I get recipe ideas from everywhere. Restaurant meals and menus, cookbooks, cooking shows, regular TV shows, commercials, advertisements, conversations with folks, random moments of inspiration, cravings.
THEN there are the recipe ideas that are invented to fill a specific purpose.
Like, say, we were having decaf espresso drinks or afogatos for dessert a lot so I bought a crapload of decaf espresso and then that habit came to an abrupt stop.
Yeah. What the hell do you do when you wind up with 20 decaf Nespresso capsules right when you stop drinking decaf espresso? Lame.
I’m admittedly someone who can be completely fooled by a placebo effect. Which actually makes me happy. If I accidentally grab a decaf pod without noticing, I will probably feel just as perky as if I consumed caffeine. Who am I to complain about that?
But when it’s early in the morning and I’m making espresso, if the decaf label catches my eye, it’s really hard to remind myself that it will probably have the same effect on me.
So I’ve been dreaming up decaf espresso recipes for awhile and somehow decided that rice pudding is where it’s at.
Good call, Leslie.
So I basically made an enormous batch of fantastical decaf vanilla latte and used arborio rice, cooked just like you’d make risotto, to make a super creamy pudding. DELIGHTFUL.
It’s like DESSERT RISOTTO. Who doesn’t want that???
- 1 1/4 C decaf espresso
- 2 C soy milk
- 2 1/4 C almond milk
- 1 vanilla bean
- 1 1/2 C rice
- 2 T butter
- 6 T brown sugar
- Combine espresso, non-dairy milks (I like the combo of both, but you can use whatever you want), and beans from the vanilla pod into a large saucepan and heat over low heat until steaming. ‘
- In a large high-sided skillet or saucepan, melt the butter and add the rice. Toss to coat the rice with melted butter. One ladle at a time, pour the espresso mixture into the rice and stir vigorously. Keep that process going until the rice is cooked through and creamy. Stir in the brown sugar at the end and stir until melted.
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