Stovetop Rice Pudding

This must be one of the easiest economical desserts that I now make on irregular basis. Anytime I have leftover rice from main meal and I don’t feel like doing a stir fry this recipe comes in handy. And yes, it is one of Marjo’s favorite.

• 2 cups cooked rice
• 2 cups milk, divided
• 2tsp. sugar
• 2/3 cups raisins
• 1/4 teaspoons salt (pinch)
• 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• Dash nutmeg or cinnamon, optional

Soak raisins in 1/2 cup of milk for 1/2 hour before starting to heat up milk.

Combine rice and 1-1/2 cups milk, sugar and salt in heavy saucepan. Mix well with whisk till sugar is dissolved and there are no lumps in the rice. When milk comes to simmer add remaining milk with raisins and bring back to simmer. Cook over low to medium heat for about 10 – 15 minutes. Stir occasionally until thick and creamy. Add vanilla and almond extract into rice mixture. Cook 2 minutes longer, stirring occasionally. Ladle into serving dishes and sprinkle with nutmeg or cinnamon. Can be served warm, room temperature or cold.

Note: I use only 2 tsp. of sugar because golden raisins I am using will give off quite a bit of sweetness to the pudding.

Makes four servings.

Pastry Pie with filings (Kolache)

Yesterday, as I was surfing the net I came across a Czech pastry shop website. On a main page was a picture of Kolache. It is almost impossible to translate the word kolache, it is original Czech word. It is basically round pastry pie topped with various toppings; cottage cheese, poppy seeds and prune jam being the three most favorite fillings. When I saw the picture I actually could smell it! I had to make some for Marjo, she never had these. The dough is a bit sweet and super light and similar to brioche but not as rich. Same night I made the fillings and first thing in morning next day I made the dough and in afternoon I baked nice 9 pies, 3 of each. So good, that it is now on my permanent to bake list.

Top picture shows (left to right) poppy seed filling with almonds, cottage or ricotta cheese with raisins and plum jam with pecan.

Dough

3 c. flour

1 pkg. instant dry yeast

1/3 c. sugar

1 tsp. salt

3/4 c. warm milk

1 egg

1/3 c. butter, melted
Place flour in a large bowl. Make a depression in the center. Add sugar, salt and yeast and mix. In another bowl add warm milk, eggs and melted butter and beat till well combined.  Pour the wet ingredients into flour mix and knead until smooth. Or, put all ingredients in a food processor and run till dough clears the sides of bowl (my option).

Shape the dough into a ball, place in warm greased bowl and let rise for about an hour or till doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 375 °F.
Divide or pinch a dough just little bit bigger then egg, shape into a ball and place on buttered cookie sheet, flatten to about 3/8” thick and cover with towel. Let rise 10 minutes. Indent center of each pie leaving a rim about 1/2” wide and top center with filling. Brush edges lightly with melted butter and bake for about 25 – 30 minutes.  When golden brown remove from oven and place on cooling rack to cool. Brush rim with butter while kolaches are still hot.

Cottage Cheese Filling:
1/2 lb. dry cottage cheese
1/4 c. white sugar (more if you like)
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1 egg yolk
1/4 c. cooked, drained white raisins
Mix together well so it is spreadable.

Poppy Seed Filling:
1-1/2 c. ground poppy seed
1/3 c. milk
1 Tbs. butter
In a saucepan, bring milk to simmer, add butter and poppy seeds. Slowly simmer till milk is absorbed. Let cool before using.

Prune Filling:
1 c. dried pitted prunes, chopped. Simmer prunes in 1/4 cup of water till soft. Add 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon and mix well. Let cool before using.

Ready for second rise.

Fresh from the oven.

Light as a feather.

Cherry Sponge Cake (Bublanina)

Cherry sponge cake is pretty much the only sweet dessert that I will eat. I just don’t like sweet stuff besides nice braised or barbequed ribs, of course. This is a classical Czech cake and one of few recipes that I follow to the letter. Well, almost. I thought that I could reduce amount of sugar, and I did, but I can only go so far. Since the batter is basically meringue mixed with egg yolks and flour, then of course, no sugar, no meringue. After all, for soft meringue there is a minimum of sugar to egg white ratio of 2 tablespoons of sugar to each egg white so that 3/4 cup of sugar is bare minimum. OK, here it goes:

6 eggs, separated

3/4 cup fine granulated sugar

3/4 cup flour

Lemon zest and juice from 1/2 lemon

1 t. vanilla extract

1-1/2 cups canned pitted sweet cherries

Pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350 °F. With a pastry brush or paper towel butter bottom and sides of 9” X 12” cake pan or spray with Baking spray (my option).

In a large stainless steel bowl beat egg yolks lightly with fork then mix in lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla extract. Set aside.

With electric beater or wire whisk beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until they foam, then beat in the sugar, a tablespoon at a time. Continue beating until the whites form stiff unwavering peaks when beater is lifted from bowl. Do not overbeat.

Note: It is important to have a super clean bowl for whipping egg whites. Smallest trace of fat or grease will ruin your meringue.

Mix about 1/4 of the beaten egg whites into egg yolk mixture then reverse the process and mix with remaining egg whites.

Sprinkle flour on top and with spatula fold until no traces of the flour and whites remain.

Pour the batter into pan and spread cherries evenly on top. Smooth the top and place on middle of the preheated oven for about 40 minutes or until cake is nice golden brown and springy to the touch. Cool in pan before serving.

So moist and good!!!!