Dear readers
This dessert is a must-have on the Danish dinner tables on Christmas eve. It’s a sweet creamy vanilla flavored rice pudding with lots and lots of chopped almonds and is usually enjoyed with hot cherry sauce on top. In the bowl of risalamande you leave one whole almond for a lucky person to find and if you get it you get the “almond gift” which is sort of the prize of the evening. Very entertaining game that ensures everyone eats every last bit of this deliciously irresistible dessert. I’ve seen and tried so many varieties of this and at last I’ve reached my favourite recipe. I hope you all enjoy it as much as we do!
Delany
Ris á la mande
Ingredients
200 g pudding rice
1 L 3,5 % milk
3oo-400 mL water
1 vanilla bean
1/2 tsp salt
8 tbsp sugar
200 g almonds (roughly chopped)
400 mL whipping cream
1 tbsp vanilla powder
cherry sauce
Steps
- Bring rice and water to boil on medium-high heat and add the salt.
- Once the rice has absorbed the water, add milk and turn the heat down to the lowest temperature possible. Stir often.
- Split the vanilla bean down its length with a small knife and scrape out the seeds. Add both the seeds and the empty vanilla pods to the pudding.
- Let the pudding simmer for an hour while stirring every 5-10 minutes to make sure it doesn’t get burnt.
- Blanch the almonds and let them cool. Then skin them and chop them roughly.
- Add 4 tbsp sugar while the pudding is hot so it disolves and stir. Let it cool completely and refrigerate.
- Once the pudding reaches the same temperature as the whipping cream (5 degrees celcius) it is ready to be transformed into risalamande ;)
- To the whipping cream, add the remaining 4 tbsp sugar and vanilla powder and whisk until firm but don’t overdo it or you’ll make butter.
- Now mix together the chilled pudding (remove the empty vanilla pods), the whipped cream and the almonds and voila! You’ve made risalamande.
- Enjoy with warm cherry sauce.
