Mrs. Claus' Favorite Parfait

It's hard to tell, but the "white" parts actually are a very light pink

I've had quite some time now to get used to our new soymilk maker and I'm just as thrilled with it as I originally was. We have no severe shortage of uses for soymilk but this was something I thought would be fun to try. It's been a while since I've had homemade pudding and decided that I'd make some tonight.

Just before Thanksgiving I found out about Ricemellow Creme, even though I had noticed it at our local health foods store a few times before. It wasn't until I had seen the reviews about it on Vegan Essentials did I really become interested in trying it. A fair amount of the reviews mentioned that when they opened their tub of Ricemellow that it was tan and had a bunch of syrup on the bottom, looking nothing like the white cloud drawn on the front of the carton. (It melts when it stays too warm.) Luckily another reviewer mentioned that it just needed to be re-whipped because something that looks like tan foam is not appetizing. So I dumped my Ricemellow (that had at least 1 inch of syrup on the bottom of the container) into my Kitchen Aid mixer with the whisk attachment and turned it on full blast. In about 5 minutes I had something that looked convincingly like the stuff you find in a jar of traditional marshmallow creme.

I've had a tub of Ricemellow in the cupboard intending to make a batch of vegan "Rice Crispy Treats" but it kept tempting me to play with it. This stuff is seriously fun, and it tastes good too! I've used it in hot chocolate and I don't have to lament not having marshmallows anymore. I was just in a seriously cooking mood today and happened to catch this recipe trotting across my brain.

Peppermint Ricemellow Creme:

3 Peppermint Candy Canes

1 TBS. Powdered Sugar

1 tub Ricemellow Creme

Chocolate Pudding (this is NOT instant):

6 TBS Cocoa powder

1/2 C. granulated Sugar

5 TBS Cornstarch

2 3/4 C. Soymilk

1 1/2 tsp Vanilla

1.) Unwrap and break up candy canes into approx. 1 inch pieces and place into food processor with a cutting blade, then add the powdered sugar. Process into a fine candy cane powder. I used a fine metal sieve to "screen" the powder through and had to run the larger chunks through the food processor again two more times until it was almost all powdered. I ended up with about 1 TBS. fine bits and close to 1/4 C. candy cane powder. Reserve the fine bits for garnish.

2.) Dump the tub of Ricemellow into a medium size bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer and use whisk attachment) and add candy cane powder (1/4 C.) to Ricemellow. Beat until very stiff and fluffy. Place into a quart size Ziplock bag, seal, & set aside.

3.) Place remaining ingredients (except soymilk and vanilla) into medium size pan. Slowly whisk in soymilk, making sure to whisk out any lumps. Cook on medium hight heat, stirring continually until pudding has thickened. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Cover top of pudding with plastic wrap (directly on top of the pudding to prevent a film forming that would make the pudding lumpy) and refrigerate until chilled.

4.) Snip off the corner (about 1/8 to 1/4 inch) of the plastic bag to make the Ricemellow easy to use. Remove plastic film from the top of the pudding and stir to smooth out the pudding. In dessert dishes, layer pudding with Peppermint Ricemellow (or just blop a serving of the pudding in the dish and top with Ricemellow). Garnish with a tiny pinch of cocoa powder and the remaining fine bits of the candy canes before serving.

Note: This is a very sweet dessert and there was about 3 servings in the glass in the picture, unless you have a severe sweet tooth. The glass is about 7 to 8 inches high so a little bit definitely goes a long way.

Suggestions:

Using Almond milk might make a slightly richer pudding because of the almond oil.

The granulated sugar should be able to be reduced to 1/3 C. and still be sweet.

For the Chocoholic- Add 1 to 1 1/2 C. semi-sweet or unsweetened (vegan) chocolate chips/chunks to the hot pudding after taking it off the burner.

Any leftover Peppermint Ricemellow can be used on hot chocolate!

Mmmm... Peppermint Ricemellow Creme...