Rice Pudding
Two hours at 140°C in a shallow dish, which is what builds the brown skin and gives the grains time to collapse into the milk.
- Prep
- 10m
- Cook
- 2h 10m
- Waiting
- 10m
- Total
- 2h 30m
- Serves
- 6
- Effort
- Easy
Method
Twenty-five minutes on the hob instead of two hours in the oven — creamier and quicker, but no skin and no browned top.
Tap a step number to mark it done. Tap an ingredient once for got it, twice for need it.
| 800 g | Warm the milk, cream, sugar and vanilla to a bare simmer 8m Warm liquid means the grains start absorbing straight away. | Pour the infused milk over the rice and dot with butter 4m A shallow dish, not deep. Surface area is what makes the skin. | Bake at 140°C / 275°F for 2 hours, stirring twice in the first hour only 2h After the first hour, leave it entirely alone or the skin never forms. | Stand 10 minutes so the skin firms, then serve with jam 10m | |
| 150 g | |||||
| 60 g | |||||
| 1 | |||||
| 100 g | |||||
| 25 g | |||||
| a good scrape | |||||
| 4 tbsp | |||||
-
Warm the milk, cream, sugar and vanilla to a bare simmer
8m- whole milk 800 g
- double cream 150 g
- caster sugar 60 g
- vanilla pod 1
Warm liquid means the grains start absorbing straight away.
-
Pour the infused milk over the rice and dot with butter
4m- from 1 Warm the milk, cream, sugar and vanilla to a bare simmer
- pudding rice 100 g
- unsalted butter 25 g
- nutmeg a good scrape
A shallow dish, not deep. Surface area is what makes the skin.
-
Bake at 140°C / 275°F for 2 hours, stirring twice in the first hour only
2h- from 2 Pour the infused milk over the rice and dot with butter
After the first hour, leave it entirely alone or the skin never forms.
-
Stand 10 minutes so the skin firms, then serve with jam
10m- from 3 Bake at 140°C / 275°F for 2 hours, stirring twice in the first hour only
- black cherry jam (optional) 4 tbsp
| 120 g | Toast the rice in the butter for 1 minute 3m | Simmer gently 22 minutes, stirring often 22m Stop while it still pours. It thickens a lot as it cools. | Rest 5 minutes off the heat, then serve 5m | |
| 20 g | ||||
| 700 g | ||||
| 100 g | ||||
| 60 g | ||||
| 1 tsp |
-
Toast the rice in the butter for 1 minute
3m- pudding rice 120 g
- unsalted butter 20 g
-
Simmer gently 22 minutes, stirring often
22m- from 1 Toast the rice in the butter for 1 minute
- whole milk 700 g
- double cream 100 g
- caster sugar 60 g
- vanilla extract 1 tsp
Stop while it still pours. It thickens a lot as it cools.
-
Rest 5 minutes off the heat, then serve
5m- from 2 Simmer gently 22 minutes, stirring often
Starch, slowly
Short-grain rice is high in amylopectin, a branching starch that leaches out of the grain and thickens the surrounding liquid rather than setting into a firm gel. At 140°C the milk never boils, so the grains hydrate and gelatinise over two hours instead of bursting in twenty minutes. Meanwhile the exposed surface loses water and its milk sugars and proteins brown, giving the freckled skin that is the entire argument for baking it.
Notes
- Use a wide dish. Depth gives you more pudding and less skin, which is the wrong trade.
- Do not rinse the rice. The surface starch is what you are after here.
- If the top browns before the two hours are up, cover loosely with foil and carry on.