I did not have a photo of the rice cake I mentioned in a previous blog about the lunch at All’Osteria Bottega so I figured that would be a good excuse to track down a recipe and share it here. As you will see it is really a simple recipe but does take some time in preparing the rice. After that it is really straight forward. This makes a really moist cake that is delicious for breakfast with coffee or tea or as a traditional dessert after dinner.
Rice Cake Recipe
1 quart of whole milk
4 oz. of arborio rice
3/4 cup of sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup of finely chopped toasted almonds
1/2 cup of chopped candied fruit peel, **See note.
the peel of 1/2 a lemon
1-2 jiggers of Amaretto or other liquor (I used Brandy)
Instructions:
- Bring milk to a boil. Add the sugar, rice and lemon peel and reduce heat to a low simmer. Simmer for 45- 50 minutes. Make sure to stir periodically to avoid burning the rice.
- When the rice and milk mixture has thickened (the mixture should be completely thick with no liquid visible) remove from the heat and let stand to cool completely.
- When thoroughly cooled add one egg at a time. Stir in vigorously with a wooden spoon to make sure all eggs are well incorporated into the mixture.
- Add the candied fruit peel and the finely chopped toasted almonds and Amaretto. Stir until all is well incorporated into the rice batter.
- Butter and flour a 10″ x 10″ cake pan. I used a small pyrex dish and it came out fine.
- Place in a preheated oven at 325 degrees for one hour (mine took about 15min. more). Check the center with a toothpick. If the toothpick comes out clean remove from the oven and allow to cool before trying to remove from the cake pan.
- When cooled remove from the cake pan and slice into small cubes.
***Note: If you can’t find candied fruit peel you can always substitute with the zest of your preference. Also the cake I had at the restaurant used Amaretto but you can use whatever type of alcohol you prefer. I did not have Amaretto so I used Brandy.