Avocado Truffles @ Carpinteria Avocado Festival

It took three years for French chocolatier Jean-Michel Carré to develop his top secret for transforming avocados into a rich, seasonal chocolate treat.

Carré is the world-renowned chocolatier and owner of Chocolats du CaliBressan, with locations in both Santa Barbara and Carpinteria. This avocado truffle is available in celebration of the 29th Annual California Avocado Festival, and for a limited time only.

Carré’s recipe blends avo flesh into a creamy white chocolate ganache that gets covered in a layer of rich dark chocolate. Having never before tried an avocado truffle himself, Carré said the tricky part was finding the balance between the two very rich ingredients of chocolate and avocado. The confection is now one of the festival’s hits, alongside Island Brewing’s Avocado Honey Ale, avocado ice cream, and, of course, guacamole.

“People love them,” said Carré. “People are always surprised and ask me to make them all year round, but I want to keep it a specialty for the festival.”

Carré started making these truffles in 2012 and plans to make 3,000 for this weekend. They sell at $1.80 apiece and will also be available in a variety of assortment boxes.

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The California Avocado Festival runs Friday-Sunday, October 2-4, along Linden Avenue in downtown Carpinteria. The truffles are available there and at the two Chocolats du CaliBressan locations. See avofest.com and chococalibressan.com.