This Healthy Chocolate Hazelnut Pudding is easy to make and you don’t even need to cook! It has an avocado base and comes together quickly in the food processor. There’s hazelnut oil and toasted hazelnuts to really bring out that Nutella like flavor when combined with the chocolate. It’s gluten free, dairy free, paleo, egg free, and vegan which makes it one of my favorite decadent desserts that almost everyone can eat!
We’ve been making this pudding for years, and it never ceases to please whenever I make it for company. It’s easy to throw together in the food processor, and it can be made ahead as well for the ultimate convenience.
I’ve even made it meal prep style and portioned it out in the small 1/4 cup sized mason jars for Tyler’s lunches. His pudding ‘snack packs’ are all the envy at lunchtime where he works.
And perhaps the biggest bonus of this pudding is it’s actually a healthy dessert. The base of this pudding is made from avocados, but I promise you can’t taste the avocado at all. Chocolate is a strong flavor, and when paired with hazelnuts, there’s no way avocado is going to get through all of that.
I’ve had lots of questions over the years about my avocado based desserts about whether or not you can taste it. But I can absolutely assure you, that in the 5 years I’ve been making desserts with avocado, not even a single person has ever known there was avocado in their dessert.
And I should say too that I’ve tested these desserts out on avocado haters, and they’ve never guessed what the secret ingredient is. So hopefully if you have some doubts about avocado in a dessert, that should help you out!
Let’s get started making this Healthy Chocolate Hazelnut Pudding step by step!
First of all, everything for this pudding gets tossed into a food processor.
Tip: If you have any skeptics in your house, be sure not to let them see the avocados going into the food processor. They will never know when they eat this pudding!
Then you process the pudding until all the green bits of avocado are gone, and a silky smooth pudding appears. It helps to scrape down the sides a couple of times to make sure the cocoa powder gets fully mixed in.
Then it’s on to the toppings! I toast my hazelnuts in the oven at 250ºF for 20-30 minutes. Or roast them until they’re golden brown and smell very fragrant. After they’ve cooled, you want to rub what you can of the skins off because they’re bitter. Then roughly chop them, and set them aside.
For the whipped cream you can make 2 different textures depending on your preference. I wrote a whole post about Homemade Coconut Whipped Cream 2 Different Ways for more details.
I prefer a looser whipped cream if I’m keeping it for a couple of days. The whipped cream tends to firm up as it sits. But if I’m serving it right away, I like to make the firmer version of coconut whipped cream. You find that version listed in the recipe below.
The pudding can be made ahead and kept for a couple of days in the fridge. The nuts can also be toasted and chopped ahead, and kept in an airtight container. I personally like to make the coconut whipped cream right before serving to make sure it’s fluffy and fresh. But you can also make it a couple hours ahead to make serving time easier!
I really hope you enjoy this Healthy Chocolate Hazelnut Pudding! And if you do get a chance to make this, I hope you’ll leave me a comment/rating below. I always love hearing from you here! Also for more healthy chocolate desserts, head on over to the recipe index.
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Healthy Chocolate Hazelnut Pudding
- Total Time: 20 mins
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
This Healthy Chocolate Hazelnut Pudding is easy to make and you don’t even need to cook! It has an avocado base and comes together quickly in the food processor. There’s hazelnut oil and toasted hazelnuts to really bring out that Nutella like flavor when combined with the chocolate. It’s gluten free, dairy free, paleo, egg free, and vegan which makes it one of my favorite decadent desserts that almost everyone can eat!
Ingredients
Chocolate Hazelnut Pudding:
2 just ripe avocados, pitted and peeled yielding 8 ounces of fruit
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2/3–3/4 cup Grade A amber maple syrup, add to taste
3 Tablespoons toasted hazelnut oil
1/8 Teaspoon sea salt, a large pinch
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
Coconut Whipped Cream:
2 cans coconut milk, chilled
2 Tablespoons Grade A amber maple syrup
pinch of sea salt
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
Toppings:
1 cup roughly chopped toasted hazelnuts, see notes
1–2 ounces grated chocolate, optional see notes, about 1/2 regular sized chocolate bar
Instructions
Place all the ingredients for the chocolate hazelnut pudding into a food processor. Secure the lid and process until the pudding is completely smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides 1-2 times.
Transfer the pudding to an airtight container. Store it in the refrigerator until you’re ready to serve, or 2-3 days.
When you’re ready to serve the pudding make sure you have all your toppings ready to go.
Then make the coconut whipped cream by scraping off the hardened cream from the top of the two cans of chilled coconut milk.
Place the hardened cream into an electric mixer, and whip the cream until it’s fluffy and smooth, 2-3 minutes. Then add the maple syrup, sea salt, and vanilla extract. Whip the cream again to combine, then serve it with the pudding and toppings.
You can also assemble the pudding into individual bowls by placing the pudding in first, then adding a dollop of whipped cream, and finally sprinkling on the toppings.
Notes
To keep this 100% refined sugar free, you can sub in cacao nibs for the grated chocolate.
I toast my hazelnuts in the oven at 250ºF for 20-30 minutes, or until they’re golden brown and smell very fragrant. After they’ve cooled, you want to rub what you can of the skins off because they’re bitter. Then roughly chop them, and set them aside.
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Food Processor
- Cuisine: American
Wow! The avacodo chocolate pudding looks decadent and make me want to try it. But I was wondering about the coconut whipped cream. Does it work for coconut milk made at home too?? I tried chilling it but there is hardly any cream on top? Any ideas what is wrong?
I don’t have any personal experience with homemade coconut milk for whipped cream, but I’ve heard from others that it doesn’t work because there’s not enough fat content to make the ‘cream’. I would definitely use canned coconut milk for this particular application even though homemade coconut milk is definitely superior in most recipes. I hope this helps and be sure and let me know if you have anymore questions!
You seem like an utter whipped coconut cream pro. I’ve never made it successfully at home!
One of the things I’ve just recently discovered, (and now I really need to update my whipped cream post) is to store the cans of coconut milk in the door of the refrigerator because it’s not quite as cold and the whipped cream always works for me since I started doing that. Before I would often put it on the top shelf in the refrigerator out of convenience but it was too cold and sometimes I’d end up with lumps in my whipped cream. If you don’t mind letting me know what troubles you’ve had, I’d love to add more tips to my coconut whipped cream how-to post! 🙂
This is so beautiful! I love chocolate avocado pudding and am sure I’ll only love it more with hazelnut!
I think you will, especially if you’re a nutella fan!
Love love love chocolate. Your recipes and photos are always so gorgeous and delicious !
Thanks so much! 🙂
This is what dreams are made of <3
Agreed! 🙂
Love the hazelnut twist on avocado pudding! I am going to have to get my hands on some hazelnut oil, because this is a MUST MAKE!
I sure hope you enjoy it!