Are There Really Aloe Dessert Options?

The initial response to a mouthful of aloe vera? Quick, cover that taste up! If you have ever had aloe vera-inspired juice, you know that aloe vera has your taste buds going crazy in all the wrong way. Definitely an acquired taste, am I right? To mellow it out in the juice world, many look for other, sweeter ingredients to mask or dilute the pungent flavor of this medicinal plant and fool the tongue. So, when I say dessert time with aloe vera, you might think I am crazy. But I kid you not: aloe vera is for dessert today!

What Would Aloe Vera Desserts Look Like?

Think Jell-O when you are trying picture aloe desserts. Usually cut up into block-shaped, bite-sized pieces when made into a dessert, aloe vera gel already has a Jell-o-like consistency: it is slimy and holds a firm shape that wiggles when touched. Get your wiggle on!

Cakes? Cookies? What Kind of Dessert Make with Aloe?

Don’t expect to be baking a soufflé with aloe vera gel. No cookies, cakes, or even pie. You definitely won’t be making the traditional dessert options with aloe vera in your ingredient basket. You’ll be making more of a sweet, fruit cocktail-style dessert.

The Aloe Vera Dessert Process: Rinse, Boil, then Chill!

1. Rinse: First up is rinsing off your aloe vera gel cubes. You want to rid your gelly blocks of any aloe latex, that yellow sap you find right below the aloe vera’s leaves. Consume that, and you will be on the toilet all night long. Yup, that’s right: aloe latex has laxative properties! It can also mess up your digestive tract quite a bit if taken internally, so you’ll want to give your gel block a good old rinse (two or three times, in fact) to make sure your dessert will not be a laxative one! Another benefit of rinsing aloe vera: getting rid of that natural slim! No place in your dessert for that texture!

2. Boil: You don’t bake aloe vera when making it into a dessert, like you would for when making cupcakes or most desserts. So what do you do instead? Boil! The second step in your aloe dessert process is boiling up those aloe cubes.

3. Chill: Aloe desserts are best served cold. So once you finish boiling that aloe vera, throw that bad boy into the fridge to cool down. The longer you keep it in there, the better it will taste, too. You want to give the aloe vera gel time to absorb all the sugary sweetness of the other ingredients you mixed it with. 24 hours is actually the recommended chilling time. Then, once it sits and cools, bring on the dessert! Serving it over ice to keep it frigid is also a good way to go.

Pump Up the Taste!

Get your aloe vera dessert ready by drawing inspiration from these common aloe dessert ingredients:

• lemons
• dates
• goji berriess

Sweeten that Bad Boy Up!

As we all know, aloe vera gel can be some nasty stuff. To make it more appealing to you and your taste buds (enough that you’ll want to eat it as a treat), you’ll want to sweeten it up. Aloe desserts, as you might have guessed, are therefore not lacking a sweetener. Different sweeteners will develop different tastes in your dessert, so choose one with the rest of your dish in mind:

• brown rock sugar
• sugar cane candy
• any sweet syrup (even canned fruit cocktail)
• sugar
• honey

Why Add Aloe to Your Dessert Menu?

Enjoying aloe dessert has the same health benefits as aloe vera pills and other oral forms of the plant. In other words, your digestive tract will thank you. Skin conditions may also get some relief from eating aloe vera gel.

Hope you saved room for dessert!