Chocolate Rice Crispy Christmas Pudding (GF, DF, Nut & Egg Free)
Guys I've got something pretty special for you today. Is your mouth watering yet? It should be!!! My delicious Chocolate Rice Crispy Christmas Pudding is a one of a kind dessert that brings some serious festive feels to the Christmas table. The reason I came up with this dessert was to create something special for those with food allergies. Special occasions are hard for those suffering from food allergies and I can talk personally from this experience. I was diagnosed with a dairy intolerance about 8 years ago and just recently I have been diagnosed with a gluten intolerance. So I have had to overhaul my eating once again to suit this new dietary change. While it hasn't been terribly difficult as I didn't eat a lot of gluten it still was a big change as gluten is in SO much. It's the small things.
So with the Christmas season bearing down upon us, I thought it was time to get into the kitchen and start creating some special treats that I can eat and for those who suffer from allergies such as dairy, gluten, nuts and egg. Why should we miss out on something special? I also created this dessert with my nephew in mind. He is anaphylactic to nuts and egg and I know with such severe allergies it is hard to come up with a special dessert that avoids these things. This one is for you Siah. So with that in mind, I started pulling together ingredients in my mind that would work in a Christmas inspired dessert that were allergy friendly.
I gazed into my pantry at what ingredients I had on hand that might give me some inspiration. My eyes landed on a tin of condensed coconut milk. This stuff is gold. It is exactly like condensed milk but made on coconut milk which makes it dairy free. This was the starting point for my recipe. I knew I wanted to make a no bake type of dessert using the condensed milk. I pawed through the dry goods section and come across a bag of brown rice puffs my mind started ticking over a little more and decided it had to be some kids of crispy dessert. Since a steamed Christmas pudding was out of the question at the moment with my culinary skills limited in the gluten-free department ( I am now going to have to learn to cook with gluten-free flours) so I decided to transform the ingredients that I have found into something along the lines of a rice crispy pudding.
The first step is to coat the brown rice puffs with cocoa and coconut oil and bake in the oven until crispy. While this is a no-bake dessert this is the only cooking you will have to do in the recipe. The rice puffs need to be baked to crisp up as on their own they are soft and chewy. We need some crunch in this dish as there are no nuts so this is the route I went to get some crunch. Once we have created the crispy chocolate rice puffs the next step is to melt the glorious chocolate with the condensed coconut milk. Now with chocolate to get a dairy free chocolate you can go down the route of an allergy-friendly chocolate by Sweet Williams but my favourite is a Lindt dessert dark chocolate which is dairy free and is found in the baking aisle at Coles and Woolworths.
I added in cranberries and diced dried apricots to the chocolate rice crispies to add a bit of secret goodness into the pudding. Have fun with the add-ins and what suits your tastes. Once your dry ingredients are all mixed together in a bowl it's time to pour over the molten chocolate and coconut condensed milk mixture. If you can control yourself from not planting your face into the mix you are a better person than I.
The mixture is then pressed into a mould or bowl. I just used a ceramic mixing bowl to create my pudding shape. Use what you have to create the shape that suits you. It would work well in slice pan or loaf tin. The Chocolate Rice Crispy Christmas Pudding is then placed into the fridge to firm up. If you can wait a couple of hours for the pudding to set that would be fab. My fingers were itching to pull it out of the fridge but I stayed patient. Once the pudding is set you gently pry it out and then add the crowning glory. Chocolate!!!!!!! This then has to set before you can dig into it. If you can wait that little bit longer.
When you do cut into it there will be sighs of delight and maybe just maybe your mouth might be watering ready for a piece of it. Gah now I am hungry again. Look I'll leave you with the recipe below. I am off for another piece of the pie or in this case a piece of this delicious Chocolate Rice Crispy Christmas Pudding. It's been a long day and I need some chocolate.
Chocolate Rice Crispy Christmas Pudding
Prep Time: 30 min + chilling
Cook Time: 20 min
Ingredients (Serves 8-10)
- 5 cups brown rice puffs
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
- 1 x 320g tin coconut condensed milk (found in the Asian aisle)
- 100g 70% dark chocolate (I use Lindt dessert chocolate found in the baking aisle)
- 3/4 cup shredded coconut
- 1/2 cup dried apricots, finely chopped
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries, roughly chopped
- 150g dark chocolate
- 1/2 tbsp desiccated coconut
- mint leaves
- 2 x cherries or raspberries
Instructions
Preheat an oven to 160 degrees C (fanbake). Line a large baking tray with baking paper and set aside.
Line a medium-sized mixing bowl with 3 layers of glad wrap and set aside.
In a large bowl add the rice puffs and pour over the cocoa and stir to coat the rice puffs with the cocoa.
Drizzle over the coconut oil and stir to combine and coat the rice puffs. Spread over the baking tray and smooth out evenly. Place into the oven and set the timer for about 5-6 minutes. Remove from the oven and stir and place back into the oven for a further 5-6 minute. Repeat this once more before removing from the oven to cool completely. Pour the rice puffs into a large mixing bowl and add the dried cranberries, apricots and shredded coconut and set aside.
In a small saucepan over a low heat add the coconut condensed milk and the chocolate, broken up into smaller pieces. Stir the mix until the chocolate is melted.
Drizzle the coconut and chocolate mixture over the rice puffs and stir to coat the entire contents of the bowl. Pour the crispy rice mixture into the lined mixing bowl and gently press down to flatten the bottom of the pudding.
Place in the fridge and let the pudding chill for 3 hours until firm. Once chilled remove the pudding from the fridge and gently pry out with a flat bladed knife. Place the crispy rice pudding onto a serving plate.
Chocolate DrizzleBreak up the remaining chocolate into a small microwave-safe bowl. Heat the chocolate in 30-second increments until the chocolate is melted and runny.
Gently pour the chocolate over the top of the pudding and using the back of a spoon nudge it over the sides of the pudding so that drizzles down. Let the chocolate set slightly for a couple of minutes before sprinkling over the desiccated coconut and garnishing with the cherries and the mint leaves. Pop into the fridge and let the chocolate firm up for about 20 minutes before serving.
Cooks NotesThis dessert can be made 2-3 days in advance.
It can be kept in an airtight container in the fridge for at least 2 weeks.
