The blancmange is a simple yet truly delicious Sicilian dessert, a fresh spoon dessert, no oven required, a kind of pudding made with milk, without eggs, gelatin, or fish glue, and gluten-free. With this heat, you crave fresh desserts, and this is a real delight, fragrant, delicate, and incredibly creamy. Blancmange is delicious on its own, served with chocolate shavings or melted, cinnamon, nuts, unsweetened cocoa powder, or colored sprinkles (which I don’t use because I’m not too fond of them), perfect for breakfast, perhaps accompanied by some biscuits, as a snack, or at the end of a meal. This is the true original recipe for Sicilian blancmange, a delicious variation of this dessert is the almond version (perfect for those intolerant to lactose/vegans), to make it, simply use almond milk instead of whole milk, and add a few drops of almond flavoring.
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Preparation time: 5 Minutes
- Portions: 6 Pieces
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
- 4 1/4 cups whole milk
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup cornstarch
- 1 lemon peel
- to taste vanilla
- to taste chocolate or other for garnishing
Steps
Blancmange is very simple and quick to prepare, first dissolve the cornstarch in 1 cup of milk, taken from the total, mix well to ensure there are no lumps.
In a small pot, put the remaining milk, sugar, the whole lemon peel, and, stirring, bring to a boil. Remove the lemon peel, add the milk with the cornstarch, vanilla, and continue cooking for 5 minutes; the cream will gradually become thicker.
At this point, transfer the blancmange into pudding molds (you can also use just one large mold, if you prefer) and let the desserts cool in the fridge for at least 3-4 hours.
Once they are well chilled, unmold the blancmanges and decorate them as desired, you can use nuts, ground cinnamon, unsweetened cocoa, colored sprinkles, or, as I did, dark chocolate shavings.
Notes:
Blancmange keeps in the fridge for 3-4 days. I recommend using whole milk for a more flavorful and creamy dessert. Alternatively, partially skimmed milk may work, or better yet (and for a vegan/lactose-free alternative), almond milk. You can also make blancmange by alternating the cream with a layer of biscuits, just like for a cookie and cream slab, it is also served this way (but also with another grandma’s variation, whose recipe I will share soon).
Other pudding recipes HERE
