Risalamande

Blog, food, Christmas.... well Christmas is over. This year, as with most years I cooked the pudding for our family festive feast. I always like to try something new, and a friend who lives in Denmark recommended a traditional Danish Christmas dessert called Risalamonde. So after doing some research into it, and perusing a bunch of recipes I made up my own. I was mostly drawn by the tradition of placing a single whole almond into the pudding and whoever finds it wins a prize. Apparently the prize should be a marzipan pig with a coin stuck in its belly, but I couldn't find one of those so I just bought a small handful of exciting handmade chocolates instead. Although there are a fair few components to this dessert, everything can be done in advance. The almond thins were a nice extra. It was insanely filling and I had quite the food slump after this, so be warned you probably need less per person than you might think. Especially after a huge roast or whatever else you might be having. I believe that's what the almond and the prize is all about, to force everyone to eat all the dessert so they feel thoroughly sick afterwards. Thanks Denmark.

Full Recipe after the jump...

Risalamande

Serves 8-10

Ingredients

Rice Pudding

200g of Short Grain Pudding Rice

1ltr of Milk

2 Sheets of Gelatine

2 Tbsp of Caster Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

300ml of Double Cream

½ tsp Almond Extract

100grams of Sliced Almonds

1 Whole Almond

Cherry Compote

1\2 Jar of Pitted Cherries In Syrup

Juice of 1\2 Lemon

1-2 Tbsp of Cornflower

Cherry Brandy

Almond and Cherry Butter Thins

225g Unsalted Butter

200g of Caster Sugar

1 egg

1 tsp Almond Extract

220g Plain Flour

Pinch of Salt

Handful of Cherries in Syrup

100g of Sliced Almonds

Rice Pudding

Place the rice and milk into a saucepan and gently heat and simmer, stirring often, for 20 – 30 minutes until the rice is soft, it should be a fairly thick rice pudding, but if it gets too thick add a bit more milk.

Melt the gelatine in a small bowl with just enough boiling water to do the job. Pour this into the rice pudding along with the teaspoon of Vanilla extract and the 2 tablespoons of sugar (I've not got a very sweet tooth, if you have you may want more than this, probably double). Give it a good stir and leave to cool completely.

Whip the cream with half a teaspoon of almond extract until stiff. Tip the sliced almonds onto the cream and tip the cold rice pudding on top. Add the one whole almond. Fold it all together with a metal spoon until well combined. Transfer to whatever you want to serve it in and refrigerate to set.

Cherry Compote

Tip half a jar of cherries and syrup into a sauce pan and add the juice of half a lemon and heat to a gentle simmer. In a small bowl mix a tablespoon of cornflower in a small amount of water and add to the sauce pan. Stir until thickened, if not thick enough add some more cornflower. Add a good slosh of Cherry Brandy to taste. Heat it up when you are ready to serve.

Almond and Cherry Butter Thins

Pre heat the oven to gas mark 4 or 175°C.

Place the butter and sugar in a large bowl and whisk until fluffy. In a separate bowl beat the egg together with the almond extract then add this to the butter and sugar and whisk some more.

Sift the flour and a pinch of salt into the mixing bowl then fold well with a metal spoon. Roughly chop the cherries then add and fold those into the mix.

Lay out a large piece of grease proof paper onto a flat baking tray and plop on half of the mixture with a damp spatula spread it out until its about 1cm thick. Liberally sprinkle over the chopped almonds, give the tray a shake to let the almonds settle and create a fairly even layer across the mixture. Now take a rolling pin and very gently roll across the top pushing the almonds into the mix and flattening the mixture even more. The almonds should have created a protective layer so that nothing sticks to the rolling pin. Repeat with the other half of the mixture and place both trays into the oven for about 15 minutes. Swapping the trays around in the oven half way through.

Remove the trays, the biscuits should be looking golden around the edges. With a large lightly oiled knife cut down into the biscuit (don't drag the knife through) to make whatever size pieces you like. Return to the oven for about 5-10 more minutes until they are golden all over.

Carefully transfer them onto a wire rack and leave to cool and harden.