Felicity Cloake’s recipe for real rice pudding

Serve with your topping of choice (but if you opt for jam, go easy on the spicing). Photograph: The Guardian. Food styling: Jack Sargeson.

I was put off rice pudding for life at school, but recanted in India when I tasted kheer: sweet, creamy proof that I’d simply never eaten a good one. Consider the recipe below my attempt at short-grain evangelism. Deliciously rich and subtly spiced, I hope it will win this supremely comforting dessert a few more righteous converts.

Prep 15 min
Cook 2 hr
Serves 4

50g butter
½ vanilla pod
50g soft light brown sugar
1 bay leaf
¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
100g pudding rice (short-grain) – see step 4
1 litre full-cream milk
Finely grated zest of ½ lemon
1 pinch salt
150ml double cream
2 tbsp sweet sherry, preferably Pedro Ximénez (optional)

1 Oven or hob?

Heat the oven to 160C (140 fan)/320F/gas 2½. If you prefer, you can make the pudding on the stove top in a heavy-based pan, partially covering the pan and cooking it over a very gentle heat, but I find it easier to keep a constant temperature in the oven. It also means you can leave it to do its own thing.

2 Choose your pot and melt the butter

However you’re ultimately cooking the pudding, you’ll need to start proceedings on the hob. If you have a medium pie dish that’s flameproof, start by melting the butter in that over a low heat, otherwise use a large pan. Meanwhile, slit the vanilla pod down its length and scrape out most of the seeds, setting both aside with the other spices.

Melt the butter, stir in the sugar to dissolve, then add the bay, vanilla and spices, before stirring in the rice to coat. Photograph: Dan Matthews/The Guardian

3 Add the flavourings

Once the butter has melted, stir in the sugar and cook for a minute or so, until it dissolves, then add the bay leaf, vanilla pod and seeds, ground nutmeg and cinnamon, and toast for 30 seconds or so. Pour in the rice, and stir until the grains are well coated with butter and have become slightly translucent and started to swell.

4 A note on the rice

If you don’t have pudding rice, you can make this with risotto rice (arborio, carnaroli, vialone nano) or, at a pinch, even long-grain varieties, such as the pleasantly fragrant basmati, but they will absorb the milk at a different rate, which will alter the consistency of the finished dish, so check on the pudding at regular intervals and add more liquid as necessary.

Pour in the milk, then add grated lemon zest, a pinch of salt, the cream and sherry, and bring up to simmering point. Photograph: The Guardian

5 Add the dairy, booze and lemon

Pour the milk into the pan, stirring as you do so to dislodge any clumps of rice or sugar that have formed on the bottom. Add the lemon zest, then stir in a pinch of salt, the cream and sherry, if using, and bring to just below a simmer. (If you don’t have sherry, but want to add some alcohol, see step 7.)

6 Bake the pudding

Put the pot or pie dish into the hot oven (or transfer the rice pudding mix to an ovenproof dish, if you need to), and bake for about two hours, until it has just set on top, but is still slightly wobbly when shaken. It may well need longer, but check on it regularly, because in this instance, too runny is better than too dry. And leave it to cool down to warm before tucking in.

Transfer the pot to a 160C oven, and bake for about two hours, until just set but still a bit wobbly when shaken. Photograph: Dan Matthews/The Guardian

7 Variations on the theme

This recipe is for a very basic rice pudding, and is easily adapted to other flavour combinations. The alcohol, for example, could be madeira, rum or whisky, or indeed any liqueur you fancy, from Irish cream to amaretto, though personally I’d steer clear of creme de menthe as a general rule, as well as in this pudding.

8 Fruit or no fruit?

I often serve rice pudding with stewed fruit – this one goes particularly well with apples – but you can also add a handful of dried fruit to the mixture at the same time as the lemon zest; if you like, soak it in warm sherry, rum, etc, for an hour or so beforehand. Others might well prefer chocolate chips, in which case I’d recommend swapping the lemon zest for orange.

9 Alternative flavourings

The spices are also up to you: substitute crushed cardamom pods and saffron for a more Indian note, add a dash of rose or orange blossom water for a taste of the Middle East (a scattering of roughly chopped pistachios or cashews would be good with either of those), or leave the spices out altogether if you prefer a plainer dessert, or if you want to serve the pudding with a highly flavoured jam or compote.