Avocado Milkshake

I love avocados.  Although I've never had an avocado milkshake before, I really wanted to try it by making some at home.  After doing some research online on it, I found that the main ingredients are: avocado, milk, sweetened condensed milk, and ice. The amount of milk and condensed milk you add is really up to you.  For my milkshake, I made mine fairly light tasting - not too sweet (although I did add quite a bit of condensed milk compared to some recipes), refreshing, with a subtle grassy/avocado taste = yummy!  To intensify the grassy flavour, let the milkshake sit in the fridge for about 10 minutes before drinking.

My recipe for an avocado milkshake (serves 1):

1/2 Ripe Avocado (skin removed)
50 mL (3 Tbsp + 1 tsp) Sweetened condensed milk
60 mL (4 Tbsp) Partly skimmed milk
Roughly 3/4 cups Ice cubes

1) In a blender, blend all ingredients until smooth. 
2) Taste and adjust by adding more condensed milk or skimmed milk as needed. 
3) Pour into a tall cup and enjoy! 

There are other variations of this avocado milkshake that I'll be trying in the near future such as adding chocolate syrup, using coconut milk, or adding vanilla extract.  Very exciting!  I should really go get myself an authentic avocado milkshake one day so I know what it's supposed to really taste like...

May 2, 2010 - UPDATE:

I ordered an avocado milkshake over the weekend at a Vietnamese restaurant and I have to say, I do prefer my version more.  The one I had at the restaurant was still pretty good.  It had a really nice avocado flavour, but it was way too thick (could barely suck it up through my straw) and could have used a bit more sweetened condensed milk.  A friend of mine claims his is really good too, so he said he'll make one for me one day.  MMM..can't wait!

Mr. & Mrs. Strawberry

Ahhh..Strawberries. These days, they tend to look so big and so good, but after one bite into them, I'm dipping them in some sugar to sweeten them up. The ones that I purchased yesterday though were a pleasant surprise. They were small to medium sized, kinda sweet, and actually tasted much like a strawberry, but best of all, they were only $1.99 CAD at my local No Frills. Score! BTW, the strawberries in the pictures are the ones I bought yesterday. Don't they look good?

So why are the majority of our strawberries so sour? With strawberries, they're pretty fickle. Strawberries are not capable of ripening after they've been harvested, unlike some other fruits (e.g. bananas and apples). This means, if they're sour when they're picked, they'll be sour when you eat them. The only way for strawberries to get sweeter naturally is if they were allowed to ripen while still attached to the plant. But once ripened, the quality of strawberries goes downhill from there, and fast too! So when harvesting strawberries, they're usually not allowed to ripen further after they've turned red. This is especially important when they're being shipped from far-off destinations like the U.S.A. So what should we all do? Buy local strawberries! Despite my Pro-Local comment just now, I have to admit, the strawberries that I bought were a product of the U.S.A. What can I say, I'm a sucker for cheap fruit.

Although the strawberries I bought were pretty delicious eaten on their own, I really wanted to dip them in chocolate. Strawberry Tuxedos were something I learned in my Baking Arts class at George Brown College and I really wanted to try it again at home, but this time, with a special lady strawberry - a bride! Introducing, Mr. & Mrs. Strawberry!

For the white chocolate, I purchased Belgium White Chocolate wafers from Bulk Barn, but I think next time, I'll try using White Chocolate Coating. The Belgium chocolate took a long time to set and even when it was set, it wasn't as dry as I'd like it to be.

Things to note when melting chocolate. Melt slowly over a pot of simmering hot water. For white chocolate, be sure to stir frequently to avoid it from burning. Burning white chocolate will cause it to discolour.

Chili Chocolate Cookies

I love baking cookies. Been baking cookies since I was about 8 years old, but for some reason, I feel that after moving into my current house 10 years ago, my cookies haven't been turning out so great. Even the Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe that I started baking with doesn't taste the same. For years, I've been using all sorts of cookie recipes without one that really made me feel like no changes were needed and I would actually bake them again, that is until today.

My younger sister, we'll call her Little-J, introduced me to Food Wishes. They have a channel on Youtube and a blog,

http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/. She really wanted to try their Chili Chocolate Cookies, and for weeks she's been asking me when I'd actually make them for her. Today was the day. I finally came around to it and the results were De-lish. I have to say, it's a pretty darn good recipe. The texture of it is right up my alley - moist and chewy, very much like fudge. The taste, it's definitely yum-in-my-tum. Although there is chili in the cookies, it's not spicy. As Chef John said in his video for these cookies, the spices enhance the chocolatiness of these cookies.

You should know though, my cookies didn't quite exactly turn out the way Michele's (Chef John's wife) cookies turned out. Her cookies did come out looking wet, but also plump. Mine were flat and dry-looking (had a paper-thin film on top, like a brownie). Possible reasons for this may be: 

1. When heating the chocolate, I left the bowl of melted chocolate over the pot of steaming water (heat turned off though) and so when it came to pouring it into the egg mixture, it was still really hot. Luckily, it didn't seem to cook the eggs.

2. I used a light coloured, insulated cookie sheet (lined with parchment paper).

3. The batter when scooped onto the baking sheet was very thin, moreso than Michele's batter. The batter spread on the pan as if it was pancake batter.

4. Baked for 12 minutes, exactly. May have needed to bake for less time, since the batter spread quite a bit before putting it into the oven. Although, the next time I bake them, I would still bake them for 12 minutes, since I like how they turned out.

All in all, I'd make them again exactly the way I did.

For the full recipe, go to: http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2009/11/micheles-chili-chocolate-cookies-id.html.

I definitely recommend you try it!