Everyone just loves baked rice pudding as it is just so reminiscent of childhood, is ridiculously easy to prepare, comforting and delicious. You can serve the rice pudding as is, or for dessert add a drizzle of cream or have it for breakfast accompanied with poached fruit.
Start this recipe the day before to soak the rice. Soaking makes all grains more digestible as it breaks down some of the more problematic proteins and neutralises phytates, which inhibit the absorption of important nutrients including magnesium, calcium and iron.
I often pop a bottom a dish of rice pudding in the bottom of the oven when slow cooking a roast lamb or chicken, a casserole or roast veggies.
This is a very flexible recipe – you could replace the milk with coconut milk to make the recipe vegan and dairy-free, use cardamon or nutmeg instead of cinnamon, or sweeten the pudding with honey, coconut sugar or monkfruit.
Baked Rice Pudding
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup arborio rice , or short grain white rice
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar , or lemon juice
- 1 litre full cream milk
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp cinnamon , or cardamom or nutmeg
Instructions
- The day before cooking this recipe rinse the rice, place in a glass or ceramic bowl and cover with 2 cups of warm water. Stir in the apple cider vinegar or lemon juice, cover and set aside at room temperature overnight.
- The next day preheat the oven to 160C. Drain and rinse the rice well.
- Mix the rice, milk, maple syrup, vanilla and cinnamon in a medium sized casserole dish with a lid (12 cup capacity).
- Stir to combine, put on the lid and place into the oven for 1 hour. Remove the lid and cook for another 30 minutes until the top is golden.
- Serve with a sprinkle of cinnamon, with cream or with poached fruit.
