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...

Presenting... My soy milk maker!

Here's good ol' Bessie.

Fresh warm milk, straight from the... bean.

I really like soy milk but I was really getting tired of having to buy it so often, for exaggerated prices, and then still having to pay for the added garbage. I would buy plain, unsweetened soy milk because I really didn't see the point of all the added sugar and my husband couldn't eat it because he is diabetic. I originally started drinking it when I was still a lacto-ovo vegetarian when it started to dawn on me that my body was not processing dairy well (later to realize I have a dairy allergy as well as being lactose intolerant!) All I had been looking for was something similar to standard milk, not a soy drink that would be strange to cook with.

Even when I was still buying the soy milk in the cartons, I always felt like I was having to keep track of how much I was using so I could portion it out and all the micromanaging was driving me batty. I sat down and figured out that if I was using soy milk at the same rate if I made it myself that I was currently, it would only take four months for a soy milk maker to pay for itself and would last years. Sure it takes time to process it, but going to the store, dealing with people and their stress is definitely more detrimental to my everyday stability than making a gallon of soy milk every four days or once a week is. This was simply a no brainer.

The reality? I'm totally stoked and LOVE it! For me the soy milk is a tiny bit more watery than what I had been buying, but other than that there isn't any difference that I can tell. I didn't count on the unexpected bonuses:

#1: It saves more money than I expected because of #2!
#2: the super high quality OKARA!!

Okara, how do I love thee...

Okara is definitely different than slimy, green okra.

(Soy) Okara is low in fat, high in fiber, and also contains protein, calcium, iron, and riboflavin. It contains 76 to 80% moisture, 20 to 24% solids and 3.5 to 4.0% protein. On a dry weight basis okara contains 24% protein, 8 to 15% fats,and 12 to 14.5% crude fiber. It contains 17% of the protein from the original soybeans.

-Okara listing from Wikipedia

#3: Not contributing to the cattle industry. I really do not get preachy about this sort of thing, but I was rather shocked about the fact that okara from commercially made soy milk (that a LOT of vegans would not live without) goes towards cattle feed. I'm happy knowing that it's one less thing I'm doing to reduce the negative impact that I leave on the world from simply making my own soy milk!
#4: Fresh hot coco that is WONDERFUL!

Look at that foam!

#5: Almond Milk! I had never had this before and I rather like it. My husband really doesn't prefer soy milk or even regular milk straight (to drink or in cold cereal, etc.) but said that he even likes to eat almond milk with his cereal better than eating the dry cereal like he has for years.
#6: Almond okara! Similarly almost tasteless like the soy okara but I have found one recipe so far that is a tiny bit better with the almond okara.

I cannot fathom why some people throw it out! It is sooooooo easy to use and I have been working on some recipes that I intend to post once I get some more of the kinks out. We use the okara so much that my husband said that we need to find recipes that use a lot of soy milk so we can have more okara to use. It has a texture very similar to reconstituted instant potatoes (but a bit more grainy.) I was actually a bit afraid of buying a soy milk maker because I had made soy milk 'by hand' with the blender once and it was so vile that no one could use it. Before then I had no idea that soy milk could be so bitter. This was also my first experience with okara but it was exceedingly chunky compared to the silky okara that I get now.

The Conclusion? I really love my SoyaJoy. it is VERY easy to use and makes high quality soy milk, almond milk, and okara. I simply do not regret buying it even though the initial $125 seemed like a lot. The okara has helped me replace the expensive veggie patties and saves us a fair amount from just those as well.