Avocado-Torte (avocado lime torte)
Units
Temperature
Servings
Ingredients
Base
- 200 g digestive biscuits rounded
- 90 g butter, melted rounded
Mousse
- 500 g ripe avocado flesh, from about 4 large, very ripe avocados rounded
- 60 ml lime juice, freshly squeezed rounded
- 1 lime, zest only rounded
- 180 g white chocolate, melted rounded
- 60 g sugar rounded
- 12 g gelatine sheets, about 6 sheets rounded
- 200 ml cream, cold, whipped to soft peaks rounded
Method
Method
- Crush the biscuits to fine crumbs and stir in the melted butter until it looks like wet sand. Press firmly into the base of a 24 cm springform and chill while you make the mousse.
- Blend the avocado, lime juice and lime zest together until completely smooth, a full 2 minutes past the point it looks smooth; any remaining fibrous texture will still be there once set.
- Melt the white chocolate gently, either in a bowl over hot water or in short bursts in the microwave.
- Soak the gelatine in cold water for 5 minutes. Warm a small amount of the avocado purée gently in a pan, take off the heat, squeeze the gelatine dry and stir it in until fully dissolved. Stir this back into the rest of the purée along with the melted white chocolate and sugar.
- Fold in the whipped cream in two additions, gently, keeping as much air as possible.
- Pour the mousse over the chilled base, smooth the top, and chill at least 4 hours, ideally overnight.
- Release the ring and slice with a knife run under hot water between cuts.
Notes
- Ripeness is the whole recipe here. An underripe avocado is fibrous and grassy no matter how much sugar or chocolate is added; the flesh should give easily to gentle pressure and look uniformly deep green when cut.
- Blend far longer than seems necessary. Avocado looks smooth in a blender well before it actually is; any remaining strings or graininess will be more obvious once the mousse is cold and set.
- The lime is not just flavour, it also slows browning. Blend it in promptly once the avocado is peeled and stoned.
- It keeps for 2 days in the fridge, covered, though the colour dulls slightly by day two even with the lime; it is at its best within the first 24 hours.
Ingredient substitutions
- White chocolate adds sweetness and helps the mousse set with body; dark chocolate can replace it for a less sweet, more assertively flavoured torte, though the colour turns muddier.
- Digestive biscuits can be any plain biscuit; a coconut biscuit base is a good match for the avocado and lime.
- A dusting of cocoa powder or grated dark chocolate over the top at serving is a simple, good-looking finish.
- For a version without gluten, use a gluten-free biscuit for the base; the mousse itself contains no gluten.