Sweet Rice with Applesauce and Spices

This is a childhood favorite I fall back to  when I need something sweet and comforting.

Sweet rice with applesauce

But I never use pudding rice, because that rice is getting to much cooked to my taste. I use Caneroli rice- a risotto rice from Italy. The rice kernels stay intact and that tastes a lot better to me.
A sweet rice always needs some fruit to go with, in summer I love to serve it with lots of fresh blueberries and lots of fresh stiff beaten double cream.  A Dream!

Since I had neither double cream left nor blueberries, I used store bought apple sauce- but a regional brand, which is very common here and very good. And Cinnamon goes great with either rice or apples, so I added that too.
I have some coffee seasoning from a famous German chef who is also a spice pope and sells a lot of mixtures (his name is Alfons Schuhbeck from Munich). His coffee seasoning is great for all kinds of sweet treats. Half a vanilla pod has gone into the milk too.

recipe:
150 g Canaroli rice
750 ml whole milk
2 tbsp butter
a pinch of salt
2 tbsp dark muscovado sugar
5 pieces of candied ginger
5 candied kumquats
1/2 vanilla pod- scraped out
1/2 tsp coffee seasoning
1/2 lime juiced
1 egg yolk
1 tsp cinnamon
150 g applesauce

In a big pot start with heating up the butter and wait until it gets noisette- or smells like nuts. Don´t let it burn! Add the milk and the salt and bring it up to a boil.
Wash the rice until the water runs clear and add it to the milk.Simmer, then add the candied fruits and the brown sugar and the spices. When the milk is nearly absorbed, take off the heat and press the juice in and stir the egg yolk through.
Serve with applesauce and cinnamon.