Drinking a glass of milk before you go to bed to help you sleep is not just a house wifes tale! Milk in all its forms from low-fat to full-fat contains an essential amino acid which acts on the brain to promote relaxation and sleep. So if your wound up or like me have a house full of nervous students sitting exams or just can’t get to sleep then reach for the Bottle!! Milk that is!

Almost all the milk we buy is heat treated to ensure it is bacterially safe. This process also extends its storage times. Over 90% of milk we buy is pasteurised. This is a mild heat treatment that kills off any potentially dangerous bugs in ‘raw’ milk without noticeably affecting the taste or nutritional content.  Homogenisation is when the fat globules have been reduced to a size small emough to ensure even distribution hence you will see a cream line on the pasteurised whole milk but not homogenised.  UHT milk is rapidly heated to a very high temperature making it virtually sterile. It if then packaged and heat sealed under sterile conditions. This means it can be kept for months without refridgeration.

Finally Sterilised Milk is treated to ensure it is totally sterilised. It has a distinctive creamy colour and caramelised flavour but also has some vitamin loss in the process. There is a very small amount of non-heat treated milk sold but this cannot be sold by shops or catering establishments or schools because of food standard laws in place.  We have alot of different milks on the market today to cater for different diets aswell with lactose free milk, soya milks etc and not forgetting organic milk too. Our favourite milk pudding has to be grandma’s rice pudding the kids loved this when they were small and still love it now as a warm dessert through the colder months and then served cold with fruit in the summer a great versatile dessert. So lets get cooking!

For a great Rice Pudding just like grandma use to make, you will need: 110g pudding rice, 570ml whole milk, 40g caster sugar, 410g evaporated milk, 25g butter and 1 whole nutmeg.

Lightly butter a ovenproof dish, and place the rice and sugar in this. Mix the whole milk and evaporated milk together in a jug and then pour this over the rice in your pudding bowl. Grate the whole of the nutmeg over this and finish by dotting with peices of the butter.

Bake in a gas 2/ 300f / 150c on a centre shelve for 30 minutes after which you need to stir around and then bake for a further 30 minutes before stirring again. After this bake for about 1 hour until the rice has swelled and a skin has formed. Serve with homemade jam just as my grandma would of, or some people like fruit compote or even maple or golden syrup with theirs if they have a real sweet tooth.

Check out this great pudding Pyrex set which will come in really useful in the kitchen, Pyrex great puddings set In this offer set which is everything you need to cook a great British Pud from Pyrex included inside is a 2 litre bowl, a cake dish with handles and a 0.5 Litre measuring jug all in glass plus a free inside booklet containing great British recipes, this set is oven, freezer, microwave and dishwasher safe. 10 year guarantee so make sure your get yours now while available now from Pricegrabber.co.uk

Have you got a favourite milk dessert, why not tell us about it?