I had been going to make us a coconut cream pie for dessert this Easter along with a Robin's Egg Blue iced cake roll (filled with lemon curd). I bought the food colouring and everything, but alas . . . without a reliable oven, this idea was a total bust!! What to do instead???
I had spied a recipe for a Creamy Rice Pudding with Cinnamon Sugar in that same cookery book I got the chocolate pudding recipe from the other day and decided that since Rice Pudding is Todd's favorite thing on earth, I would make it for him.
How hard could it be? Not hard at all, that's the answer!
Everything simply gets mixed together in a slow cooker and the slow cooker(crockpot) does all the work. You do have to stir it several times during the cooking process . . . but that's not much of a hardship really . . .
It leaves you hands and stove-free to prepare the rest of your meal with perfect ease! No fuss no muss!
On a side note, have you ever considered serving your desserts in a pretty tea cup? They really make for a beautiful presentation!
Included with the pudding is a recipe for an optional raspberry sauce to spoon over top. Num num!
I hadn't actually planned it this way, but I ended up with a red, white and blue dessert! How very patriotic of me!
The rice pudding itself is flavoured with a strip of orange peel/zest. Just carve it off of a well-washed orange with a vegetable peeler. Easy peasy.
You will also need a whole vanilla pod. (you could use vanilla paste as well I think) Don't think of it as a waste of a vanilla pod, just slit it in half before you stick it in the pudding and when done, rinse it off, dry and then stick it into your sugar canister for some lovely vanilla sugar!
The top of the finished pudding is gilded with a bit of cinnamon sugar . . . not enough to take over the pudding, but just enough to give you a light hint of the flavor.
Once again, I cut the recipe in half and cooked it in my small oval shaped slow cooker. It looks like this.
It is a 1 1/2 liter cooker (1 1/2 qt.) Works a charm for all of this small family's slow cooking needs. I got mine from Amazon a few years ago.
Today I made the optional raspberry sauce to serve with it. I think a fruit sauce goes very well with rice pudding.
Raspberry is very nice, as is cherry. (My favorite is cherry sauce.)
Creamy Rice Pudding with Cinnamon Sugar
Yield: 6Author: Marie RaynerThis version of rice pudding is not only delicious but very simple. Just pop everything into the slow cooker and let it do all the donkey-work! Serve with an optional Raspberry Sauce for a real taste treat!
ingredients:
For the pudding:- 200g uncooked short grain white rice (1 cup) (I use arborio risotto rice)
- 1 1/4 litres of whole milk (5 cups)
- 95g caster sugar (1/2 cup, super fine granulated sugar)
- 2-inch piece of fresh orange rind/zest in one piece
- 1 vanilla bean
- 2 TBS caster sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 150g frozen raspberries (5 1/2 ounces)
- 45g sugar (1/4 cup)
- 1 TBS water
instructions:
- To make the rice pudding, measure everything for the pudding into the bowl of a 4 1/2 liter (18 cup) slow cooker/crock pot. (I like to split the vanilla pod in two first.) Cover and cook on low for 6 hours, stirring several times. Remove and discard the orange zest and the vanilla pod. (I like to rinse the pod off, dry and then stick it into my sugar bowl.)
- Mix together the sugar and cinnamon for the cinnamon sugar topping and sprinkle over top.
- To make the raspberry sauce, stew the raspberries together with the water and sugar in a saucepan until softened.
- Serve the pudding warm, with the cinnamon sugar on top and with the raspberry sauce (if using) drizzled over each serving. A drizzle of cream is also nice.
This really went down a real treat. Todd was in pudding heaven! I had a tiny taste (I am trying to stay away from sugar) and I have to say it is really delicious. Not over the top sweet. Just right! Happy Easter!
