Stovetop Rice Pudding with Blood Oranges in Caramel

Stovetop rice pudding is hard to beat for sheer heartwarming comfort food. Quick to make, nostalgic of childhood, yet unashamedly delicious. It’s a dessert the whole family will be fighting over for seconds.

Need a dairy-free alternative? Try my vegan rice pudding instead.

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How do you eat yours? That’s the question I want to ask everybody when it comes to rice pudding. I’m all for hearing about new toppings to try out.

I know there is a split opinion on this dessert – it is not everybody’s idea of a great sweet. I, however, am in the love camp and I’m hoping to convert a few loathers with my quick stovetop rice pudding recipe.

Of course, my love for this filling treat dates back to childhood. School dinners, Sunday lunches, sick days, when all I could face was a tin of Ambrosia. The latter part may have been soon after I left home, before I developed the ability to cook…

Why Make This Stovetop Rice Pudding

I would certainly put basic rice pudding in the nursery food category. What do I mean? The traditional food you grew up with like hearty beef stew, minced beef pie, apple and blackberry crumble or steamed jam pudding. Those delicacies that hold a special place in your (hopefully) rose-tinted childhood memories. The foods that remain endearingly popular throughout the decades by young and old alike.

Quite simply, rice pudding is an old-fashioned yet ever-popular dessert amongst diners of all ages.

It’s nourishing for the body and soul, hearty and downright hard to stop eating. Especially when you are a hungry child. Perfect nursery fayre for children of all ages.

This quick rice pudding recipe takes just 30 minutes to cook. And my optional extra of blood oranges in caramel not only looks striking but it also adds a wonderful touch of glamour to this otherwise understated dessert.

Ingredients notes

I’ve gone all-out in this recipe to create a lovely depth of flavour in my stovetop rice pudding. It is deliciously creamy, though the recipe does not call for this luxury ingredient at all to give it the wow-factor.

Instead of cream, I’ve used brown sugar, butter, citrus zest, vanilla and egg yolks to build up the flavour profile and turn rice cooked in milk into something far beyond the suggestion from that title.

Adding egg yolk is a great way to add a little more pronunciation to the colour of this pudding and impart a waft of custard-like flavour to proceedings. It doesn’t taste eggy, it just tastes creamy, custardy and deeply gratifying.

How to Make This Dessert

Rice pudding can be oven-baked for several hours. As I’ve never enjoyed the skin that forms when cooked this way, I would always favour the hob version which I’m presenting today. This method is also much quicker so that’s also a big bonus too.

Step By Step: Cook the Rice

Follow three steps to cook your quick rice pudding to perfection in around 30 minutes:

Step 1: Put the rice into a saucepan with the sugar, butter, orange zest and vanilla pod

Step 2: Splash in the milk, bring to a gentle simmer and cook, stirring frequently, for around 30 minutes until the rice is tender

Step 3: Take off the heat, scrape the seeds from the vanilla pod back into the rice and briskly stir through the egg yolks. You stovetop rice pudding is ready to serve.

Step by Step: Make the Blood Orange with Caramel

I played around with this topping a few times but ultimately decided that keeping the recipe as simple as possible worked best. And by simple I mean creating a caramel sauce with a hint of orange added to it and using this sauce to pour over fresh blood orange slices

Step 1: While the rice is cooking de-pith the oranges and slice the naked fruit into rounds

Step 2: Prepare the caramel by putting the caster sugar into a small heavy-based saucepan then cook (without stirring) over a medium heat until it turns to a mid amber liquid (if you think it is going to burn, plunge the base of the pan into cold water to stop the cooking process)

Step 3: Add the orange juice (it will splutter and go a bit lumpy). Let cook on a very low heat for a minute, stirring until it is smooth again

Step 4: Take off the heat and beat in a little butter and a pinch of salt – let cool for 5-10 minutes

Once everything is ready, spoon the stovetop rice pudding into bowls, topping each with a few orange slices and a drizzle of caramel.

Expert Tips

• It’s really just 3 straightforward steps to perfect this recipe for rice pudding with eggs. The key task to remember is to keep stirring every 5 minutes or so to keep the rice on the move and prevent it sticking to the bottom of the pan
• The best way to check if the rice is cooked is to eat a spoonful. It should be al-dente (i.e. not hard but not mushy either).
• And then really, it’s up to you to achieve your perfect stovetop rice pudding consistency:
  • to thicken it let stand for 5-10 minutes before serving
  • to thin it out, add a splash more milk and stir through

Serving suggestions

I think of this quick stovetop rice pudding as a vessel for a wide variety of accessories. And by accessories, I do of course mean goodies:

• Keep it simple and just sprinkle with a touch of cinnamon or nutmeg. Add a few raisins if you feel like going wild
• Dollop a spoonful of rum & raisin caramel sauce into it
• Maple syrup or honey with dates and nuts make a fine partnership
• Go nostalgic and pour over some rosehip syrup. I’m sure this is what my school dinners involved, but I can’t be 100% sure. I do know that a scattering of edible petals alongside the syrup makes a pretty sight though

More cosy winter desserts

Find these and plenty more comforting puds in my collection of scrumptious dessert recipes.

If you tried this quick rice pudding I’d love you to rate the recipe below. Don’t forget to share your creations with me on Instagram too – I enjoy seeing how you got along. Use #littlesugarsnaps and tag me @jane_littlesugarsnaps.