Salted-Caramel Rice Pudding
Updated April 19, 2021
Christopher Simpson for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.
- Total Time
- 35 minutes, plus cooling and chilling
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
FOR THE RICE PUDDING
4 cups whole milk, plus more as needed
⅓ cup jasmine rice
¼ cup dark brown sugar
Pinch of kosher salt
2 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
FOR THE CARAMEL
¼ cup granulated sugar
⅓ cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
¾ teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt or ½ teaspoon Morton kosher salt
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 to 6 servings)
31 grams carbs; 97 milligrams cholesterol; 276 calories; 4 grams monosaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 8 grams saturated fat; 14 grams fat; 334 milligrams sodium; 7 grams protein; 23 grams sugar
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Prepare the rice pudding: In a medium pot, combine the milk, rice, brown sugar and salt. Bring to a boil over high, then reduce to a simmer and cook, stirring often, until the milk has reduced and become creamy and the rice has swollen, about 20 minutes. (Cook a few minutes more if you like a thicker pudding.) You’ll be able to see the rice on the surface of the pudding. The mixture will look loose, but it will continue to thicken as it cools. Remove from the heat.
- Step 2
In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks with a few spoonfuls of the hot pudding. Add about 1 cup more pudding, little by little, then stir the yolk mixture back into the pudding. Stir in the vanilla. Cool slightly, then transfer to a serving bowl, cover and chill until cold, about 3 hours.
- Step 3
Prepare the caramel: In a small saucepan, combine the sugar and 2 tablespoons water. Cook over medium heat, carefully swirling the pan to cook evenly without stirring, until the mixture starts to darken in spots, about 5 to 7 minutes. Cook until the caramel is a deep amber, 1 or 2 minutes. Immediately add the cream and butter, and stir to combine. Cook until the mixture is uniform and creamy, about 1 minute more. Stir in the vanilla and salt. Set aside until cooled to room temperature, about 20 minutes. It will thicken as it cools.
- Step 4
Once the pudding is cold, you can adjust the consistency by adding a bit more milk. Just before serving, add the caramel to the cold rice pudding and swirl it through without fully combining.
Private Notes
Comments
This may seem odd, but straining the egg yolk through a fine sieve makes a noticable improvement to the texture. I do this with whole eggs or just yolks anytime I make a custard or pudding.
...and THANK YOU Samantha Seneviratne and NYT for calling out the specific amounts in brand table salt! .... 3/4 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt *OR* 1/2 teaspoon Morton kosher salt...this should help novice home cooks (me) with "too salty" or "not enough salt" results.
I haven't made this recipe, but I do have some experience of making rice pudding and not having it thicken properly. In general, it usually thickens better if you stir the milk/rice mixture vigorously and often during the first 20 minutes or so of cooking. It's similar to making a risotto--a lot of stirring early on releases the starch in the rice, thickening the mixture and making it creamy. Also, you could try using a shorter-grain rice. They are starchier and that helps with thickening.
Reading all the comments, I get the impression that thickening this properly is a frequent issue. I'm wondering if the rice should NOT be rinsed prior to using it in the recipe, as you might do if you were making rice normally. If you rinse it, you're washing away all the starch that would otherwise be released during cooking/stirring. I almost always rinse my rice before cooking, but it looks like that might create an issue here.
Using a good Italian Carnaroli risotto rice is recommended, a huge difference
So I messed up. Sure, I can see without my reading glasses… Instead of 1/4 cup of brown sugar, I grabbed the 2/3 cup. White lettering on white plastic. When I realized, I was thoroughly disgusted. Note: multitasking doesn’t actually work during cooking. Then began a merry time in my kitchen: first, more rice. Oops no jasmine left. So I added Arborio. Then more milk. Only had 1 1/2 cups left. Salt! Yes, more salt. 3 egg yolks. I tasted. Still unbearably sweet. But I reminded myself it was hot and would taste less sweet when it cooled. And, I’d use barely sweetened whipped cream to fix that. In the end, it was absolutely the best rice pudding I’ve ever made. I’ll never go back to any of my old recipes. I doubled the caramel recipe—it’s an excellent one—and served the pudding as is with the sauce and slightly maple-syrup-flavored cream on the side. A smashing success. In the end, I ended up using a higher ratio of rice to liquid, and it was still a bit liquidy, but it worked. If you like a thicker rice pudding, definitely use more rice. And I did also cook it about 35-45 minutes.