Recipe CXXXII - Traditional Baked Rice Pudding

One of the abiding memories of my youth was the Sunday roast dinner and my father's party piece was his rice pudding, which he would nail week after week, and there would still be some to nibble on as late as Thursday. His recipe used evaporated milk, which gave it a creamy tang, but I make it with a few other ingredients. Every traditionally made rice pudding has that dark brown layer on top, which is ground nutmeg, and is essential to the authenticity of this most British of desserts.

Ingredients (* = optional) to make enough to fill a baking tray: 

250 g dessert (short grain) rice

1 l whole milk (3.4% fat)

250 ml full cream

1 vanilla pod

25 g to 75 g brown sugar

25 g to 75 g white sugar

1 nutmeg plus grater

* Cinnamon

* Five spice

* Some sultanas, diced apples or pears

* Some saffron

Some butter to grease the baking tray

Instructions:

Put the oven on to 150°C max, and butter a baking tray with minimum 7cm-high sides. Put the milk and cream into a saucepan and gently heat it up, making sure it doesn't boil.

Cut open the vanilla pod and scrape the contents into the pan, then throw in the pod. Once it is about to boil, remove it from the heat and let it settle for a few minutes.

While you are waiting for the mink and cream to heat up, put the rice and both sugars into the baking tray. At this point, you can also add any other of the optional ingredients. Then pour the milk and cream over the top, and give it a good stir so that it doesn't end in overcooked clumps of rice.

Grate or sprinkle as much nutmeg on the top as you want. Really, it's the most essential thing - the rice pudding without the nutmeg layer is like pasta without sauce.

Finally, put the baking tray in the oven for two hours or so (possibly half an hour longer), when the rice pudding should be soft and creamy with a splendid nutmeg roof. 

It is great both just out of the oven or cooled in the fridge. If it is done right, when it is cold, you should be able to cut slices with it, which you can serve to children in portions like sweetie bars. They love it with some jam.

Put a layer of tin foil over it, if you want to keep it in the fridge.

Apart from that, enjoy changing the ingredients slightly each time. I love the pure creaminess of a plain rice pudding, but I find cinnamon and five spice really do it for me. I also love to cover mine in brown sugar to eat.