Creamy Baked Rice Pudding

My mom's rice pudding. 

This is a recipe that takes a completely ordinary Saturday afternoon meal and dresses it up just enough to make it suitable for Christmas day lunch (which, ironically enough, happens to fall on a Saturday this year).

One of the strangest, although also one of the most charming aspects of Norwegian society, is that a large chunk of the population eats the exact same meal on specific days of the week. Every. Single. Week. Like pancakes and tomato soup for dinner on Wednesdays and potato dumplings on Thursdays. Saturday nights are religiously reserved for tacos, which, of course, means you need to keep your Saturday afternoon lunch cheap and simple since taco night is a big deal.  

 

 

This is where rice porridge enters the picture. I know some people who ate rice porridge for lunch every single Saturday during childhood.  I don’t know if this makes it either painfully boring or incredibly comforting for them to eat rice pudding later in life- I guess it depends on their relationship with sugar, cinnamon, and raisins, which are the necessary accompaniments.  I think for most kids it’s a pretty sweet deal to be able to heave a tablespoon of sugar on top of your lunch, although to be fair, I suppose it’s not exactly the same as heaving a tablespoon of sugar on top of a ham sandwich or bowl of macaroni and cheese.

Me, I never had rice porridge growing up. Not even on Saturdays. But don’t worry, I didn’t have to suffer too much, since my mom made something even better. Yes, even better than a weekly bowl of rice porridge. She made creamy baked rice pudding. Once a year. For Christmas. And it was warm, and rich, and comforting, and topped with cinnamon and sugar (although I don’t remember the part about raisins, to tell you the truth). It’s just the thing to eat when you want something a little bit luxurious for a special occasion (like Christmas), yet still retains a bit of sensibility. Plus, it’s a real people-pleaser.

Mom’s rice pudding differs from other recipes out there because it gets both a stove-top treatment and a little extra time in the oven to give the top of the pudding a darkened surface and a more tender rice grain. We ate it as part of post-Christmas eve dessert, but I bet it would be really nice as part of a Christmas brunch buffet or as a late night warming treat.  Oh- one last thing, Scandinavian tradition says to hide a single almond in the pot of pudding (or individual pudding bowls if serving that way). Whomever is the lucky one to find the almond in their dish gets the prize of a Christmas marzipan pig!

 

 

Creamy Baked Rice Pudding

Risengrynsgrøt

Recipe from my mom,  Rachel Larson

*makes about 10 servings

 

1 quart (1 liter) milk

1/2 cup (100 g) small grained rice (Arborio works well)

1/2 cup (100 g) sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup (240 ml)  half-and-half, divided

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

+extra sugar, ground cinnamon, raisins and one almond for serving

 

1. Preheat oven to 350F/175C.
2. In a medium saucepan, scald the milk. Add the rice, sugar, and salt.
3. Cook everything at a slow boil until the rice is tender, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.
4. Add 1/2 cup (120 ml) of half-and-half and the vanilla extract. Stir well.
5. Pour everything into a baking dish and bake, uncovered for approximately one hour, OR until the top of the pudding is slightly brown. The consistency should be rather thick and creamy.
6. Here you can choose to cool thoroughly and then add the remaining half-and-half, serving the pudding at room temperature,  OR add the stir in the remaining half-and-half and serve the pudding warm, as is common in Norway. Serve in individual dishes, allowing everyone to top their own with extra sugar, ground cinnamon and a few raisins.  

Comments

[sheila @ Elements]

Yummm!!! the rice pudding looks wonderful!! I'd love some right now as a matter of fact! :)

It was interesting to learn about how so many people in Norway eat the same food/meal on certain days of the week. I wonder why that is?

[Siri]

Sheila- I think it has something to do with the level of homogeneousness of the nation. So many people have similar upbringings, experiences, memories, and traditions, that it leads to a strange sense of unity in what they eat.

[kevin]

Just couple of days ago I found out that it is possible to bake rice. I found some good recipes in the internet, and this is one of them. Can't wait to try this recipe!

Thank you!