Serves 6-12 Takes about 1 1/2 hours
This recipe was born out of the desire to make a dessert for my rice pudding loving, gluten-intolerant friend Jayde. I found a very basic recipe from Kraft and made that and it was a rousing success. Over time though, I've been wanting to find a way to make this dish mine, and I believe this speaks more to my sensibilities than that Kraft recipe ever did. Rice pudding itself is a very easy dessert, in concept and execution. But this recipe is not for those who don't have patience, because this will take a good hour to come together. My personal twist that I've added here is infusing Jasmine Rice with a Vanilla Tea. Without doing much more than brewing two tea bags in the prescribed water amount before making the rice, you impart an extra layer of warm and earthy vanilla flavors into the final dish.
One final note: This is a very rich dessert, and one cup uncooked rice makes about 3 cups cooked, and you aren't losing any of it. So don't go in thinking you can eat this by yourself. Probably best served as a small-portioned dessert to a lot of people rather than a big bowl for a few people. A little goes a long way.
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Ingredients
6 Cups (1 1/2 qts.) Half and Half
1 1/3 Cup Water
2 Vanilla tea bags (I used a Madagascar Vanilla Rooibos)
1 Cup Uncooked Jasmine Rice
1 lb. (16 oz) of a caramel milk topping (I used this one)
1/2 Cup Shredded Coconut, toasted
1/4 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Ground Nutmeg
1 1/4 tsp Kosher Salt
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Prep Directions
1. Step one and two here are gonna be our preparation steps for a couple of our base ingredients. Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Spread at least half a cup of shredded (or flaked) coconut onto a lined baking sheet. Once oven is ready, set them in on a middle rack to toast. Will probably take more than 5 minutes and less than 10 minutes. Open oven halfway through and use a spatula to move coconut around for maximum toasting. Once it starts to get a golden-brown hue and some dark brown edges, pull out of oven and leave to cool. Meanwhile, put water in a medium sauce pan (one that has a lid) and heat to a boil. Once boiling, add tea bags, turn off the heat, and let steep 5-7 minutes. Then remove tea bags.
2. Bring Tea up to boiling and add the Jasmine Rice and a teaspoon of salt, stir to combine, put a lid on it and turn the heat down to low. Cook without lifting lid for 15 minutes. Once done, remove lid and fluff rice with fork. Set aside to cool or do what I did and make the day before and keep rice in a sealed container in the fridge until cook time.
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Pudding Directions
3. Okay, with that out of the way, let's make the pudding. In a medium-to-large saucepan, bring half and half to a slow boil. Keep the heat between Medium-Low and Medium, you want to do this gently enough that the dairy doesn't get scorched. It's a lot of dairy and we're doing this slowly. Stir with spatula occasionally to keep it from sticking too much to the top and the sides.
4. Once milk starts to boil, add in our cooked rice, caramel sauce, cinnamon, nutmeg and remaining salt. Turn to Medium-Low if not already there and stir.
5. Stir.
6. Stir some more. This is a slow process. By adding all this rice and caramel and lowering the heat, we have greatly disrupted the heat of the dairy and it will need to get back up to boiling (on it's own terms) before it really starts to take off. This is gonna take like...an hour probably. The saucepan will start mostly white with no visible rice, and by about halfway through it should take on the golden brown color of the caramel with a lot of rice visible. Stir once every 5 minutes or so to start, but as the temperature gets up to boiling, stir every 2-3 minutes. You'll know it's about finished when the dairy forms a skin on top every two-three minutes with bubbles boiling underneath, and stirring becomes a challenge.
7. Once pudding gets to the desired consistency (kinda like thick oatmeal) turn off the heat and drop in our toasted coconut, stir to combine. Transfer to a large dish to house the pudding, like a round casserole dish or a deep bowl.
8. Can be enjoyed hot or cold, so for hot rice pudding, let cool for about ten minutes and serve, possibly with a splash more coconut and cinnamon for garnish. For cold, set into the fridge and let cool about 3 hours before serving.
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What I Could Do Differently
There are a million different variations of rice pudding, mostly things to give you a textural change. In place of, or included with the toasted coconut, you could also add raisins, dried cranberries (craisins) and/or chopped up toasted pecans as a topping.
To remove a little richness from this dish (and/or use what you have on hand) you can substitute the half and half for whole milk or 2% and it will still come together nicely.
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