Baked Spelt Pudding

I am continuing my experimentation with the package of spelt I bought a couple of weeks ago; I've already made two savory dishes with this ancient grain (see the posts for Spelt Salad and Farrotto with Greens and Parmesan), and tonight I'm turning to spelt's sweet potential.

Rinse and drain 1/2 cup uncooked spelt, then place in a saucepan and cover with water to about 2 inches above the spelt; bring to a boil, then continue to cook for 2 minutes. Remove from heat, cover, and let stand for 1 hour.

Transfer the spelt to a food processor and process for about 45 seconds, until it resembles coarse meal.

Coat an 11x7-inch baking dish with cooking spray. In the dish, combine the ground spelt, 4 cups plain soy milk (such as Silk), 1/2 cup raw sugar, 1/4 tsp. salt, 1/8 tsp. ground cardamom, and 1 vanilla bean, cut in half lengthwise.

Bake at 275 degrees for 3 and 1/2 hours - this long cooking time at low heat will result in a rich, creamy pudding. Stir about every hour or so during baking, so that a skin doesn't form on the top of the pudding - you may even want to stir every half hour, if you do see a skin starting to form.

Note: the pudding won't really firm up until the last hour of cooking, so don't worry if things still seem very runny during the first and second hours of baking.

Let stand for 5 minutes once out of the oven, then sprinkle with a dash of ground cinnamon. 2/3 a cup makes a serving of 220 calories; the pudding is delicious either warm or chilled!

Cost:
plain soy milk $2.49
vanilla bean $11.99