Awesome Rice Pudding

Years ago, I used to get rice pudding from this little Lebanese restaurant in town called N&J's. I loved it so much that I would buy several containers and keep them in the refrigerator at home for easy snacks. When I moved back here, the restaurant was still there but they sadly no longer sold their rice pudding.

Ever since, I have been trying to find a way to make a delicious, super creamy, mildly sweet rice pudding recipe at home. I have lots of leftover rice, and I want to make something really great with it. Everything I have tried in the past comes out a bit dried out or has a strange flavor, or something is wrong with it. Well, I am beyond happy to report that I have found a delicious rice pudding recipe and I am going to share it with you all. This does not taste like the Lebanese version I used to get as it is not a Lebanese rice pudding, but I think I will use it as a starting point for a Lebanese version.

Ingredients:

1 cup cooked white rice

1 1/3 cups whole milk, divided

2 tbsp. sugar, something like this

A pinch of sea salt or Real Salt or Kosher salt

1 small pasture egg, beaten

1 tbsp. butter, something like this

1/4 tsp. vanilla extract, make your own

1/3 cup golden raisins (optional)

A pinch of coconut sugar, something like this

 

 

How To:

1. Start Rice: In a medium saucepan over medium to medium-high heat, bring cooked rice and 1 cup milk just to a boil. Keep an eye on the pan, stir occasionally, and as soon as it starts to boil, lower the heat to medium or medium-low and add sugar & salt. (It takes 5 minutes for my rice and milk to come to a boil at medium-high heat.) Stir to combine and then let simmer for about 15 minutes until thick and creamy. Stir frequently.

Thick and creamy

 

2. Add Egg & Finish: Remove pan from heat (you'll put it back on the heat in a minute, but remove for now). Then, beat your egg with 1/3 cup whole milk and slowly add the egg/ milk mixture in a thin stream to the saucepan stirring the pudding all the time while you are adding it.

 

Egg/ milk mixture just added

 

Return the saucepan to the heat, and continue stirring constantly over medium-low to medium heat as the mixture slowly heats back up and thickens. Add raisins now if using. It is very important you do this slowly and at low heat--you want custard, not scrambled eggs. Continue stirring constantly over medium-low or medium heat until the pudding thickens and turns really creamy (about another 5-7 minutes). It may start to slowly boil again, which is fine, but be sure you are stirring and it is a very low, slow boil (just a bubble here and there when you're not stirring). Remove from heat and stir in the butter and vanilla. Garnish with a pinch of coconut sugar, if desired. Serve warm or chilled in the refrigerator; however, it's better within the first day of making it. After that the rice starts to get a little hard.

 

After, 5-7 minutes; ready for butter and vanilla

 

Comments:

This is truly the perfect rice pudding. It is super creamy due to the addition of the egg and has a lovely sweet flavor with a hint of vanilla. The recipe makes two nice servings and takes about 30 minutes total to make. It is well worth it. The Search Is Over!! Look No Further. The Perfect Rice Pudding is here.

 

 

This would be a great rice pudding base recipe as well. You can get fancy and add grated chocolate, caramel, berries or other fruits, whipped cream, coconut, etc.

 

A note about raisins... I don't really like raisins, so I don't include them. However, I know they are very popular in rice pudding so I've included them as an optional ingredient in this recipe.

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This recipe was shared at Strut Your Stuff Saturday, Busy Monday, Fat Tuesday, Show & Share Wednesday, Fight Back Friday, and Melt In Your Mouth Monday. Please following the links for more great recipe ideas!