Fanny Farmer’s Baked Rice Pudding
It’s not pretty, I realize, but it was delicious.
It’s snowing today. Big, wet flakes coming down like slurpee. There’s family drama (Mike’s side – they’d cast an excellent reality TV show, let me tell you) and a mess of deadlines – a rice pudding sort of day if ever there was one. I just slid a batch into the oven; it took less time to make than a pot of coffee. (And goes really well with coffee, by the way.)
And guess what? I have a new little spot here on the world-wide inter-web – over at the Family Kitchen – I was asked to write over there as well and happily agreed, because of all the things I do, what I Iove most is writing about and sharing food with all of you. So over there I’ll have some new stuff, but it won’t take me away from this place, I promise. It’ll be like having two kids instead of one – twice the love, right? Sometimes there will be crossover – I just posted this recipe over there as well.
I made this last week out of curiosity as much as anything; flipping through an old copy of the 865-page Fanny Farmer Cookbook, my eye caught the ingredient list of this baked rice pudding – 3 tablespoons of rice to 4 cups of milk was called for. Typo, I thought. It couldn’t possibly work. But the intro claimed otherwise; “the little bit of rice to a quart of milk is correct,” it reads. Huh. Of course I had to put it to the test. For research purposes, you know.
It certainly was the simplest rice pudding I’ve ever made. I stirred the tiny amount of rice into the milk with sugar, and slid it into the oven. I did not have high hopes. I stirred once or twice, to keep the rice from settling. It was like stirring milk soup. An hour in it looked the same. Two hours in it looked the same. I took a peek whenever I happened to pass through the kitchen. I couldn’t imagine it somehow morphing into pudding.
But. You know how when you make rice pudding and it’s perfect and then you put it in the fridge overnight it thickens so much it doesn’t much resemble pudding anymore? It worked to our advantage this time. When I took it out it was still more than loose – it was runny, with a thin crusty skin on top. I stuck it in the fridge. The next day I pulled it out and peeled off the pudding skin. And it did resemble rice pudding, albeit a loose, creamy one. I tossed in a handful of red flame raisins and took a bite. The milk had thickened to the consistency of thick cream, but it was still soupy. It was ice cold, sweet and addicting. I stood at the countertop and shoveled in bite after bite. The next day I craved it. And now I have another batch – to which I added more rice (1/4 cup), less sugar (1/4 cup – or even less honey) and salt (just a pinch, rather than 1/2 tsp.) – that should be finished and warm by lunchtime, chilled when the boys arrive home hungry.
Baked Rice Pudding
AuthorJulie
Preheat the oven to 300°F. Put all the ingredients into a buttered baking dish and stir. Bake for 3 hours, stirring three times during the first hour of baking so that the rice doesn't settle. Eat warm, or chill first.
Ingredients
Directions
Preheat the oven to 300°F. Put all the ingredients into a buttered baking dish and stir. Bake for 3 hours, stirring three times during the first hour of baking so that the rice doesn't settle. Eat warm, or chill first.
I’ve done similar version and like you was amazed by low rice/milk ration. I did mine with Chinese sweet rice for fat sticky grains, a dust of cinnamon & nutmeg. And you are right about the day – think I’ll whip some up right now – coffee is brewed, stock is simmering, rice pud would round the day out nicely.
My mom LOVES the Fanny Farmer cookbook. Just seeing in the title brought back good memories! And I have to say, I prefer rice pudding warm. The same with creme caramel and creme brulee. I know, weird.
That sounds amazing, I love rice pudding.
Do you think this would work with brown rice?
I was looking at the snow falling and thinking of rice pudding, too. Yesterday it conflicted with oven time for the home made pizzas, but today I’m making it for sure. Calgary weather -snow storms and freezing temperatures in May -at least the grass turned green after the moisture from last week’s snowstorm.
Brown rice – for sure! Short grain, if you have it!
I got that cookbook as a wedding gift 20 years ago. Little did the giver know that I did not know how to cook and this was the best gift ever!! I’ll have to take a look in it again and look up this rice pudding recipe…it’s a favourite in our house!!
My foster mother made a baked rice pudding that I loved as a child. I’ve never figured out how to make it, so I gave up. It was rich and creamy, with scents of cinnamon and nutmeg, with raisins put in later so that they were plump and juicy, but hadn’t been cooked to slime. It wasn’t white, it was a sort of creamy colour, almost the consistency of thick soup or thin custard.
I’ve always wished that I’d got the recipe before she died, and I think this might come closer than anything else I’ve ever tried.
Thank you, Julie for giving me back a piece of a happy time in my childhood.
Laurie
Oh man, did I want to cry when I saw the slurpee pouring down. And today, with the gale force wind I just have to say WE LIVE IN SIBERIA!
I made a new version of Thai coconut soup with mahi mahi to cheer me up. This rice pudding sounds like it will do the job too. I was hoping to be getting into more of the summery fare by now!
Oh well…
Definitely a rice pudding kinda day *brr!*
The hanging baskets (flowers & tomatoes) I ordered from A’s fundraiser are in today – looks like I’m keeping them indoors for awhile.
I was at the Library conf. in Jasper and was able to attend your session on Sat. nite….wonderful and so entertaining you are. I loved the choc.cookies you made us and did you mention you cooked for Leonard Nimoy? Loved you and plan on making your rice pudding soon…B.
There’s an Indian (well, actually, Bengali) rice pudding called payesh that comes out like this only you have to stir it for 5hours??! Anyway, I’m going with your version, with the addition of the Bengali spices: cardamom and pistachios. Thx!!
Oh, yeah, Shosized: the one with the almonds/ cashews? What a good idea. One of my favorite things at Royal India’s lunch buffet is, after I’m too full to think of going back one more time… I go back one more time and have that rice pudding, a spoonful in one side of a tiny bowl, with a spoonful of their lovely fruit/ custard mixture. Looks like a yin/ yang when you put it in your bowl carefully enough and drop a cashew in for the eye…
Youppie! I’ve always wanted a recipe for rice pudding, and this one seems quite easy…will be trying this recipe soon.
I’m going out of my mind trying to catch up on my office work, ever since, my hard drive crashed, I lost all my data for my businesses. Please guys send happy thoughts my way so the specialist can retrieve whatever info on my damaged HD.
Happy thoughts people happy thoughts 🙂
MFO
Congratulations, Julie! So great to have a little more of you to read….
Julie…could you pls once again send me an email so I can upload your email address into my “new” outlook….sorry but I lost the other one!!!
Thx 🙂
Very interesting post and how the quantities of rice change through various editions of the FF cookbook… I wonder what edition you’re using? I have a 1925 edition and it calls for 4 cups milk, 1/3 cup rice, 1/3 cup sugar and 1/2 tsp salt. It says to put in a slow oven, with the pan set in a pan of hot water, and bake for 3 hours. I also referenced my 1959 edition and it uses 1/4 cup rice. It also includes a ‘poor man’s pudding’ as a variation, where it uses 1/3 c molasses instead of sugar, with the addition of 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1 tbsp of butter.
Tried this last night, but had about 5 cups of cooked rice in the fridge waiting for resurrection. Thought I could adjust the liquid to rice proportion appropriately to still end up with a creamy custardy base. Wrong! Although tasty, it was quite dry and crumbly. What a disappointment. Any tips for rice pudding using leftover rice instead of uncooked? PS our daughter and son have egg allergies – no “true” custard at our house (sigh).
Well this is nice recipe. I will try it later. my son will enjoy this recipe. This looks amazing. Thanks for sharing.
I would like to try this with a vanilla bean baked with it.
Baking this recipe as I type this, smells wonderful :p
I was wondering, it didn’t mention if we cover the pot or not…I didn’t cover it?
Julie pls let me know?
Thx
Me again 🙂
I just took it out of the oven and removed the pudding skin, then stirred it and added the raisins and cinnamon and it smells great. However, it looks a bit runny…could I add cornstarch to it then boil it on the stove top for a minute or so? Or do I just let it cool in the fridge and it will thicken?
Thanks again 🙂
Manon – no it didn’t specify – I actually put foil on it for awhile, then took it off for awhile.. and yes, pulled the skin off! And it was runny. After chilling it was less runny, but still runnier than I’m user to – nevertheless I thought it was wonderful!
Thanks, Julie! I didn’t realize that Fanny had a recipe for rice pudding. I should have know. I bought my Fanny Farmer Cookbook probably 26 years ago or more — it is well-worn. Who doesn’t love a good cookbook?
Cheers!
Julie – this is unrelated to the current post, but I just clicked on “index of recipes” and one is crossed out, which seemed odd. Did you know that https://www.dinnerwithjulie.com/2009/02/23/hoisin-pork-lettuce-wraps-pizza-bites/ has been deleted?
Gaah! So many broken links – thanks! I’ll look into it – it’s on my to do list!!
OMG Julie, you have me baking twice this recipe today and it’s 25 degrees F outside here in Ontario (we got snow last week)!!!
The first recipe was ready and cooled for when the kids got home from school…well I had to put a tiny bowl aside for my husband or else it would be all gone!
What I ended up doing was I let it bake without a lid for the 3 hrs then I pulled the skin off right away and added the raisins and some cinnamon then I let it cool on the counter…the aroma was amazing, as soon as the kids walked in they asked me what that was! It ended up thickening really nicely after all.
I had to start another recipe around 4:00 p.m. as I got a request for can I have some more Mom!!!
Do you know how we can make this in a slow cooker, it’s getting warm out to start baking all day!
Thanks so much for sharing this amazing recipe…I would even let them eat this for breakfast 🙂
Ooh I’m so glad! I did it the same way. Let me know how it works in the slow cooker! It should be fine with all that milk, but perhaps add the sugar in at the end so that it doesn’t burn and/or caramelize?
I forgot to tell ya that I put granulated maple sugar in mine….just devine….
I’m wondering about the ratio of milk and rice for the slow cooker…all the recipes show less milk.
In one of the recipes they say to pour in the milk and the sugar first and to mix well…what would you do?
This recipe will definitely be a keeper for my family!
To all of you who pull the skin off…. I suggest you try it. this is actually a recipe my family has been making for generations and anyone who pulled the skin off would be ridiculed because we all fight over it. It’s actually just another part of the pudding that is SOOO tasty.
I suggest you all give it a try. 🙂
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My grandmother’s recipe is 1 cup rice , 1 cup sugar, and 1 gallon milk. Made in one of those roasting pans with the vented lid (https://www.etsy.com/listing/495243657/vintage-comet-aluminum-oval-roasting-pan).
I’m one of 4 children, and we used to fight over who got the skin.
That’s so awesome! I’m going to try that – thanks!