Baked rice pudding

Warm up your night with this classic baked sweet-dish

Method

•  Cook the rice in boiling water for about five minutes. Once it is cooked, drain the pot and set the rice aside to cool.

•  In a separate saucepan, mix the milk, cream, sugar, cinnamon powder, vanilla essence and butter together and boil the mixture for a few minutes. Keep stirring continuously.

•  After the mixture cools down, add in the rice and bake it in a preheated oven at 165^o C for about an hour. Be sure to cover the dish with foil before baking.

•  Serve warm.

The health benefits of baked foods?

The delightful aroma of freshly baked bread or a slow-cooking chicken roast might be reason enough to utilise your oven regularly but have you ever wondered how baked foods affect our health? As with all other forms of cooking, baking has its own set of advantages and disadvantages but is it really more beneficial than frying or grilling. Read on to find out!

Advantages:

•  Nutrient retention: As baking uses dry-heat instead of water, it prevents the loss of minerals and water-soluble nutrients such as Vitamins B and C which are depleted during boiling. Also, in a study published by the Journal of Food Science in March 2009 baking resulted in the lowest loss of antioxidant activity in green beans, celery and carrots. Frying, boiling and pressure-cooking lead to the most loss.

•  Decreased amount of fats: Baking requires little added fat (oils, for example) and if you use a roasting rack, most of the grease will drain out automatically during cooking. In fact, you can bake anything without using any oil, including meat, vegetables and even packaged French fries and burger patties.

Disadvantages:

•  Increased amount of trans fats: Many bakers and frozen-food manufacturers use trans fats to extend the shelf-life of their items. Unfortunately, trans fats — a type of unsaturated fat that behaves like a saturated fat because of its chemical structure — are a form of unhealthy cholesterol and lowers the level of healthy fat in your body, making you more vulnerable to heart diseases, strokes and diabetes.

•  Destruction of heat-sensitive substances: Using fluids such as stock during cooking kills nutrients. In addition to this, baking exposes foods to extremely high temperatures. This gives rise to acrylamide, a carcinogen produced during the cooking process. Lowering the temperature can help avoid this but then be prepared for a longer cooking time!

•  Retention of refined sugars and flour: Commercial baked products and even home-made ones are likely to be rich in refined sugar and flour which have already undergone processing (during manufacturing) and lost a lot of their nutrients. These are considered to be unhealthy carbohydrates which are quickly metabolised and boost blood sugar, weight gain, diabetes and heart diseases. Whole-grain flour, brown sugar  or a reduced amount of sugar are good alternatives if you find it difficult to keep away from baked foods.

SOURCES: EHOW.COM

Published in The Express Tribune, Ms T, March 15^th, 2015.