Rice pudding. It’s a tasty, sensible, inexpensive, and non-daring dessert. But one small change to the top transforms it from simply tasty to surprisingly wonderful. And that top involves sugar and fire.
Before diving into how to make my special take on rice pudding, a quick background.
Rice pudding is a mixture of rice, milk, eggs, and other ingredients such as sugar and flavorings like vanilla extract and cinnamon. It is highly customizable. While short- or medium-grain white rice is the traditional stuff used for the main component, there’s no reason you can’t use long-grain white rice, jasmine rice, brown rice, etc.
Even the milk you choose is, well, your choice. Traditionally it’s whole milk. I like to use vanilla-flavored almond milk in mine. But you can use whatever you want, from soy milk to oat milk to banana milk. Same goes for additions. Raisins are a classic one, and I won’t judge if you go with blueberries, cranberries, or cherries. It’s all good.
Rice pudding is usually made one of two ways: On a stovetop by combining uncooked rice with the milk, eggs, and other ingredients in a pot and simmering it until it thickens and the rice becomes very soft. The method I use is usually the second one: In an oven using pre-cooked rice.
I like the latter method for a couple of reasons. First is because it’s a great way to use leftover, plain-cooked rice. And it’s just easier. All you have to do is combine the ingredients, pour the mixture into ramekins or a casserole dish, and bake. It’s as easy as that. No stirring, no monitoring, no nothin’.
Regardless of which way you choose to make rice pudding, the game-changing component of this recipe – the brulee part – is the same. Once the pudding is done cooking and ladled into serving ramekins, cover the top with a thin layer of granulated white sugar and torch it with a culinary torch, just as you would with crème brulee. And just as with crème brulee, this is where making/serving the rice pudding in individual ramekins is a better call. Once you’ve torched the sugar, it turns into a crispy, caramelized sheet of sugary wonderfulness that you get to shatter with a spoon and eat. Yum.
For my recipe, I make not only the top special but the bottom, too. And that is thanks to a graham cracker crust. Any will do, but I buy these gluten-free graham crackers from Pamela’s since I’m well, gluten-free. Speaking of, if you’re gluten-free, rice pudding is a fantastic dessert option.
As I say in the how-to video for this recipe, if you can combine ingredients in a bowl and turn on an oven, you can make this dessert. And you even get to play with fire (safely, of course).
Rice Pudding Brulee Recipe
- 2 cups rice of your choice, cooked
- 1.5 cups milk of your choice
- 1 egg
- 5 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons melted butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Pinch of salt
- Crushed graham crackers to coat bottom of ramekins
- White granulated sugar for topping
Make it
Step 1: Combine everything except the graham crackers and granulated sugar in a bowl and mix well. Break up any clumps of rice.
Step 2: Coat bottom of ramekins with crushed graham crackers.
Step 3: Ladle rice pudding mixture into individual ramekins. This recipe will make about 5-6 servings, depending on size of ramekin.
Step 4: Place ramekins into preheated 325-degree (Fahrenheit) oven and cook for 25-40 minutes or until the rice pudding is set. You’ll know it’s set when you insert a knife blade and it comes out pretty clean.
Step 5: When ramekins are out of oven, sprinkle top with thin layer of granulated white sugar and carefully torch until the sugar turns light brown and crisp.
And boom! You just turned a few simple and super inexpensive ingredients into a dessert your friends and family won’t forget. I recommend serving this warm. Refrigerate any leftovers and warm them in a microwave before serving.