Avocado with Chipotle Honey Candied Pepitas

For me, the onset of warm summer weather always brings mexican food to mind, but then again, so does any other type of weather. Needless to say, as we brainstorm flavor ideas, mexican inspired ideas regularly find their way into the fold.  We had been thinking about wanting to incorporate pepitas (pumpkin seeds) into a flavor, as well as avocado. We almost kicked ourselves when we realized, of course, these two made perfect sense together. Once it hit us, we were off to the races.

Avocados are a fruit we would kill to be able to have a local source for.  Unfortunately our climate makes that mostly impossible, so instead we look to fair trade and organic sources for one of natures most perfect creations, that just happen to be hitting their peak season now.

 

In this recipe, we puree the raw avocado into the cream base.  It’s richness translates very nicely into the cream, and it provides a subtle yet forward flavor that is recognizable but not overwhelming.  The process brought about other ways such as roasting and steeping as a means to incorporate, but for now we stuck with something straight forward.  Man these things are tasty.

 

The pepitas were a fun twist to add to this flavor and provided both a welcome crunch as well as a little heat, and salt.

 

 

Since we enjoy messing with the add-ins as much as the base, we decided to go whole-hog on the mexican route, and threw some chipotle into the mix- but not before they were roasted and salted well.

 

 

For the  candy coating, we went with pureed chipotles and Ames Farm honey.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The roasted pepitas were tossed in the mix while hot and allowed to bake a bit more before cooling.  The final result was just short of a brittle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To finish, the candied chipotle honey pepitas were thrown in right at the end of the churn.

 

 

 

Avocado with Chipotle Honey Pepitas

 

 

 

Would you like to try some? As we do every week, we’ll be giving away two pints of this flavor. Just leave a comment on our facebook page to be entered into the drawing. If you don’t have a facebook account, leave a comment right here on the blog. We’ll draw two winners on Friday afternoon (5/18/2012) at 4pm and will announce them on our facebook page (or email you if you’re comment resides here). Our only conditions are you must be able to pick it up here in Minneapolis, and be willing to give us a little feedback that can be shared with everyone else. Good luck!