Creamy and comforting, homemade rice pudding simply tastes like home. 

Rice pudding is my absolute favorite when it comes to puddings. It’s rich and creamy with a striking sweet flavor that can only be acquired by slowly cooking rice until it reaches a positively dreamy consistency. The mouthfeel of this pudding makes you feel like you’re receiving a comforting hug that envelopes the very depths of your soul. Ok, so that’s a little dramatic but I do feel very comforted by it and it just makes me feel like I’m home. That’s why I decided to take my great grandmother’s recipe for rice pudding and give it a little face lift. I wanted her recipe  to be the best version of itself that it could possibly be.

By switching out long grain rice with short grain and including a little heavy cream, I upped the rich creamy flavor by tenfold. Short grain rice has more starch than its long grain counterpart which helps to thicken the dairy without having to include eggs. Instead, I use heavy cream to create the richness commonly associated with the custard. The result is a very luscious pudding that you simply can’t stop eating. I think great grandma would have approved of the adjustments. 

Creamy and Comforting Rice Pudding

½ cup white short grain rice

½ cup granulated sugar

2 cups whole milk

⅓ cup heavy cream

2 tsp vanilla extract

¼ tsp kosher salt

Cinnamon stick

Cinnamon for sprinkling

In a medium sized pot, combine rice, sugar, milk, cinnamon stick and salt. Set the pot to medium heat and cook until the milk starts to thicken and rice starts to soften, about 20 minutes. Stir occasionally, taking care not to scorch the milk and rice. 

Once the rice softens, turn down the heat to low and add the heavy cream. Cook until thickened and the rice is tender but not mushy. You want a nice balance of properly cooked rice and creamy custard.

When pudding has thickened and rice cooked, remove the cinnamon sticks and add the vanilla extract. Serve the pudding warm with a sprinkle of cinnamon or a dollop of blueberry jam. 

Alternatively, you can serve the pudding cold by transferring the warm pudding into a glass container and pressing cling film up against the pudding . This is to prevent the pudding from creating a skin and becoming rubbery on top.  Chill in the fridge for about an hour before serving.

Pudding can be stored for 3-5 days in the fridge.

*Notes:  If you decide to chill your rice pudding, note that it will be considerably thicker in consistency.

If you have leftover pudding, follow the chilling instructions. Reheat in the microwave for a minute if you want it warm.

If you have leftover rice you can easily make rice pudding from it. Just combine the leftover rice with the sugar, milk, salt and cinnamon stick. Cook on medium heat until the mixture thickens. Add the cream and vanilla, cook until thickened. Serve warm. It takes half the time to cook with the leftover rice so watch it carefully. 

If at the end you think the pudding is slightly too thick for your liking simply add a dash more cream or milk just to loosen it up.