Gluten-Free Dessert

I have for long been meaning to make a post about this Thai rice pudding with coconut milk and mangoes, but since I feel that this dessert is best eaten during spring and summer, it took me almost a year before I finally decided to blog about this.

Last summer I was eating dinner at a home where the cook had just spent some time in Thailand and he had also taken some cooking lessons there; the food he prepared was really good and I just totally loved the dessert he had made which was this rice pudding. I was amazed at how little preparation it needed and also the simple ingredients needed for it.

It starts with cooking some rice, usually jasmine rice, in some salted water and then letting it cool down by soaking it in some coconut milk. Then it is served with some fresh sweet mangoes.

I like using some short grained rice rather than jasmine rice and I also make this dessert by adding some spices as flavourings and a mango coulis is better here than fresh diced mangoes, maybe because the mangoes here are not as juicy and sweet as in warmer countries and cooking the mango in some sugar water makes it taste better. One thing that makes this a more decadent rice pudding is folding in some whipped cream before serving, it makes the pudding feel lighter in your mouth and it adds richness.

Rice Pudding with coconut milk

The basic recipe is naturally free from dairy, eggs, soy and gluten.

serves 4-6 people

Basic recipe

-one can of coconut milk, I usually use just the firm part of it

-3 cups of cooked white rice

-3 heaping tbls of sugar, or according to taste

- one diced ripe mango

Place the cooked rice into the coconut milk with the sugar and let it sit for some time, or until it cools down a bit. This should be served slightly warm, not hot.

Serve with the diced mango on top, or you can make a mango sauce.

If you want to, you can fold in 1-2 cups of whipped cream before serving.

Mango Coulis Recipe

-1 diced mango

-2 tbls sugar

-4 tbls water

-1/2 tsp orange blossom water

Place a small saucepan on medium heat. Put the mango into the saucepan with the water and the sugar. Let them boil together for a small time until the mango goes soft and falls apart.

Purée the ingredients together and then put them through a fine mesh to make a smooth sauce.

Mix the orange blossom water with the sauce.

Optional ingredients

-ground cardamom, this is my favourite spice here, 2 tsp is enough

-some saffron and rose water

-lemon grass

-cinnamon

-some roasted pistachios or other nuts sprinkled on top before serving

-vanilla extract, I always use this

-orange or lemon zest

You can use your imagination and use almost anything you like here.

I would recommend using ground cardamom and vanilla extract, but this really depends on personal taste.

I can’t believe that spring is really here!

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This cake was inspired by an article in a Finnish magazine about someone from the Finnish Gastronomic Society making a cheesecake; the cake was flavoured with some orange flavour and white chocolate. A cake like that would be perfect for an Easter dessert I thought, after reading the whole thing, and thus I decided to try it out. The article did not have a recipe included, unfortunately, but it is not hard to make a cheesecake.

I found the making to be quite easy and fast, if you do not include the time needed for the setting of the gelatine. The taste is just beyond good in my opinion, much of it was due to the fact that the only sweetness in the cake came from the white chocolate, no sugar was needed in my opinion - many times a dessert is ruined with too much sweetness, sugar can either heighten flavours or mask them, when too much is used it sucks all the flavour out of the dessert.

The base was made with these cookies, but you can of course use any kind of cookies you like, something like Oreos (Dominos) would be good, if you can tolerate gluten. I do not know much about the ready made gluten-free cookies, so I can not state an opinion about them here, but I am sure that almost any kind of cookies would do.

I might make some alterations when making this on Easter; I will probably add some quark instead of the cream cheese, just because quark belongs together with Easter. The other thing I would change -if there were sugar loving people at the table - would be adding a bit sugar to the cake, not much, maybe 1/4 cup would do.

A White Chocolate and Orange Cheesecake

Please try using a good quality white chocolate which means that it has cocoa butter in it, not some other vegetable oil. There is a big difference in the way chocolate behaves and it mostly depends on the oil used in it. Chocolate with cocoa butter will melt just the right way. I usually use Fazer’s white chocolate, it is no Valrhona, but it is good and only has cocoa butter as the fat in it.

The ingredients,

-approximately 180 grams/ 6 ounces cookies

-50 grams/1,7 ounces butter

-100 grams/3,5 ounces white chocolate

-the zest and juice of one orange

-200 grams/7 ounces cream cheese (I used Philadelphia)

-2 dl/ 3/4 cup whipping cream

-4 gelatine leaves

-1 tsp vanilla extract

Line a springform pan with baking paper. Crush the cookies and mix them with the melted butter. Place them evenly on the bottom of the springform pan. Leave the pan into the fridge while you make the filling.

Place the gelatine leaves into some cold water. Melt the white chocolate. Whip the cream and mix it with the white chocolate and the cream cheese. Add the vanilla extract and the orange zest.

Place the orange juice into a saucepan on medium heat and melt the gelatine leaves into it. Let it cool a bit.

Mix the orange juice after it has cooled with the whipped cream mixture. Pour it into the springform pan and leave to sit in the fridge for at least 3 hours.

Take a springform pan and line the bottom with some baking paper.

I have found that greasing the bottom with some butter before placing the paper on it is helpful.

Crush the cookies; I usually use my Bamix mill for something like is. The Bamix blender I have is probably the smartest purchase I have ever made for my kitchen, I got so tired with bying a new blender every now and then and finally decided to get a Bamix. I has served me well for years now.

Melt the butter and mix with the crushed cookies. Then place them into the springform pan evenly. Place the cake base into the fridge while you start with the filling.

Take the gelatine leaves and place them into some cold water. Leave them for a while.

Grate the orange and squeeze the juice from it.

Whip the cream and add the vanilla extract to it. Melt the white chocolate in a bain-marie, or in a microwave oven.  Add the cream cheese to the whipped cream and then add the white chocolate.

Mix them all together before adding the orange zest.

Place the orange juice into a small saucepan on medium heat. Take the gelatine leaves and squeeze them dry.

Add the leaves to the juice and let them melt together.

Take the juice and let it cool before mixing it with the whipped cream mixture.

Pour the mixture into the springform pan and let it rest in the fridge for at least three hours, or more.

Have a great Easter everyone!

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