Happy Fourth of July! In honor of our dear nations birthday, a red, white, and blue dessert is necessary right!? Thats what I thought too. I always see holiday desserts on pinterest and facebook etc...and I thought it was time to make one of my own. So here you have it. Vanilla Risotto Pudding Shooters with red, and blue fruit to give it that American pride. 

In all honesty, the pudding recipe I followed did not work out well. I pretty much drowned the risotto in milk so it ended up being a little soupier than I wanted it to be. However if I were to make this again, I would only use a 1/4 of what the recipe actually called for.

 Aside from the fact that it was too liquified, this pudding tastes AMAZING. There is just a dash of cinnamon which really helps enhance the flavor that the vanilla bean an vanilla extract provide.I have never had risotto pudding before so I did not know what the texture would be like. Let me just say that it had a similar texture to tapioca pudding, but a little less gummy if you know what I mean. 


If you want to buy the cookbook where I found the recipe, here it is Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey. This cookbook is amazing. One of my favorite recipes is the Black Bottom cupcakes which are basically chocolate cupcakes with a cream cheese and chocolate chip filling that oozes out when you take a bite. My mouth is already watering just thinking about them. AHH so good. 

Anyways, here is the recipe for the pudding shooters! This is half of the recipe from the cookbook because I only needed a little bit for the shooters I was making

Ingredients:

• 4 cups whole milk
• 1/4 cup risotto (italian rice)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/8 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Strawberries and Blueberries for decorations

Directions:

1. Over medium-high heat, combine the whole milk, risotto, vanilla, sugar, cinnamon and salt. Bring the mixture to a boil then turn down the heat to medium-low and let it simmer for 30 minutes. Make sure to stir every 5 minutes to prevent the mixture from burning
2. Continue cooking for about 15 minutes or until the risotto is tender but not too mushy. 
3. In a separate bowl whisk the egg yolk, heavy cream and vanilla extract. Then add it into the pan, stirring constantly for 2-3 minutes. 
4. Pour the pudding into a serving bowl or individual dishes and place in fridge until ready to serve. I put mine in the freezer to make them really cold. 

Happy July! 
This morning I was really in the mood to make something but I had no idea as to what I should create. My mom recently bought some sugar free chocolates that have coconut, caramel and truffle fillings and I decided that I wanted to make my own version--much healthier! 

This was the easiest candy/dessert I have ever made. You can basically top the chocolate with whatever your heart desires but I wanted to keep it simple and add a little crunch and sweetness to balance out the dark chocolate. According to the taste tester (aka. my mother) they were delicious! I used 85% and 99% dark chocolate in this recipe so incorporating the coconut really helped to give it a sweeter taste. 

Ingredients:
1 bar of dark chocolate (any percent is fine, you can also use milk chocolate!)
about 20 roasted almonds 
coconut flakes (un-toasted)
1/2 tsp butter
Parchment paper 

Directions:
In a sauce pan, add a 1/2 tsp butter and melt on medium-low heat. You want to make sure the chocolate is not going to stick to the bottom of the pan. If you are confident in your non-stick pan, I think you can go ahead and skip this step. 

Next, break up the chocolate bar and add into the saucepan. 

When it is all melted, use a spoon to scoop it onto a piece of parchment paper. You can make them any size you would like. Mine were around 1 inch wide. 

After all your chocolate has been scooped onto the parchment paper, add you desired toppings and place in the freezer for 30 minutes to an hour. Afterwards, you can either eat them right away or store in a container and place it back in the freezer. 

I hope you enjoy! (: 
-Hannah