Soy pudding can be good. But it will be only as good as your soy milk is. And this is also possible, you just have to sample and find the favorite one. The flavor of the soy milk differs significantly, from brand to brand. My personal favorite is made by “Organic Valley”. Unfortunately, I can’t find it in Canada. We buy it in the US once in a while (a benefit of living close to the border). The “Silk” would be my second choice. The most common soy milk here in BC is “So Nice” which I find not nice at all. Is it too much trouble for a dessert that could be perfectly made from half-and-half? Well, you decide, but this is definitely a healthy alternative. I wish I could be consistent and always so health-conscious. One day I make my pudding from soy milk, another day – I deep-fry my cheesecake leftovers.

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This month Daring Bakers challenge hosted by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf was tuiles. There were four different recipes given to choose from including a savory one. First, I had a solid intention to make them all. Then, I waited, and waited a little bit longer… , and then some urgent matter came up…, and I ended up doing the challenge the night before the due date. I basically, fixed it from what I had at home. Procrastination is definitely not a virtue.

The tuiles recipe I used is adapted from “The Chocolate Book” by Angélique Schmeink. I have to say I was surprised how well they retained their crispiness compare to other recipes I tried before. I baked vanilla and chocolate leaf-shaped tuiles, and made some hazelnut brittle leaves as well. I served the cookies with the mousse which was a simple combination of a chestnut puree, mascarpone, whipped egg whites, and rum; I added some gelatin to set the mixture and turn it into mini-tortes. The crust was ground hazelnuts, chocolate cookie crumbs, melted chocolate, and more rum. I sprinkle some grated bittersweet chocolate over the top of the mousse and placed a rum-flavored chantilly quenelle (I was pirating in my previous life) on the top of each serving. There was also a chocolate–caramel sauce (not shown) to decorate the plates.

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This pudding is so creamy, so wonderfully smooth, so delicately flavored. I wish the picture could have been more persuasive. The lack of decent daylight here adversely affects the quality of the photographs. But you can trust my words – this pudding is very much worth to be made. It can be enjoyed warm, cool, or chilled. If you are not quite fond of a pudding skin, press plastic wrap directly against the surface as soon as you poured the pudding into serving bowls. I usually skip this step.

The recipe is from the “Bittersweet”.

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Cranberries are in abundance now. I believe it makes a perfect sense buying them and freezing for later use while they are so reasonably priced. I’m thinking about Christmas, in particular :) It’s probably too early but I’ve got this obtrusive idea… Does anybody else feel Christmas in the air? I even made sugar-glazed cranberries to decorate the mousse. But I didn’t use them as I was told it was quite premature. After all, we’ve just had Thanksgiving here. It’s probably the general holiday spirit, I guess…

A word about the mousse – the mousse was nice. For white chocolate haters – it tasted as it’s supposed to – cranberry-like, so there’s nothing to worry about.

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If I didn’t cook from the books I buy in such abundance there wouldn’t be any excuses for my compulsiveness, at least in my husband’s eyes. But since I use the books I purchase, everybody is happy. Especially when a dessert turns out so wonderfully flavorful, creamy, refreshing, and eye-appealing. The pudding recipe is from Sherry Yard’s “Desserts by the Yard”. I must emphasize it is ridiculously easy to make, and highly addictive. Two of us gobbled up a couple of servings each and only the finally woken up consciousness forced us to stop and leave some for our kid to try. He loved it too, he ate the pudding for his breakfast next morning with very impressive enthusiasm.

I’m submitting the mango pudding photo as an entry to “Click-Yellow for Bri”, a special edition of a monthly theme-based photography contest in honor of Briana Brownlow, hosted by Jugalbandi.

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Recently, I discovered two wonderful blogs: Bakerette and Cannelle et Vanille devoted to baking and dessert making. Their photos is pleasure to look at as well as the well-written stories to read. My eyes were caught by the rice pudding posts, and I had been salivating ever since. It felt exactly like my type of dessert. I had to make it, so I did. Was it good? It was great! My little son, when I asked him if he liked the pudding, answered with a long lasting “mmmmm”. Such an easy way to make mommy happy. Basma, Aran, thank you very much for the recipe. And special thanks to Basma for her suggesting to serve the pudding with the ice cream. I served it with the cocoa nib ice cream sprinkled with extra nibs over the top – what a delight!

I didn’t print the recipe before proceeding (the internet was out), I relied on my memory during the cooking. It turned out more like Aran’s, I guess. But I used half of the single cream and half of the whole milk as per Basma’s suggestion. Using either recipe, you can’t go wrong with it.

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