If you like rice pudding, you're going to love Risalamande, a churched-up Danish version of rice pudding that's full of almonds, velvety whipped cream & topped with a cherry sauce.
I know. I don't even like dessert and I think it looks delicious. More shocking is the fact that I think it tastes delicious. My favourite dessert is an extra salty bag of potato chips washed down with feta cheese brine.
Although if I'm being honest over the past few years, sweet things have crossed my mind & mouth a lot more often.
This Danish Christmas Eve dessert is a good transition dish if you're thinking of venturing into the world of sweet because it's sweet but not sickeningly so. No offence to all you full time sweets people.
Also just so you know, Danes love butter and whipping cream, just as a general rule. And that is why we love the Dane's. Of course they offset all that goodness in their diet by eating pickled herring. Nobody's perfect.
Risengrød (rice pudding) has a long history of being loved in Denmark. Then in the 1800's, rich people decided that it was awfully embarrassing to be loving the same dessert that the peasants loved. At the same time they weren't willing to give up their bowls of rice pudding. I mean, who would? So the rich bougied their rice pudding up with the addition of expensive ingredients like whipping cream & almonds.
I love it.
I'm a big fan of rice pudding precisely because of the fact that it isn't too sweet. It's rich and creamy and everyone knows that all the best desserts are made with rice. Just ask my good friend Mango Sticky Rice.
Risalamande (translates to almond rice) is what's traditionally served on Christmas Eve in Danish households. Except my childhood Danish household apparently, where tradition was to pass around Creme de Menthe and ashtrays.
Making this dessert is really simple. You cook some basic rice pudding, stir in some almonds and whipped cream then top it with cherry sauce.
Table of Contents
Ingredients
- white rice (long grain or arborio)
- whole milk
- sugar
- salt
- almonds (chopped, blanched)
- 1 almond (whole)
- whipping cream
- vanilla
- Cherry Sauce
- frozen cherries
- sugar (or to taste)
- water
- cornstarch
- water
See recipe card for quantities.
Instructions
You're just going to make rice pudding and mix in whipped cream really, then a quick cherry sauce and you're done.
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Make the rice pudding. When it's finished cooking you can stir in the almonds. Now start whipping the cream.
Fold the whipped cream into the rice pudding. Also - don't forget to add one whole almond.
Cook or warm up the cherry sauce.
Spoon the warm sauce over the rice pudding and serve.
The one extra special thing about Risalamande are the almonds. And not just the almonds, but the one, single whole almond that gets added to it.
The tradition is to serve all of the rice pudding and whoever gets the whole almond wins a prize. If you're the one who finds the almond you're supposed to tuck it in your cheek or hide it so no one knows it's been found.
That way everyone is forced to eat all the rice pudding in the entire house thinking the almond might still be available to be found.
Leftover rice pudding is a sin worse than carpeted bathrooms in a Danish household.
You can go as complicated or as easy as you want with the cherry sauce. I made my own out of frozen cherries, sugar and water but if you like things easy and just want to dump a can of cherry pie filling on top, feel free.
Just don't expect it to look like this if you do. Cherry pie filling will be a bit gloppy, although if you heated it up it will become runnier.
Risalamande - Danish Rice Pudding
Risalamande - Danish Rice Pudding
Ingredients
Rice Pudding
- 1 cup white rice (long grain or arborio)
- 6 cups whole milk
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 cup almonds (chopped, blanched)
- 1 almond (whole)
Whipped Cream
- 1.5 cups whipping cream
- 2 tablespoon sugar
- 1 bean vanilla
Cherry Sauce
- 16 oz cherries (frozen)
- 3 tablespoon sugar (or to taste)
- ¼ cup water
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon water
Instructions
Rice Pudding
- Add rice, milk, sugar and a pinch of salt to pot and heat until small bubbles start to form around edge of pot. Stir occasionally.
- Once bubbles form, cover pot with lid and simmer for apx 1 hour until rice is soft.
- Remove from heat and add in chopped almonds and 1 whole almond. Allow to cool.
Whipped Cream
- Whip 1.5 cups of whipping cream. Once it starts to thicken, add the sugar.
- Once whipped, gently stir in the seeds from one whole vanilla bean.
Cherry Sauce
- Mix together 1 tablespoon of cornstarch and 1 tablespoon of water to form a slurry.
- Simmer cherries, ¼ cup of water and 3 tablespoons of sugar in a pot until the cherries are softened.
- Once softened and warm, add the slurry to the pot of cherries and bring to a slight boil. Simmer until thickened. Remove from heat.
Putting it all together
- Gently fold the whipped cream into the rice pudding. Serve in bowls or cups, topped with the warm cherry sauce.
Notes
Don't be alarmed at all the steps. It's not hard to make, but there are 3 components: the rice pudding, the whipped cream and the cherry sauce.
It even looks Christmassy which guests will appreciate, because not to appreciate something that looks like this - would be lunacy.
Of special interest to anyone who is dieting, this dessert contains no calories at all provided you just look at it.
Hallo,
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Danke Ihnen im Voraus und viele Grüße
Robert Sturm