I never, ever thought I’d enjoy a vegan pudding quite so much. And it has nothing to do with the addition of heart-stopping amounts of cocoa (and rum)! Anyway, I came across this recipe on the brilliant Adventures in Cooking blog, and adapted it a little bit. It’s smooth and rich and manages to taste chocolatey and decadent without the addition of eggs and cream. Amazing – who knew you could use avocado in a pudding? Seems wrong, doesn’t it. You can notice a little flavour of something different in the mix, not unlike banana or plantain. Every mouthful can feel virtuous – I’m not even using processed sugar here. Instead I’m favouring a low GI agave nectar, so you could practically stick your head in a bucket of this pudding and feel mostly quite smug – and dirty – at the end of it.

Serves 6 in small pots or small drinking glasses – it’s quite rich. Five of us ate the below amount, and it was a little too much!

You will need:

90g good quality dark chocolate (I used Green & Black’s 70% Dark Chocolate)
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsps full fat coconut milk – make sure it’s well mixed together, as it can separate in the tin
4 medium-sized ripe avocados, with pits and skins removed
1/2 cup agave nectar (you can also use honey)
1/2 cup organic cocoa powder (organic has a much better flavour than regular)
A few shakes of ground mixed spice
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 capfuls rum (I used Havana Club)
1/2 tsp sea salt to taste (I used Maldon)

Firstly start by melting your dark chocolate – either melt on medium heat in the microwave oven, or place in a bowl over simmering water to melt bain-marie-style. (Don’t get distracted, as I did, by watching some trashy soap on the iPad at the same time and nuke the chocolate in the microwave so that it comes out in solid shards, having melted the plastic bowl surface.) Put it aside for a few minutes to cool a little. Put all the rest of the ingredients in a food processor (or use a hand stick blender) and add the melted chocolate when it’s ready. Blitz for a few minutes until silky smooth. Taste, then add a little more spice if you want it.

Put in the fridge for about an hour to set it. You can spoon it out into glasses or pots, or if you can be pfaffed, use a piping bag to pipe the mixture out with nice swirly patterns. Nice served with crunchy cigar biscuits on the side.

I am a vegan pudding and I taste nice!*

* I’m not slagging off vegan food per se, but I’ve not often had vegan desserts that cut out the dairy and eggs and taste as good as the things they imitate.