Baked vanilla rice pudding
Serves 4
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: about 2 hours
This creamy nursery pud is so simple to make that even the most novice cook (we’re thinking of the Share A Meal Treasurer here…) can safely be left to go solo. Two things we found when testing it: it’s important to stir the pud as it cooks to avoid the rice clumping. Also, it gets much thicker as it cools, so we prefer to serve it at room temperature rather than straight out of the oven, or even cold, which is delicious.
Ingredients
10g unsalted butter
40g caster sugar, golden or white, or brown, eg, demerara
600ml full-fat milk
200ml single cream
1 bay leaf
1 vanilla pod, split and the seeds scraped out
80g pudding rice
good handful of sultanas
zest of 1 lemon
a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
jam to serve, if wished (it’s rich and creamy so we ended up liking it best on its own but a tart jam or jelly – homemade bramble jelly, for instance – works well with it)
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 150C/130C fan/gas 2.
2. Grease a 1-litre ovenproof dish with the butter.
3. Put the sugar, milk, cream, bay leaf and vanilla seeds and pod in a small saucepan and slowly heat until it starts to bubble round the edges, then take off the heat.
4. Remove the vanilla pod and bay leaf.
5. Stir in the rice, sultanas and lemon zest.
6. Pour the mix carefully into the buttered dish and stir again. Sprinkle over the nutmeg, then bake in the oven for 1¾-2 hours.
7. Stir after 30 minutes and again after 60 minutes and 90 minutes, mixing in the skin that forms on top.
NB It may take a little longer than 2 hours to cook, so if it’s still sloppy give it 10 minutes more and check again. When it’s cooked, the rice should have absorbed the liquid so it’s soft and plump, but the mixture should still be wobbly in the middle. Remember it will thicken up considerably as it cools.
Tip This dish keeps well in the fridge for up to 3 days, or you can freeze it for up to 3 months – but always thaw it in a refrigerator, not on a worktop, because of the dairy content.