Rice Pudding

"The last time we went to Las Vegas," writes Timothy Arndt of Austin, Texas, "I took my girlfriend out to dinner at Olives in the Bellagio, and we were both impressed with the food and the gorgeous setting. Best of all was dessert — we shared a creamy and exotic coconut rice pudding with tropical fruit." Use any leftover macaroon crumble over ice cream or fresh fruit.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

This rich and comforting pudding is served at the floating restaurant Fregatten Sct. Georg III in Tivoli Gardens.

Francoise Joiris of New York, New York writes: "In honor of our firefighters lost on September 11, could you please rerun the article and recipes you published a few years back about Company 18 of the FDNY? This is our local company, and it suffered a great loss of men at the World Trade Center." We're happy to reprint this recipe, named for firefighter Steve "Gonzo" Gonzalez.

Postre de Quinoa Linda Bladholm's South American friend Lilian Zamorano gave us the recipe for this unusual but very tasty dessert. It's made with the ancient Peruvian grain quinoa, which is a common side dish at Peruvian restaurants. Active time: 10 min Start to finish: 1 1/4 hr

An easy and scrumptious twist on the classic rice pudding from Habitation Lagrange in Martinique.

Cooking rhubarb to the right consistency is trickier than you might think — it changes from barely tender to falling apart in a matter of seconds. Watch it carefully while it's poaching. In this recipe you’ll need to boil the rhubarb syrup to the "soft-ball stage." To determine this, just drop a small amount of syrup into a cup of cold water. If you can form it into a sticky lump that flattens when pressed, it has reached the right consistency. This technique is especially useful with small amounts of syrup, from which it can be difficult to obtain an accurate temperature reading with a thermometer.

Michael W. Twitty combines the best of custardy kugel with rich rice pudding of the American South for this take on the Rosh Hashanah classic.

We know raisins are controversial in rice pudding, so rather than fan the flames, we kept them separate. (But guys, there’s rum.) This is part of BA's Best, a collection of our essential recipes.