Avocado: The Cookie Ingredient We've All Been Sleeping On

If you keep avocados on hand, you're likely using them for recipes like avocado toast, guacamole, or adding them to salads and smoothies. However, you probably wouldn't think of incorporating avocado into your baked goods, let alone heating it up. But when it comes to cookies, you might want to consider this ingredient, especially if you prefer a soft texture to a crisp one.

Avocado acts as a fat, and when added to cookie dough, it forms a barrier around the gluten molecules in flour. This barrier prevents the gluten strands from tightening, which can lead to tough, dense cookies. Typically, butter is used as the fat in cookies, but its tenderizing effects are somewhat limited because it melts. Adding more butter causes the dough to spread, which can make the cookies crisp up. Avocado, on the other hand, maintains its shape when baked, so the added fat simply makes the cookie softer.

When you bake avocado, its texture changes, becoming noticeably mushier. This is why people often use the oven to soften unripe avocados. However, baking does not alter the taste, so when you add avocado to your cookies, the fruit's distinct flavor will still be present.

Don't let that discourage you, though. Since the taste is fairly subtle, you don't need to worry about avocado completely overpowering your cookies. If you prefer it to be less noticeable, you can easily mask it by pairing it with more intense-tasting ingredients, such as cocoa powder or peanut butter. This trick works well for classic options too, though, like in this avocado chocolate chip cookie recipe. For options like sugar cookies or snickerdoodles, which rely on simpler flavors and don't generally call for mix-ins, masking the avocado flavor may be more challenging unless you use a smaller amount of avocado.

The amount of avocado to add to cookies depends on whether you're using it as a substitute for butter in your recipe. If you're replacing butter with avocado, you can use a 1:1 ratio. However, if you're using both ingredients, you'll need about ¾​ cups of avocado for every cup of butter. Adjust the amount slightly more or less, depending on how soft you want your cookies, and how subtle you want the avocado flavor to be.

Unlike ingredients like flour, butter, and sugar, which undergo significant changes during baking, avocado remains largely consistent, allowing for less precise measurements. Regardless of the quantity used, or whether it's combined with butter, ensure the avocado is well mashed or processed in a food processor for even incorporation. Even if you end up with a few green chunks, you'll still end up with a much softer (and delicious) cookie.