Raw Avocado Chocolate-Hazelnut Tart (Nutella-Inspired)

A raw chocolate-hazelnut tart with a silky avocado-cacao filling and a hazelnut crust

Serves 12 · 30 min active · 4 hr total · year-round (avocados are grown year-round in Mexico and tropical regions; California avocados peak spring through summer) · afternoon

Ingredients

Crust

• 1 cup Medjool dates, pitted

• 1 cup raw hazelnuts

• ½ cup raw almonds

• 3 tbsp raw cacao powder

• ¼ tsp Baja Gold sea salt

• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

• 2 tbsp cacao butter, melted

Filling

• 2 medium ripe avocados

• ½ cup full-fat coconut milk (no guar gum)

• ½ cup raw cacao powder

• ½ cup hazelnut butter

• ¼ cup + 3 tbsp pure maple syrup (or coconut nectar or raw honey)

• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

• ⅛ tsp Baja Gold sea salt

• ½ cup cacao butter, melted

Topping

• Raw cacao powder, for dusting

• Crushed raw hazelnuts

Method

1. Make the crust. Pulse the dates in a food processor until chopped into small pieces.

2. Add the hazelnuts, almonds, cacao powder, and salt. Process until everything is finely chopped, almost a flour, but with some texture remaining.

3. Add the vanilla and melted cacao butter, and pulse to combine. The mixture should stick together when pressed between your fingers.

4. If it's too crumbly, add an extra tablespoon of cacao butter or coconut oil.

5. Press. Line a 9-inch fluted tart tin with biodegradable wrap or parchment. Press the crust evenly into the bottom and up the sides.

6. Freeze 30 minutes.

7. Make the filling. Blend the avocados, coconut milk, cacao powder, hazelnut butter, maple syrup, vanilla, and salt in a high-speed blender until completely smooth and creamy.

8. With the blender on low, stream in the melted cacao butter. Blend just until incorporated. Don't overblend; the friction can warm the filling and dull its silky texture.

9. Assemble. Pour the filling into the chilled crust and smooth the top with an offset spatula.

10. Set. Return it to the freezer for 1 hour, or the refrigerator for several hours, until fully set.

11. Finish. Dust with raw cacao powder and sprinkle with crushed hazelnuts.

12. Slice and serve. If it's been in the freezer, let it sit 10-15 minutes first, so it slices cleanly and the filling turns silky. A knife dipped in hot water and wiped dry between cuts gives the neatest slices.

Nourishment Notes

Chocolate-hazelnut spread has deep roots in Piedmont, Italy. In the early 1800s, when cocoa was scarce and expensive, Turin's chocolatiers began stretching it with the region's abundant hazelnuts, creating gianduja. After World War II, cocoa was scarce again, and in 1946 Pietro Ferrero made a sliceable hazelnut-chocolate paste. His family later turned it into a spread, which launched as Nutella in 1964. The modern industrial version contains substantial palm oil, sugar, and emulsifiers; the raw version here returns to the flavor of original gianduja with whole-food ingredients.

Avocado as the cream base in chocolate desserts is one of the smarter modern raw dessert adaptations. Avocado's monounsaturated fat (the same kind of fat that dominates olive oil) provides the smooth, creamy mouthfeel that defines a great chocolate tart, and the green color is completely masked by the dark cacao. The texture is lighter and fluffier than a cashew-based filling, more like a French chocolate mousse than a cheesecake.

Hazelnuts are nutritionally distinctive among tree nuts: particularly high in vitamin E, oleic acid (the same monounsaturated fat as olive oil), manganese, and copper, with proanthocyanidins concentrated in their thin skins. The Italian Piedmont region (specifically the Langhe area) produces the world's most prized hazelnuts, Tonda Gentile Trilobata, protected as Nocciola Piemonte IGP, and they've been grown there for centuries. Oregon-grown hazelnuts are excellent substitutes.

Avocados — potassium, folate, vitamin E, and fiber, along with their heart-healthy monounsaturated fat.

Raw cacao — flavanols, magnesium, iron, and theobromine. Theobromine is a gentle natural stimulant, so this tart is best enjoyed in the afternoon rather than late in the evening.

Medjool dates — potassium, magnesium, and fiber-bound natural sweetness.

Cacao butter — a stable, naturally solid fat that gives the filling its firm, sliceable set.

Storage: Refrigerator up to 5 days. Freezer up to 2 months.

Sourcing

• Hazelnuts and hazelnut butter — organic; for the very best, Nocciola Piemonte IGP from Italy, or organic Oregon hazelnuts. Turkey grows most of the world's hazelnuts, but its harvest has faced child labor concerns, so if you buy Turkish, choose organic and fair-trade certified. Making your own hazelnut butter is easy: blend raw or toasted hazelnuts until creamy

• Raw cacao powder — organic, and ideally tested for heavy metals, since cacao can carry cadmium and lead from the soil. Pachamana publishes its heavy metal test results

• Cacao butter — organic, unrefined, and fair-trade

• Avocados — organic Hass, ripe (they should yield to gentle pressure)

• Coconut milk — organic and full-fat, with just coconut and water; Native Forest Simple comes in BPA-free cans

• Medjool dates — organic, soft, and plump

• Almonds — organic and unpasteurized; U.S. almonds are pasteurized by law, so look for Spanish almonds such as Terrasoul's

• Maple syrup — organic, Grade A dark (or organic coconut nectar or raw local honey)

• Vanilla — organic pure vanilla extract with no added sugar

• Baja Gold sea salt

— Anna aka Food Marshall