Serves 4 50g butter 50g soft light brown sugar 100g pudding rice 1 litre full-cream milk Zest of ½ a lemon Bay leaf ¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg ¼ tsp cinnamon ½ vanilla pod, cut open lengthways 150ml double cream 2 tbsp sweet sherry, preferably Pedro Ximinez (optional)
Advertisement
1. Pre-heat the oven to 140C. Put the butter in a flameproof pie dish over a gentle heat, and, when melted, add the sugar. Stir and cook for a few minutes, then tip in the rice, and stir to coat. Cook until the rice has swelled slightly, stirring continuously, then add the milk and stir well to dislodge any clumps of rice and sugar on the bottom of the pan.
2. Add the lemon zest, bay leaf, spices and a pinch of salt, then pour in the cream and sherry, if using, and bring to simmer.
3. Bake the pudding in the oven for about 2 hours, until it has set, but is still slightly wobbly; it may need a little longer than this, but check on it regularly. Serve warm, but not piping hot.
Do you have fond memories of the rice puddings of infancy, or does the thought make you shudder in horror? Should they be bland, milky nursery fare, or heavy with spices and booze, as in days of yore? And does anyone really, honestly hate the skin?
The National Trust Book of Traditional Puddings comes up trumps with "an old English Baked Rice Pudding", which does use vanilla, but also includes a bay leaf, nutmeg and cinnamon, on top of currants, mixed peel, sherry and brandy. The method is a bit odd – the dried fruit and alcohol is stirred into the rice two hours into cooking, along with two beaten egg yolks, and the pudding is then returned to the oven for another 30 minutes, before coming out again so I can add two egg whites, beaten until stiff with a little sugar, for the final quarter of an hour of cooking. All this stirring means there's no skin to speak of, and the egg whites have given the finished pudding an oddly moussey texture, but I love the sweet spices and the syrupy Pedro Ximinez sherry, which gives the pudding a rich raisiny flavour which I think would work very nicely with cream.
Using Simon Hopkinson's deliciously creamy recipe as my template, I've added some sweet spices, a little lemon zest, and a splash of sherry to take this classic nursery dish back towards its ancient roots.