is smooth, stopping and scraping down sides as necessary.  Set aside.

Carefully remove shells one at a time by gently pulling up on the plastic wrap.  Set shells on a serving plate.  Spoon or pipe pudding into prepared tart shells.   If desired, spoon or pipe excess pudding into shooter glasses or small dessert bowls.  Refrigerate at least one hour to chill. Garnish with chopped peanuts before serving.

Shells and filling may be prepared up to 3 days before.  Cover and store separately in the fridge.  Up to a few hours before serving, fill tarts with the pudding and store covered in the fridge until ready to serve.

 

Cujo on left, guarding shooters against bizarre light patterns.

 Disclaimer - because this recipe is part of an online cooking group, many of the linked recipes below might NOT be kosher.