Old Fashioned Rice Pudding

This old fashioned rice pudding recipe is a favorite of my husband's. When he was a young boy, his grandma used to make this for him, so I made sure to learn how to make it myself and was surprised at how easy it is to make!

This is a quick and simple dessert recipe that you cook on the stovetop.

Creamy Rice Pudding

1 1/2 cups water
3/4 cup uncooked white rice
2 cups milk, divided
1/3 cup white sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 room temperature egg, beaten
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1. In a medium saucepan, bring 1 1/2 cups water to a boil. Add rice and stir. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes.
2. In another saucepan, combine 1 1/2 cups cooked rice, 1 1/2 cups milk, sugar, and salt. Cook over medium heat until thick and creamy, 15-20 minutes. 
3. Slowly add 1/4 cup of your heated mixture to the beaten eggs while beating constantly to temper the eggs. 
4. Slowly add in remaining milk, beaten eggs, and cinnamon and cook 2 minutes more, stirring constantly.
5. Remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla. Serve warm.
6. Sprinkle with additional cinnamon if desired.

Notes:

The original recipe calls for 2/3 cup of golden raisins, but my family are not fans of raisins, so we omit these. If your family would enjoy them, you can add them in step 4.

This recipe doesn't work well with other types of grains or rice like long grain rice, brown rice, couscous, quinoa, or wild rice. It's truly a recipe for good old fashioned white rice.

This is a fun recipe to try in the fall since it's served warm and its primary flavor is cinnamon. If you'd like to try a Christmas version, you could change the spices used to 1/2 tsp Allspice (substituted for the cinnamon), 1/2 tsp orange extract (substituted for the vanilla), and 2/3 cup dried cranberries/craisins (substituted for the golden raisins if you used them).

Fun Fact:

The dish you see this rice pudding shown served in is a vintage Anchor Hocking Champagne/Tall Sherbet Dish in the Wexford pattern. I found a set of 12 of them at a thrift store for $5 about a year ago. They were covered in plastic wrap and packing tape within an inch of their life (as thrift stores often do), so I originally mistook the set for Hazel Atlas promotional glassware that originally came in Big Top Peanut Butter. 

However, I purchased the set, and after I got it home and unearthed it from the four layers of plastic wrap and packaging tape and could inspect the pattern better, I realized what I really had. This pattern by Anchor Hocking was produced from 1967 to 1998, which still places it in the vintage category. They currently sell for $5.99 per sherbet glass at Replacements.com, so $5 for a set of 12 turned out to be a steal!