Rice pudding is an inherently humble dish: with a handful of staple ingredients and very little time and effort you can have a simple, yet elegant dessert. Learn how to make this creamy and delicious rice pudding with this easy recipe.
This creamy rice pudding is an auspicious dessert with a humble ingredient. Made with kitchen staples like rice, milk, and sugar, this recipe takes it up a notch with the addition of condensed milk and heavy cream.
I think if I had to choose – and trust me, this would be an awfully hard decision to make – my favorite carbohydrate, I’d probably have to go with rice. It’s a pretty solid choice. I mean, think about it: it’s affordable, it triples in volume when cooked, it can be enhanced with a variety of ingredients, like butter, spices, broth, herbs, coconut milk, etc. And as if that wasn’t enough, it can even be dessert! Talk about versatility.
Creamy Homemade Rice Pudding Recipe
Rice pudding is a timeless dessert. It’s been around for so long and it’s part of so many cuisines around the world, in a way, it belongs to everyone.
It likely originated in Asia 6000 BC and since then each country has added their own twists, spices, nuts, and fruits to the humble dish. Speaking of humble, despite the fact that rice pudding is so simple and uses basic ingredients, despite the fact that it looks like white mush, it has the potential to be a classy dessert. Allow me to elaborate:
You can make rich, creamy rice pudding using only four ingredients: rice, sugar, water, and milk. That’s enough to get you a very good, very decent dessert. But you can take that simple recipe and play around with it. Instead of sugar, you can add condensed milk, instead of milk, you can do heavy cream.
Regardless of the ingredients you end up using, the final product will be a creamy, rich, cozy dessert. Pour it into fancy wine glasses and it’s ready to be served at a dinner party! If this sounds too boring to you, remember rice likes to accommodate different flavors, so you can always serve it with jam, whipped cream, nuts, berries, cherries, coconut, cinnamon, the list goes on.
Ingredients for the Perfect Rice Pudding
Like I mentioned before, there are very few ingredients involved in the making of rice pudding. Instead of sugar, this recipe calls for condensed milk. It relies mostly on milk as its base, but I also like to add a little bit of heavy cream.
Every once in a while, the rice pudding craving hits and because of that I’ve tested many recipes over the years. This NYT Cooking is one of my favorites (except I make it on the stovetop). The rice is cooked in milk and it calls for an egg yolk, which makes it even richer and creamier. It’s a fantastic recipe, but it takes forever and an incredible amount of milk until the rice is fully cooked.
This recipe is definitely more about simplicity. There’s no egg yolks and the rice is initially cooked in water before the addition of milk. This is the recipe my aunt has been making for years and just like any other family recipe, it’s really about following your gut.
Just like any other family recipe, fancy rules and techniques don’t really apply here. For one, I don’t rinse the rice. Rinsing it removes a lot of the starch, which is precisely the thing that will make your pudding creamy. I also don’t use any special grain, basmati works perfectly fine!
Start by adding the rice and water to a saucepan and bring to a simmer. From now on, all you’ll have to do is stir. Stirring is key here and unfortunately you can’t skip this step and unfortunately you can’t rush the process. But the good news is it really doesn’t take long!
Tips for the Creamiest Rice Pudding
Stirring constantly will prevent the rice from sticking to the bottom of the pan. When the rice is cooked, add in the milk and keep stirring until thickened. You get to choose the consistency you want, so you might need to add more milk as you go along.
I often have to add more milk when making rice pudding because rice soaks up so much liquid and so fast, it’s necessary to keep adding more. So be mindful of that.
Stir in the condensed milk when the pudding has thickened. And again, feel free to add more to taste. You can stir in the heavy cream after the condensed milk, but I also like drizzling it on top before serving.
You can add different toppings: a sprinkle of cinnamon or cardamom, whipped cream or chocolate. Or you can just keep things simple and timeless with just a drizzle of heavy cream. Either way, I hope you enjoy this creamy rice pudding!
If you try this recipe, please let me know in the comments!
Ingredients
1 cup rice (I use basmati)
2 cups water
pinch of salt
2 cups milk (you'll probably need more, make sure you have extra just in case)
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 can condensed milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
Directions
In a large heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat, bring the rice, water and pinch of salt to a simmer while stirring constantly to prevent the rice from sticking to the bottom of the pan.
- Once it begins to bubble, reduce the heat to low and keep stirring until the rice is soft and the mixture has thickened.
Start adding the milk, about half a cup at a time and keep adding more as needed until the mixture has thickened and looks thick and creamy.
Stir in the vanilla, condensed milk, and heavy cream. Add more condensed milk if you like it sweeter.
Remove from heat. The pudding will thicken as it cools. It can be served warm or cold.
