Tuesday, November 18, 2008

TWD - arborio rice pudding


This week’s TWD recipe is Arborio rice pudding and is chosen by Isabelle of Les Gourmandises d’isa. I love rice pudding, although it is only latterly that I have come to enjoy it. My earliest memory of rice pudding is my Grandma making it and it having that horrible “skin” on top. I hate that kind of thing, although I know some people like it.

Dorie’s rice pudding recipe uses Arborio rice – the short grain rice usually used for making risotto. I have used Arborio rice to make rice pudding before. You do need to use short grain rice as it gives a much creamier result – it must be a bit more starchy than long grain rice. Dorie’s recipe par-boiled the rice before adding it to the hot milk. Dorie specified full cream milk for the pudding, but I used calci-trim (a calcium fortified low fat milk) with success. Even using full fat milk, rice pudding is a fairly low fat and relatively healthy pudding as the amount of sugar used is minimal and the only fat is in the milk.



Dorie suggested flavouring the rice pudding with vanilla or with chocolate, or splitting the pudding and doing half chocolate and half vanilla. I have always wanted to make chocolate rice pudding, but for some reason have never got round to it, so I went the half and half way. I used vanilla paste to flavour my vanilla half and I love the little flecks of vanilla you can see through the pudding. I actually didn’t really like the chocolate pudding. I found it a bit too rich (there aren’t very many things I can say that about!), so I am pleased that I tried both. I had read that many TWDers had found that there was too much milk in the recipe, so even though I made a half batch, I kept the full amount of rice and I found that worked well.

I thought this was delicious – see if the other TWDers thought so here and check out the recipe on Isabelle’s blog.

31 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your rice puddings look great. Not liquidy at all.

Unknown said...

Both kinds look delicious - I wish I'd thought to use my vanilla paste as well! Love the vanilla flecks.

Marthe said...

Your rice pudding looks amazing, almost good enough to eat! (And that's coming from someone that doesn't like rice pudding....)
I'm doing a rewind: the raisin snails....

The Food Librarian said...

Lovely! The chocolate one looks very good but I can see how it can be very rich too. Glad to know you can use lowfat milk to much success!

Cakelaw said...

LOL - it is "snap" on the photo. You and I are agreed that this was good!

Maria said...

Looks like a tasty dessert to me!

Jacque said...

Mmm, it does look good with the vanilla bean. Glad it turned out for you :)

steph- whisk/spoon said...

oh yum--both kinds! i love it!

Engineer Baker said...

Yours thickened up quite nicely! I agree - I didn't make the chocolate, but it sounds waaay too rich. And vanilla bean flecks are wonderful things, aren't they?

Susan @ My Wholefood Family Essentials said...

Your puddings look great! I ended up with tasty rice soup :)

Deb said...

Yours looks way better than mine did. I used Calci-trim too, but missed the extra cooking time. It was a yummy dessert, wasn't it.

Mary Ann said...

Now that I see the thickness of your pudding, I am guessing that mine was a little soupy! Oh well, it still tasted good! Yours looks yummy. I am glad I tried both varieties.

Di said...

Nice job on the pudding--looks like yours thickened pretty well. I'm still not sure how much I like rice pudding. And I'm totally with you--can't stand skin on my pudding. Yuck!

threesidesofcrazy said...

Your pudding looks good. I still have horrible memories of that "SKIN" from my childhood and have never been able to quite stomach pudding of ANY kind. LOL Kind of advantageous that this was a week I couldn't participate.

Jules Someone said...

Yours looks just delicious! And I'm a "no skin" kind of gal as well.

Cristine said...

Your pudding looks great! Glad you enjoyed them!

Anonymous said...

I did the same thing – used the original amount of rice and halved the rest – and it turned out perfectly. Maybe Dorie just prefers soupy pudding?

Judy said...

I did the same -- kept the full amount of rice and halved the rest. It turned out just fine. Good for you for trying both flavors.

Mari said...

Your puddings look like they are the perfect consistency!

Steph said...

You can give me all your pudding skins! I didn't even try the chocolate version because I had a feeling it would be too rich. Vanilla paste sounds like a wonderful addition, it's always exciting to see those flecks! This has got to be our healthiest TWD so far!

chocolatechic said...

Looks great.

I didn't have a problem with mine setting up.

Kimberly Johnson said...

Your rice pudding looks so rich and creamy! Yum!

kimberly salem said...

ooh yours came out nice and thick! i wouldn't be able to tell it is low fat. sorry you didn't like the chocolate, i didn't attempt that version -- just didn't seem to fit rice pudding for me.

Peggy said...

Your pudding looks really really good. And yes, I remember the skim on the top of rice pudding long ago. I hated that. Eeeck. Glad this one wasn't like that. I liked mine, but I'm ready for something chocolate. I only used vanilla.

Pamela said...

Wow! Your pudding looks chunky and rich and really appetizing. I missed Dorie's post that said the cook time was off. Now I know for the next time I make this for my husband! Great job.

Linda said...

yuck...the "skin" on top of puddings/custards totally gross me out!

Nice job using the lower fat milk...i like seeing opportunity to cut calories/fat anywhere I can.

Rachel said...

Maybe if my pudding had been think like yours, I would have liked it better. Great job!

Shari said...

I love the idea of having both version sin one bowl! Looks great!!

Shari said...

I love that you put both in one bowl!

Anonymous said...

Itlooks good Tammy but I love the skin .Letty

Heather B said...

Your rice pudding looks perfect! Great job!