Raffaelo or the Sultan's Delight

"Raffaello was introduced in 1989. So white and refined, it reveals a light and delicate taste whose uniqueness is surprising.Tasting Raffaello means diving into a unique recipe, where a whole almond is plunged into a delicious creamy filling and enclosed in a crispy shell, covered in flakes of coconut. Raffaello, the only pleasure that transports you to a carefree world."

This is how Raffaelo is described on the website of Ferrero International S.A.  at http://www.ferrero.com/fc-1259/.  So little is left for me to say about this internationally advertised product as coconut and almond lovers would easily appreciate.

Well, I didn't have any intentions to clone or, let's be modest,  attempt to clone Raffaelo at all until I was handed a magazine on the plane by the stewardess on our way to Fethiye in Turkey. I was scannning through the pages of the magazine hastily out of  habit when I saw the photograph of cloned Raffaelos. They were given a totally irrelevant name such as "The Sultan's delight" which was probably meant to catch the tourist's eye. Whatever the intention was, its spell worked on me. After weeks, I was able to find the time to give it a try. However, the recipe needed some edits and additions. Since I know how things go with milk puddings, I decided to add some more ingredients: ground almonds. I think, as it was for the Raffaelo description I quoted above, instead of killing myself to find the correct words to describe the flavour and pleasure I enjoyed eating them, you should clear away everything on the counter and try it for yourself. They aren't, no doubt, close to the original. However, they were wonderful as the way they came out.  Here comes the recipe: 

Ingredients

1 litre milk

125 grams butter

1 cup flour 

1 cup sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla sugar

1 tablespoon honey

1/2 cup ground almonds

2 cups desiccated coconut for rolling

Directions

1. Mix sugar, flour and vanilla extract in a bowl.
2. Transfer the mixture into a medium saucepan and add in milk.
3. Stir constantly over medium heat and bring it to a boil. 
4. Add in the butter, honey and ground almonds. Continue stirring. The consistency gets thicker as you stir and the mixture stiffens to be rolled into balls.
5. Keep simmering for another 3-4 minutes.
6. Remove from heat and let it cool down completely in room temperature. Then, refrigerate it at for least 3 hours. As it showed, it's better if you refrigerate the pudding overnight.
7.  Mold 1  heaped teaspoon of the mixture into a ball and then roll in the coconut. 
8. Place the balls separately on a tray and refrigerate them again so they get firmer. 


After this first attempt, I realized that they could get closer to the original, if coated in melted white chocolate and then rolled in desiccated coconut.