Chilled Almond Rice Pudding

Candied almonds

• 200 g almonds
• 175 g sugar
• 75 ml cold water

Rice pudding

• 1 vanilla pod
• 100 g short-grain pudding rice
• 150 ml water
• 7 dl whole milk (approx. 3.5% fat)
• 1-2 tbsp. sugar

Almond rice pudding

• 100 g whole almonds
• boiling water
• 3.5 dl whipping cream (approx. 38% fat)
• seeds of 1 vanilla pod
• 3-4 tbsp. sugar

Cherry sauce

• 1 jar of ready-made Danish cherry sauce (approx. 600 g)
• 3-4 tbsp. quality cherry wine or port
• 4-5 julienned orange zest strips
• 2 star anise pods
• 3-4 whole cloves

In a deep saucepan combine almonds, sugar and water. Bring to the boil. The sugar eventually turns stiff and white. Leave the almonds to heat gently. Eventually, the sugar is released and re-melts to candy-coat the almonds. Tip out immediately onto parchment paper on a baking tray and leave to cool. Take care! The almonds are hot! The whole process takes 30-50 minutes, so be patient.

Rice pudding
Scrape the seeds out of the vanilla pod (setting them aside for later). Place the empty vanilla pod, pudding rice and water in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Add milk and simmer lidded, stirring regularly for approx. 45 minutes. Transfer the rice pudding to a large bowl, sprinkle with sugar and refrigerate.

Almond rice pudding
Pour boiling water over the whole almonds and leave them to soak. Repeat if necessary. Squeeze each almond to skin them and then chop coarsely. (Save a whole almond for the traditional Danish whole-almond prize!)

Whip the cream into soft peaks. Combine vanilla seeds and sugar and stir into the chilled rice pudding. Gently fold the whipped cream into the rice pudding and add the chopped almonds. Chill the almond rice pudding until time to serve.

Cherry sauce
Sieve the cherry sauce. Saving the berries, place the sieved cherry syrup into a saucepan and add the cherry wine. Now add orange zest, star anise pods and whole cloves and bring the syrup to the boil and simmer for 2-3 minutes. Sieve away the spices and stir the saved berries into the hot spiced syrup.

To serve
Serve the chilled almond rice pudding with warmed cherry sauce and chopped candied almonds.

TIP
The candied almonds can be omitted or bought ready-made to save preparation time.