Winter & Christmas

Kirsebærsauce

No risalamande without kirsebærsauce: on Christmas Eve the warm, lightly thickened cherry sauce with vanilla is poured over the cold almond rice pudding – a wonderful contrast of warm and cold, sweet and fruity.

Risalamande in a glass bowl with dark red cherry sauce
Photo: Lorie Shaull / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Preparation
5 min
Cooking/baking time
10 min
Servings
6–8 people
Difficulty
Easy

Ingredients

Sauce

Method

  1. Drain the cherries in a sieve, reserving the juice.
  2. Bring the juice to the boil with the sugar and the split vanilla pod and seeds.
  3. Mix the cornflour with the cold water until smooth, stir into the boiling juice and simmer, stirring, for about 1 minute until the sauce is lightly thickened.
  4. Add the cherries and just heat through without boiling. Remove the vanilla pod.
  5. Pour the warm sauce over the cold risalamande or serve it alongside.

The story behind the dish

Kirsebærsovs is a dessert sauce made from cherry juice, sugar, vanilla and pitted cherries, usually thickened with starch.

It is served with risalamande, which many Danish families eat on Christmas Eve. The tradition dates from around 1900, when middle-class households began serving risalamande with cherry sauce at Christmas instead of rice porridge.

Enjoy it at Dansk Cottage

Whoever finds the whole almond in their risalamande on Christmas Eve wins the almond present – and the cherry sauce helps to keep it hidden for as long as possible.

The cottage kitchen · Discover Søby · Experience Ærø

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