Baked Spelt Pudding

This is very similar to rice pudding, but it is made with spelt berries. This makes a great snack, dessert or a yummy breakfast cereal. If you make a large batch (it takes a few hours to bake) and save it in the refrigerator you can reheat it in the morning or eat it cold. I like it warm with a little extra cream over the top and added fruit.

Complements: Bob's Red Mill

1/2 cup spelt berries
4 cups milk (any kind you choose, I used whole milk)
1/2 cup sugar (it came out very sweet. I think next time I will cut the sugar down to 1/4 cup and then add some honey at the end if it needs a little more sweetening)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cardamom (I didn't have this spice, but it sounds lovely)
1 teaspoon vanilla
cooking spray
dash of ground cinnamon

Place spelt in medium saucepan. Cover with water to 2 inches above spelt; bring to a boil. cook 2 minutes; remove from heat. Cover and let stand 1 hour. Drain. Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Place spelt in a food processor; process 45 seconds or until spelt resembles coarse meal. combine spelt, milk, sugar, salt, cardamom and vanilla in a 2 quart casserole dish coated with cooking spray. Bake for 3 1/2 hours, stirring every hour to prevent a skin from forming. Let stand 5 minutes. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Serve warm or chilled.

Note: After about 2 hours cooking it at 275 degrees I turned up the heat to about 325 degrees and cooked another 1/2 an hour. It will continue thickening after it sits for awhile. Although, spelt berries do take awhile to cook so don't under cook the pudding.

Enjoy!