Creamy Rice Pudding

This Creamy Rice Pudding recipe is both humble and delicious and can be made easily on the stovetop for the perfect after-dinner dessert. It can be served warm or cold, with a sprinkle of cinnamon, or even a dollop of ice cream to create an epic hot and cold contrast.

Classic Rice Pudding Recipe

Rice pudding has long been a household favorite in our family, but lately, it seems to be experiencing a resurgence in popularity - and it's easy to see why! This classic dessert boasts a creamy and comforting flavor profile. At its core, it's simply rice cooked in milk with sugar and a few spices. What sets apart a truly delicious rice pudding is the perfect balance of flavors and sweetness, along with a smooth and consistent texture.

My son loves rice pudding (second only to pie, of course), so he was thrilled for the weeks I was testing out this recipe. I've been making this dessert for years but never followed a recipe - because it's pretty simple to make. However, I'm happy to finally have it written down so I can share it with others.

This version is very much a classic American rice pudding, though this dish can be claimed by many different cultures throughout history. My version can be served warm or cold (and I'll include instructions for both below), is made with long-grain white rice and is studded with plump raisins and a touch of cinnamon.

So, let's get to making it, shall we? The text below offers tons of tips and helpful notes, or you can scroll to the bottom to grab the recipe and get started!

Ingredients Needed

Here is an overview of the ingredients needed for this recipe. The full recipe is listed below in greater detail.

• uncooked long grain white rice
• coarse kosher salt
• evaporated milk
• whole milk
• granulated sugar
• raisins
• cinnamon
• cloves
• vanilla extract
• unsalted butter

Let's Talk About Rice

It's worth noting that this recipe assumes the use of uncooked long-grain white rice. However, rice pudding can actually be made with any type of rice, including short grain, Jasmine, Basmati, or even brown rice. It's important to keep in mind that switching out the type of rice may require adjustments to the amount of liquid added or cooking time. So if you decide to use a different type of rice, just know that some modifications to the recipe may be necessary.

Likewise, if precooked leftover rice was used instead of raw rice, it would drastically change the timing and liquid quantity needed to make a good final result. So I can't recommend making that switch, unless you want to play around with the recipe a lot.

Recipe Overview

Here are the basic steps for the recipe:

1. Rince the rice.
2. Cook the rice with water and salt.
3. Add in the milks and and spices and cook, stirring frequently, until thickened.
4. Add in sugar, and cook until it is almost to your desired consistency.
5. Remove the cinnamon stick and stir in butter and vanilla.
6. Serve! Or let cool down to serve later.

Please see the serving section below to read up on the consistency of the finished rice pudding, and how to troubleshoot that to your desired consistency.

How to Serve Rice Pudding

As mentioned above, various cultures throughout the globe have their own version of rice pudding, and with it comes various ways to serve it. In our family, we like it served warm, with thickness like any other stovetop type pudding, which is to say, fairly thick but not stodgy.

When I've gone to Colombia to visit my husband's family, they often served rice pudding (aka arroz con leche) on the very thin side and usually cold or room temperature. This is all to say, serve it the way you like it!

The rice is forgiving and you can add in more liquid later after it has cooled if it needs to be thinned out. Additionally, if it's too thin, it can be reduced a little bit, or rested to let it absorb the excess moisture, which it will do whether you want it to or not.

And of course it's important to spell that out more clearly, as this cools down, the rice will absorb more moisture and become thicker and thicker. So be sure to stop the cooking before it's reached your desired consistency, as it's much thinner when you stop cooking and it's warm.

Some people like to serve warm rice pudding with a scoop of cold ice cream to get that temperature contrast going! And if that sounds good to you, give it a try!

However, I find the recipe pudding to be perfect on it's own, with just a sprinkle of cinnamon on top so that's how we serve it in my house.

More Pudding Recipes

• From-Scratch Pistachio Pudding
• Homemade Butterscotch Pudding
• Homemade Chocolate Pudding

I am so honored when you make a recipe from my site! If you make this Rice Pudding recipe, please leave a comment and a star rating with your experience! If you have any questions about this recipe, feel free to comment here, too!

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