Rice Pudding Renaissance
Rice pudding three ways
Hello! Before I get started on my rice pudding ramblings I wanted to give you a little update on what I’m up to and what to expect from me/my newsletter. Firstly I wanted to thank everyone so much for the support I’ve received so far! You may have noticed that I’ve turned on paid subscriptions, this is to allow me to spend more time developing and sharing recipes, I’ll still be sharing loads of free content, but the pieces that are really in depth or require loads of testing will now be for my paid subscribers only, after all a girl’s gotta make a living!
Going forward my aim is to focus on recipe development, online courses and some limited postal hamper drops. I really love the creativity and personal development that comes with testing different recipes, techniques and ingredients, since starting this newsletter I’ve learnt SO much and I love it. I also love teaching which is why I’m working on some online video courses, these will be long form and cover techniques in depth, sometimes it’s difficult to get everything across in writing! Let me know if there’s anything in particular you’d like to see.
Although I’m not currently taking cake orders I plan to do some limited drops of postal hampers, my next drop will be in time for Easter make sure you’re subscribed to be the first to know when they’re available to buy!
The final thing I’m working on is brand partnerships, I recently did a project with Callebaut Chocolate, it was the first time I’ve done anything like it and it was really great experience, of course anything I do will be with brands that I love and already use!
Onto rice pudding! The wonderful Bronwen Wyatt recently(ish) released her Ins and Outs for 2024, Bronwen is a person who knows what she’s talking so as I read it you can imagine my absolute joy to see that rice pudding made her list. In the UK i feel as though rice pudding had never really been “out” but it definitely doesn’t get the hype it deserves and I am by no means opposed to it having a resurgence.
For me rhubarb season perfectly collides with the rise of rice pudding, rhubarb provides the fresh promise of spring whist rice pudding gives you a warm cosy hug because let’s be honest, it’s still bloody freezing and we need something to both cheer us up and warm us up. For this reason, a few of these recipes are paired with rhubarb, that and the fact that I have a tonne to use up, read more about that saga here, these recipes work beautifully with pretty much any fruit, berries in the summer, stewed apples in the winter, rice pudding really is an all year round dessert.
Classic Rice Pud
As soon as I decided to write a post about rice pud I knew I wanted to do some fun things with it but first I had to nail a basic rice pudding recipe. It didn’t take too much testing, just a bit of messing about with the ratios of milk to cream, I wanted it to be indulgent but not so much so that you need a lie down after eating it.
This base rice pudding recipe is incredibly easy, it’s made on the hob rather than in the oven as I like to be able to keep an eye on it and give it a stir frequently and lifting a large heavy bottom saucepan in and out of a hot oven makes me nervous. However, if you’re a sucker for a baked rice pudding with a papery caramelised skin, this can absolutely be made in the oven instead.
Ingredients - makes 6 servings
40g butter
130g caster sugar
150g pudding rice
600ml whole milk
400ml double cream
1/2 vanilla pod OR 2tsp vanilla bean paste
1/2tsp freshly grated nutmeg (optional)
1/4tsp flakey salt
Method
Melt the butter in a large, heavy bottomed saucepan.
Remove from the heat and add the rest of the ingredients, be sure to scrape all of the seeds out of the vanilla pod!
Return to the hob and bring to the boil.
Once boiling reduce the temperature to just below a simmer.
Stir every 10 minutes to break the rice up and ensure that it’s not catching on the bottom.
After 45 minutes - 1 hour the rice will be cooked and the liquid will be reduced and thickened.
If it’s got slightly too thick you can add a splash more milk.
Serve however you like! I like mine with a big dollop of rhubarb jam.
