Norwegian desserts

The last What's Baking? theme was baking from your heritage, so I spent a lot of time hunting down some appropriate recipes. I originally thought I'd bake something from my Norwegian heritage, but as I said in my post, I didn't really grow up eating Norwegian food, so I didn't feel that was quite right for me.

That's not to say I don't eat Norwegian food now... thanks partly to the Norway Pavilion in Epcot. I found this recipe for rice pudding, which is served there, and it's delicious. We all know I love rice pudding. I also got to use one of my newest refrigerator staples, roasted strawberries.

Norwegian Rice Pudding
from Disney World, recipe from allears.net, which shares many delicious Disney recipes
(I made a 1/4 recipe, since I'd be the only one eating it)

1/2 cup short grain white rice (I used jasmine, it was all I had)
dash of salt
3/4 cup water
1 cup milk (I used skim)

1/2 cup heavy cream
1T sugar
1/2 t vanilla

In a medium saucepan, bring the rice, salt and water to boil, and cook for 15 minutes, uncovered. Reduce heat to a simmer, add milk, and cook for 30 minutes, covered. Remove from heat and chill.

This part is best done fresh before serving: whip the cream until almost fluffy, whip in sugar and vanilla. Gently fold in whipped cream to rice mixture. Chill.

Serve cool, topped with roasted strawberries.

(If you think you might only go through one serving of this rice pudding a day, and making the whipped cream fresh each time might not work... I won't say anything if you get a can of whipped cream. But get Cabot whipped cream, or Hood light whipped cream, those are the best options)


Roasted strawberries
(this is a great thing to do with slightly old, bruised strawberries that aren't so pretty for eating fresh, or if you have a ton of strawberries and don't want to freeze or make jam)

Strawberries (as many as you have)
sugar (approx 2T per lb of strawberries)
lemon juice (approx 2T per lb of strawberries)

Hull and slice strawberries (in quarters or slices, whatever). Place in a baking dish and toss with sugar and lemon juice. Roast at 250F for about 2 hours. Let cool slightly, and store in the refrigerator.

Makes a lovely topping for: waffles, pancakes, ice cream, rice pudding, yogurt, cottage cheese, etc.