Have you ever tasted shortcrust pastry with avocado, that means made with avocado instead of butter?

After hearing about it on some occasions, I absolutely wanted to try it. And having found nothing on sale, no cookies or pies, nor desserts with avocado, I geared up 🙂 and made my own beautiful shortcrust pastry with avocado.

I bought a couple of avocados (or is it avocados? who knows!) and waited a few days for them to ripen.

PS: be careful because avocado is tricky, it can go from the stage of “it’s rock hard to the touch so it’s not ripe yet” to the stage of “dang it seemed ripe but the flesh is brown and I have to throw everything away, even though you couldn’t tell from the skin.” So, don’t wait for it to be soft to the touch, because it might already be too late. 😉

About a month ago, one evening, I decided to try my hand, and since I really didn’t know where to start regarding weights and measures of flour, sugar or avocado, eggs yes or no, etc., I started searching for recipes, keyword: avocado instead of butter.

Sometimes “googling” bores me because despite the approximately fifty-six thousand or so results, I somehow end up not finding what I’m looking for…

…or maybe it’s because sometimes I do these searches at the last minute, like, for example, when I’ve already poured the flour into the bowl, already cut the avocado into pieces and come to the computer with floury and damp hands and with the anxiety of “and-if-in-the-meantime-the-avocado-turns-brown-?”…

…and the anxiety of “I have to hurry, it’s late”…

In these circumstances, finding the right recipe for me can become a real challenge, torn as I am between the curiosity to read all the existing recipes and the anxiety of seeing my perfect recipe realized. Because I know, I know I could end up spending the whole evening in front of the computer, fascinated by the many possible achievable recipes, and with all good intentions, the ingredients are over there in the kitchen waiting for me.

And so, in the end, after trying to read two or three recipes for cupcakes and brownies that had nothing to do with shortcrust pastry, and one for a shortcrust pastry that the author, if I understood correctly in my hasty reading, already planned to modify… I decided to give up and go back to the kitchen to do it my way. And I ended up deciding that a simple personal variation of my classic shortcrust pastry, the one made with butter but instead using avocado, could be the best thing to do. Practicality, simplicity, and no unnecessary complications, and off I go with my personal recipe made by intuition.

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shortcrust pastry with avocado instead of butter

Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Economic
Rest time: 30 Minutes
Preparation time: 20 Minutes
Portions: 1 dough ball
Cooking methods: No-cook
Cuisine: Healthy
Seasonality: All seasons

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup avocado
1/2 cup sugar (granulated or cane as preferred)
1 egg
Half packet baking powder for desserts
Half lemon (juice and zest)

Tools

Mixer
Bowl

Steps

Pour the flour mixed with baking powder into a large bowl or on a board and make a well in the center.
Peel the avocado and blend it with the mixer.
So far, I’ve made this shortcrust pastry with avocado three times. On one occasion, I tried mashing it with a fork, but I determined that it remains grainy and even after working the dough, some pieces of avocado remain the same and don’t dissolve, which is why I find it better to blend it.
Add the flour, sugar, egg, blended avocado, lemon juice, and grated zest into the bowl.
Stir with a spoon, then knead with your fingertips until the sugar has dissolved and knead incorporating the flour.
Once you have a soft yet compact dough, similar in consistency to traditional shortcrust pastry, place it in the fridge for half an hour wrapped in plastic wrap, or in a container, before using it to make cookies or pies.
If well sealed and stored in the fridge, the dough keeps well for several days, with only slight oxidation on the surface, a typical characteristic of avocado, but inside it remains that beautiful green color that the photos show well.
This beautiful shortcrust pastry with avocado, with its light green color, can be used to make cookies and pies. So far, I’ve tried cookies, made them naturally using the pastry as you see it in the photo, and also made chocolate ones by adding melted chocolate to the dough.
I distributed them a bit around (mom, sister-in-law, nephews…) because I was curious to get as many opinions as possible, since my kids were a bit skeptical (no surprise!). The comments were:
– my mom: “good the natural ones” (eh eh I expected that)
– the nephews: “we like the chocolate ones more” (I expected that!!!)
– sister-in-law: “experiment succeeded” (pure diplomacy! 😀)
– husband and kids: “when are you making the regular ones?” (sob 😛)
– me: what can I say… I liked the cookies, whether with or without chocolate!!
Of course, it’s not the same as butter shortcrust pastry, but you can’t expect it to be, right? It’s crumbly, has an aftertaste that reminds you of avocado flavor, but it’s not intrusive at all, and I could see it paired well (the flavor) with almonds or hazelnuts, I’d even dare say peanuts or amaretti. So I think, given the chance by the kids and husband, I will try again with other creations because… because I’m sure that with the right combination of flavors, it’s possible to achieve a perfect avocado shortcrust pastry for perfect cookies and pies. 🙂
So… let’s start again! The “how much I love experimenting in the kitchen” mode is ON!!
Below, I’ll repeat the links (already present in the intro) to the recipes I made with this shortcrust pastry, with their respective update dates. All recipes that I highly recommend trying. 😋😊
Update 31/8/18
With this avocado shortcrust pastry, I’ve tried five different types of cookies: with amaretti, coconut, peanuts, chocolate, and without baking powder, try them all! You’ll find them all HERE 😊
Update 2/4/19
The pie I made with this shortcrust pastry is described here –> Avocado Shortcrust Pie with Sour Cherry and Bergamot Jam.
Update 15/9/22
I’ve also tried using this avocado shortcrust pastry to make filled cookies, a personal reinterpretation of Bologna-style ravioli. Here’s the recipe –> Green Filled Cookies
Over the years, I’ve repeated this shortcrust pastry countless times, each time without re-photographing the base recipe, but today I finally did, and I replaced the previous photos in this recipe with new ones. However, I like to keep the “old” photos too, they are a memory of that very first avocado shortcrust pastry, of a beautiful green that amazed me, made on a dark and stormy adventurous night! How could I forget them! 😀😃
And remember… if you make the pie or cookies, send me the photos!! 💛
😏 This recipe is from 2016, the avocado shortcrust pastries that have since magically populated the web were not yet around, as stated in the intro. Patience is a virtue… this recipe is purely the fruit of my, and only my, nighttime hands in dough, and a citation would be sometimes appreciated).