Slow Cooker Rice Pudding
Short-grain rice, whole milk and a cup of coconut milk cook gently in the crock for three hours until the grains are soft and the liquid has thickened itself into a creamy pudding. Vanilla goes in at the end and cinnamon goes over the top.
Ingredients
For the Pudding
- 3/4 cup short-grain white rice arborio or pudding rice, rinsed briefly
- 4 cups whole milk
- 1 cup full-fat coconut milk canned, shaken well
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter for greasing the crock
To Finish
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon for dusting
Equipment
- Slow cooker
- wooden spoon
- Measuring cups
- Measuring spoons
- Serving plates or bowls
Instructions
Fill the Slow Cooker
- First, rub the butter thickly around the inside of the slow cooker insert and right up over the rim. This is what stops a ring of milk skin welding itself to the ceramic.
- Next, rinse the rice under cold water for about ten seconds and shake it dry. Tip it into the crock with the whole milk, the coconut milk, the sugar and the salt, and stir once to dissolve the sugar.
Cook It Low and Slow
- Then cover and cook on LOW for 3 hours. Do not use the high setting, which brings the dairy close to a simmer and makes it separate.
- After that, at about the 90 minute mark, lift the lid once and stir well, scraping around the sides where the grains gather. Replace the lid straight away, because every peek costs roughly 20 minutes.
Finish and Serve
- At 3 hours the grains should flatten to a soft paste when pressed against the side of the crock, with no chalky speck at the center, and the liquid should look like thin cream.
- Finally, switch the cooker off and stir in the vanilla. Let the pudding stand uncovered for 15 minutes, during which it thickens a great deal, then spoon it into bowls and dust each one with cinnamon.
Notes
Rice: short-grain or medium-grain white rice, including arborio, gives the creamiest result. Basmati and jasmine are too low in surface starch, and instant rice collapses.
Rinsing: ten seconds only. A long rinse strips the starch that thickens the pudding.
Setting: low the whole way. High pushes the dairy close to a simmer, which is what makes milk separate into grains and water.
Texture: the pudding thickens a great deal in the twenty minutes after the cooker goes off, so stop while it still looks too loose.
Dairy-free: use a second can of full-fat coconut milk topped up with oat milk in place of the whole milk.
Storage: up to 4 days refrigerated. Reheat gently with a splash of milk stirred in, or eat it cold.
Nutrition values are an estimate.
Nutrition
Serving: 1bowl | Calories: 340kcal | Carbohydrates: 52g | Protein: 8g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 20mg | Sodium: 160mg | Potassium: 300mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 30g | Vitamin A: 198IU | Vitamin C: 0.3mg | Calcium: 171mg | Iron: 1mg