Chocolate Orange Pots de Creme

Last night was the second installment of classes at Luci’s Healthy Marketplace.  I really love teaching and these classes are a great reminder of how much fun food can be.  The theme of the class was “Meatless Mondays” a course aimed at teaching folks how to go meatless once a week.  Because I can’t help but be crazy, I made the whole class vegan and gluten free.  Ya know, ’cause I love a good challenge.  But, overall consensus was that the food was tasty!  Proof that veggies can be delicious without cheese.

One of the night’s big hits were the Chocolate Orange Pots De Creme.  No eggs, no cream, no problem.  There were a few speciality ingredients that gave this dessert special life, but I did two different renditions.  One with bittersweet chocolate and one with semi-sweet chocolate.  It still has the density and body of a good pots de creme, but enough lightness and airiness, almost like a mousse.

Overall, it’s a very simple process.  (Full printable recipe at the bottom of the post.)

Start with putting the coconut milk, the coconut oil, palm shortening and sugar in a pot over medium high heat and bring to a simmer.  Remove from the heat and add in your chocolate chips, ginger paste, vanilla bean, orange juice and orange zest.  It should look something like this:

Then add in the avocado and using an immersion blender (or put it all in a stand blender), blend until the avocado is pulverized and the entire mixture is smooth.  Blending for at least a minute isn’t bad as it whips in extra air to make the dessert light.

Pour this mixture into serving glasses and put in the refridgerator to set at least 2 hours.

I also garnished them with candied orange peel.  I used a recipe from Food Network.

And, the final presentation!  I keep them to small serving glasses because these are rather rich.