Dessert

Austria

Rahmkoch is a Lungauer custard-like dessert made by cooking cream (rahm), sugar, butter, wheat flour, raisins, and sometimes flavorings like vanilla or lemon zest until it thickens. Also, eggs are often mixed in to give the dessert a richer texture. Once cooked, the mixture is allowed to cool and set, often in a mold, before being served. The result is a creamy, sweet dish that can be enjoyed on its own or with fruit, chocolate, or other toppings. In the past, this dessert was a rare treat due to the scarcity of the ingredient, but today it is one of the most famous sweet treats of the region, found in most restaurants throughout the whole year.

Rahmkoch

Raib is a Moroccan-style yogurt that is usually prepared at home. The base is made with milk, yogurt, sugar, and it is often flavored with orange blossom water, rose water, syrups, mint, or orange. When the ingredients are combined, the mix needs to rest for several hours in a warm place. The texture of this yogurt can vary, from soft to firm, but it should always be served well-chilled. Raib is usually homemade, but it is also available at the local markets and mahlaba stores that typically sell dairy products and pastries. It is enjoyed as a dessert, and it is also commonly eaten for iftar or suhur (the meal consumed early in the morning before fasting). Raib is served in individual portions, and it can be topped with fresh fruit.

Raib

India

Rajbhog is a traditional dessert based on Indian cottage cheese that is filled with a mixture of nuts such as almonds and pistachios, green cardamom powder, saffron, and, sometimes, mawa (dried milk solids). Considered a regional variation of the Indian sweet called rasgulla, this dessert is made by combining paneer or chhana, flour, and semolina into smooth balls, which are then filled with the flavored nut mixture before they are carefully added to a pot of hot sugar syrup to cook until tender and spongy. Rajbhog is often enhanced with golden food coloring and rose water. This dessert is both a common sweet treat enjoyed after meals and a festive delicacy prepared for various celebratory occasions.

Rajbhog

R&aacute;k&oacute;czi t&uacute;r&oacute;s is a Hungarian curd cheese cake. The base is a thin shortcrust pastry, followed by a layer of sweetened curd cheese that is topped with meringue. This tasty cake is named after J&aacute;nos R&aacute;k&oacute;czi, a Hungarian master patissier who invented it for the 1958 Brussels World Expo. The dessert became an instant hit, and nowadays it can be found in almost every pastry shop in Hungary.

Rákóczi túrós

Rakott palacsinta is a Hungarian crepe cake consisting of layered pancakes with a delicious filling between each pancake. The pancakes are typically prepared with milk, flour, and eggs, while the filling often includes ingredients such as fruit jam, ground walnuts, poppy seeds, and cottage cheese. The cake is usually topped with beaten egg whites, and it is then baked until golden brown. After baking, the top layer is sometimes covered in melted chocolate.

Rakott palacsinta

Rakugan are traditional Japanese sweets prepared in many different colors and shapes reflecting seasonal, holiday, or regional themes. They are made by pressing sugar, soybean flour, and various powders in traditional wooden molds, known as kashigata. It can be said that rakugan is not just a sweet, but an art form in itself. It is often consumed at tea ceremonies and festivities such as Christmas. The flavor of rakugan is that of pure sugar, since it is similar to regular sugar cubes used for tea in the West. Rakugan is extremely popular in Japan, so it can easily be found in many stores or souvenir shops. Kanazawa region in Japan is quite famous for its rakugan confectionery, as well as the Tokushima region, famous for the production of high-quality Wasanbon sugar.

Rakugan

Italy

Rame di Napoli are soft, chocolate-covered cookies hailing from the Sicilian city of Catania. They are typically made with a combination of sugar, milk, flour, crumbled biscuits or cookies, eggs, cocoa powder, butter, baking powder, honey, orange marmalade, cinnamon, cloves, and orange rind. Once baked, the cookies are covered with a mixture of melted dark chocolate and butter before being garnished with pistachios or other nuts such as hazelnuts. Different variations of these sweet biscuits call for using Nutella, pistachio cream, other fruit marmalades, or even stewed fruits and vegetables instead of the traditional orange marmalade. The name of these cookies means copper of Naples, and it is believed to derive from their intended resemblance to copper coins that used to be forged during the Bourbon Empire. In Catania, these delicious biscuits are traditionally enjoyed during All Saints&rsquo; Day and All Souls&rsquo; Day (Festa dei morti), and there are ready-made versions of the cookies available in almost all pastry shops during this time of the year.

Rame di Napoli

Ranfa&ntilde;ote is a Peruvian bread pudding made with toasted pieces of stale bread, walnuts, pecans, currants, port wine or pisco, orange juice and zest, cheese (usually queso fresco), vanilla, and butter. The combination is drenched in chancaca sugar syrup and flavored with spices such as cinnamon, star anise, and cloves. This sweet treat is quite old and dates back to the colonial era, when Peru was a Spanish viceroyalty. It is also strongly connected with Afro-Peruvians, hence the usage of chancaca, cloves, and star anise. Although ranfa&ntilde;ote was unrightfully neglected in the past, in recent years it has made a comeback and started showing up in Lima's bakeries.

Ranfañote

Iran

Hailing from south Iran (most noteably the Bushehr province), this traditional dessert is prepared with toasted wheat flour and walnut-stuffed dates. Toasted flour, which is usually enriched with cinnamon, sugar, and cardamom, makes the bottom and the top layer of the dessert, while the center is filled with stuffed dates. Ranginak is prepared in round cake pans and usually comes topped with ground pistachios. The cake is traditionally served chilled, usually accompanied by freshly brewed tea.

Ranginak

Croatia

Rapska torta is a traditional cake originating from the Croatian island of Rab, where it was first served in 1177 to Pope Alexander III. This decadent cake is characterized by its signature spiral shape and ingredients such as almonds, lemon zest, orange zest, and Maraschino liqueur. Nowadays, the cake is a very popular souvenir that can be baked in various forms, while locals prepare it only for festive occasions such as baptisms and weddings.

Rapska torta

Rasgulla is a traditional sweet that is usually served at the end of a meal, like many other Indian milk-based desserts. It is prepared from chhena paneer dumplings and semolina dough, cooked together in a sugary syrup. The origin of rasgulla is the subject of a heated debate, with West Bengal and Odisha both claiming to be the birthplace of the dessert. Bengalis claim that rasgulla was the byproduct of many culinary experiments in the state, while the people of Odisha claim that it was traditionally offered to Lord Jagannath for centuries. However, most food historians agree that the truth is somewhere in between. In recent years, both varieties got their own GI status in order to differentiate between the two. It's easy to differentiate them even without the GI status, as the Bengali version is more puffy and spongy than the Odisha version.

Rasgulla

Rau c&acirc;u is a Vietnamese jelly cake made with agar (gelatinous seaweed), coconut milk, condensed milk, and flavorings such as coconut, banana, chocolate, mocha, and vanilla. The texture is similar to that of panna cotta. Due to the usage of agar jelly, rau c&acirc;u provides a great alternative for vegetarians who prefer not to consume animal gelatin. The dessert can be found in numerous Vietnamese delis and banh mi shops, while similar treats are also prepared throughout Southeast Asia and Indonesia.

Rau câu

United States

This American classic is traditionally made for Valentine&rsquo;s Day and Christmas. Red velvet cake is typically covered in a French-style butter roux icing, though recently cream cheese frosting and buttercream have both been used as a simpler and tastier alternative. During World War II and the Depression, this moist cake got its vibrant coloring from boiled beets, but has since adapted into red food coloring courtesy of a Texan company called Adams Extract. The cake gets its light and fluffy texture from the reaction caused by mixing buttermilk and vinegar together in addition to eggs, sugar, butter, baking soda, flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Interestingly enough, even though this cake is a typical southern American dessert, a department store in Canada called Eaton's promoted it as an exclusive recipe, mistakenly fooling many people into believing it was created by the store's matriarch, Lady Eaton.

Red Velvet Cake

Reform torta is a rich Serbian multi-layered cake. It consists of walnut sponge cake and a creamy chocolate filling. The sponge is made with egg whites, sugar, and walnuts, while the filling is prepared with a combination of chocolate, egg yolks, sugar, and butter. The top and sides of the cake are usually frosted with the remaining filling, while a sprinkling of chopped walnuts is often added as a garnish on top of the cake. This cake is a staple of numerous festive events and celebrations in Serbia, and it is believed that it dates back to the period after WWII.

Reform torta

France

The intricate religieuse is a popular choux pastry dessert which has been a part of the French confectionery heritage since the 19th century. These tempting sweet treats are made with two spherical choux pastries, one bigger than the other one, each filled with a velvety cr&egrave;me p&acirc;tissi&egrave;re. Each piece is individually covered in chocolate ganache which can be seen running from the sides of the pastry. The dessert is assembled and glued together with decorative buttercream. These small pastries have long historical and religious importance in France&ndash;it is believed that they were invented by Frascati, a pastry chef who worked in a famous Parisian p&acirc;tisserie. Originally, the shape of the dessert was rectangular, but at the end of the 19th century, its shape was round, and it got the name religieuse, which translates to a nun. Numerous theories suggest that the round form and the name were influenced by nuns, because when assembled, the chocolate ganache covering the pastry resembles a nun&rsquo;s habit. Regardless of the origin of the name, these tempting treats are still one of the acclaimed examples of French confectionery tradition.

Religieuse

Re&scaron;edija is a traditional Bosnian treat of stir-fried wheat starch and sugar (sometimes also jabukov pekmez) resembling small granules. The preparation starts with mixing wheat starch, sugar, and water, then stir-frying this mixture in a pan in vegetable oil or butter (or both) until it turns into granules. The entire process usually takes up to 15 minutes, and it's important to constantly stir so that it does not burn. In the past, wheat starch was prepared from scratch from wheat berries, and it was a long and laborious process that hardly anyone knows or does today. The finished treat is sprinkled with sugar and walnuts and used to be a must-have for iftar during Ramadan.

Rešedija

Revani is a classic Greek and Turkish dessert made from semolina, sugar, and flour, with the additions of flavorings such as vanilla, lemon zest, or rose water, depending on the recipe variations. The cake is characterized by its overpowering sweetness, a result of soaking the cake in sugar syrup after it has been baked. It is usually prepared for celebrations and festivities when it gets decorated with desiccated coconut, ground pistachios, almonds, fresh fruit, or whipped cream. Although the dish is mostly associated with Greece and T&uuml;rkiye, similar dishes are found in numerous other cuisines of the Middle East, the Balkans, and Northern Africa, and it is named differently in each region. Revani is very popular in T&uuml;rkiye ever since the Ottoman period, and it is believed that the name of the dish originated from the time when the Ottomans conquered the city of Yerevan.

Revani

The Rhode Island doughboy is typically a large, flattened square of pizza dough that is deep-fried until golden brown, then dusted with a hefty dose of powdered sugar. It's always served piping hot. Some say that the taste of melting sugar against the warm, chewy dough can be addictive, so the treat is often found at carnivals throughout Rhode Island or in the neighbouring regions. The best doughboys are said to be sold at the oldest beach stand in the state, called Iggy's Doughboys and Chowder House, where one can choose between regular, powdered or cinnamon sugar toppings, served in a grease-stained paper bag and ready to be enjoyed.

Rhode Island Doughboy

A typical dessert of Sienese cuisine, ricciarelli di Siena are soft almond biscuits whose origins date back to the 14th century. According to a popular legend, they were named after a Sienese nobleman Ricciardetto Della Gherardesca, who brought similar lozenge-shaped Arab sweets to Siena upon his return from the Crusades. Back then, these cookies were also known as marzapanetti alla Senese or morzelletti, and they were reserved for the lavish banquets and feasts of Tuscan royalty, since almond paste or marzipan was a precious and expensive ingredient sold only in Renaissance apothecaries along with the most exotic spices of the time. Today, the aromatic ricciarelli are made with both sweet and bitter almonds, sugar, and egg whites; they are often flavored with candied orange peel and dusted with icing sugar. In Tuscany, they are a traditional Christmas treat, typically enjoyed with dessert wines such as Moscadello di Montalcino or Vin Santo.

Ricciarelli di Siena

Ricotta stregata is a gelato flavor made with a creamy base of cream, sugar, soft ricotta cheese, and Strega&mdash;Italian herbal liqueur. This light ice cream often includes bits of candied orange and pieces of dark chocolate. Some versions also have chunks of sponge cake, which are sometimes also used as a decoration. The whole combination results in airy ice cream with a creamy texture speckled with crunchy chocolate and candied orange bits.