A special breakfast for a special morning: tapioca cream with raspberry coulis

It was a late morning just as I had foreseen it would be. We got up pretty late and it was already one o'clock in the afternoon when breakfast was served. For this special 'morning' I had prepared the night before a special dish: a tapioca cream. I have been craving tapioca cream since I saw this recipe published on the blog Chocolatria in the beginning of December.



I followed most of the recipe but I made some changes. I did not add the condensed milk so I added five tablespoons of sugar instead of only three as suggested by Simone. However, two of those five tablespoons of sugar were of gelatin sugar which I added to harden the cream a little bit more. Besides I added 330ml of coconut milk instead of 200ml because I had a 330ml can and I wanted to use the whole can.

Simone served her cream with fresh peaches coulis but I made a coulis with frozen raspberries. In this mostly Norwegian family everything made of raspberry has better chances of success. I didn't cook the coulis, I just mixed the melted fruits with some water and sugar and drained this juice before serving. The original recipe of the tapioca cream can be read in Portuguese only on the blog Chocolatria



Even if I don't like to reproduce recipes that are available somewhere else on the internet, I will reproduce this one because it is not available in English language. It is a very Brazilian kind of dessert, something I used to eat on the beach where the street vendors (in this case beach vendors) serve the cream with a drizzle of condensed milk and some extra spoonfuls of freshly grated coconut. Tapioca and coconut make a great pair and the fact that they are cooked in milk with sugar makes the cream very basic in opposition to acid, or acidic flavors. The best coulis or sauces to be served with tapioca and coconut cream are, in my opinion, those made out of juicy acid fruits, such as oranges, passion fruits, peaches, raspberries, strawberries or even blueberries.



Tapioca cream adapted from Chocolatria

1/2 cup of tapioca (a.k.a.cassava) pearls
200 ml coconut milk
100 grams coconut flakes or freshly grated coconut meat
4 cups milk (I used fat free milk but you can use your favorite type)
5 table spoons of sugar
1/2 vanilla bean(optional)
Condensed milk as a substitute for the sugar (optional)

Leave the tapioca resting in the milk for at least half hour. When the tapioca was 'bathed' transfer the tapioca and its milk bath to a pan. Add the coconut milk, the coconut flakes, the sugar and the scraps of the vanilla bean and cook it over medium low heat, mixing it all the time until it boils. It will be thicker by the time the cream boils and the tapioca bubbles will grow bigger. Transfer the cream to one big pot or to small ramekins and let then cool. Refrigerate after the cream have cooled and served them cold or at room temperature, as you wish.

You can add some spoonfuls or an whole small can of sweet condensed milk to the milk mixture before cooking. If you add the condensed milk reduce the amount of sugar so the cream won't be very sweet on the end. You can also add some gelatin sugar so the cream will be more stiff.

Serve with some acidic sauce or fruit coulis of your preference.

Makes 6 individual ramekins

I hope you had a fantastic new year's eve and I wish you all a fantastic 2009!