The world’s most underated dessert
Brown sugar risotto rice pudding with salted caramel sauce.
Like salted caramel on rice
Rice pudding: considered by many as the consolation prize of the dessert world. What fools.
This week’s recipe for brown sugar risotto rice pudding with salted caramel sauce will change minds and hearts.
A salted caramel sauce you say? I’m listening…
This week’s album
Discovery by Daft Punk
This seems appropriate given last week’s news that the French duo are splitting. Their debut album was called a ‘dance music landmark,’ but I’ve gone for their second album instead as it’s the first one I remember listening to. It took them mainstream and secured their spot as global superstars.
English with a twist
Rice pudding is an English classic, and often not in a good way.
You may have visions of a dinner lady serving up a stodgy plate of the pudding, laden with sultanas, fake strawberry jam, and the occasional hair. Forget all that.
Rice is a staple of so many countries and there are some incredible desserts that use it as their main ingredient. But, as far as I’m aware, the Italians just don’t go for it. I’ve never come across anything in my time there.
That’s why I’ve decided to give this English classic an Italian influence: instead of using pudding rice we’re gonna use risotto rice.
Now class, we know from previous Eat My Words recipes that risotto rice creates an incredibly creamy texture (DON’T WE?). It has a high content of a particular type of starch which is perfect for this sweet recipe.
There are three main varieties of risotto rice: Carnaroli, Arborio, or Vialone Nano. All work well here and, with any leftover grains, you can .
Our rice pudding is good enough on its own, but I want to add an extra treat.
I’m attempting to give up chocolate for Lent (good joke Fraser) and so have a 4-chocolate-bar sugar whole in my daily life. Enter homemade salted caramel sauce. Nothing says ‘I’m turning over a new leaf’ better than salted caramel.
Drizzle, dollop, or dip… The sauce makes this pudding a truly unstoppable force.
What you need
The below serves 4-6. It takes 20 mins to prep and 90 mins to cook.
Pudding:
40g butter
100g risotto rice (Carnaroli, Arborio or Vialone Nano)
75g soft brown sugar
800ml whole milk
150ml double cream
1tsp vanilla paste or ½ vanilla pod (split lengthways & seeds scraped out)
Pinch sea salt
Sauce:
100g caster sugar
45g butter
60ml double cream
½ tsp salt
Ready, steady, cook
1. Preheat your oven to 150°c / 130°c (fan).
2. Place a heavy based saucepan onto a medium heat and add 40g of butter. When the butter just starts to foam, add the rice and stir well so that each grain is coated. Toast the rice for a couple of mins.
3. Now add your brown sugar and stir. Continue to stir until the sugar dissolves and the rice becomes sticky and slightly swollen.
4. Gently pour in the milk, constantly stirring, until everything is smooth. Then add the vanilla and 150ml of cream. Bring everything to a simmer, stirring occasionally, and transfer to an ovenproof baking dish. Put the dish in the oven and bake for 90 mins.
5. While the pudding bakes, let’s make the salted caramel sauce…
Heat the caster sugar in a heavy based saucepan over a medium heat. Don’t be tempted to rush and turn up the heat - the sugar can go from a delicious caramel to a bitter burnt mess. Instead, stir the sugar with a spatula until it has all melted and turned a deep amber colour.
6. Remove the pan from the heat and allow it to cool for a moment. Then carefully add 45g of butter. Stir until fully combined with the sugar (just be careful as it can start to spit).
7. Return the pan to the heat and cook the mixture for 30 seconds. Now slowly pour in 60ml of cream (again the mixture can be a little volatile so be careful). Stir until you’ve added all the cream and then allow the mixture to boil. Leave it to cook for a minute and then set it aside.
8. Return to your rice pudding. After an hour has passed the top should be a golden brown with a slight skin, while the pudding should wobble a little in the centre (a bit like a post-lockdown 3 body).
9. After the full 90 mins, take the pudding out and leave it to cool for at least 20 mins. This is important as it’s very hard to taste the pudding’s delicate flavours when it’s piping hot. It also allows it to set slightly, and rice pudding at room temp is delicious.
10. When ready, pour over the caramel sauce (you can reheat it if needs be) and serve up.
I know what you're thinking... That looks like chicken pie with HP sauce. You try making rice pudding look sexy. Not easy.
Final thought
One final instruction for you which you’re very welcome to ignore…
I really enjoy writing this newsletter and would love even more people to see it. With that in mind, if you know someone who would like it please think about forwarding it to a friend, or tagging an enemy in one of my posts on Instagram. Would be a nice little morale booster.
Enjoy your time in the kitchen. Same time next week,
Fraser
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