Rice Pudding

Another cuppa?'s Note:

Simple, yet ever so tasty...a great desert which you can go back for seconds and feel hardly any guilt for! Depending on mood, I like mine either with swirls of golden syrup or a really good raspberry jam with the seeds. Depending on the time spent in the oven and your personal preference, it can come out either slightly runny or slightly too thick. If the first, return to the oven and leave the rice to absorb the milk even more. If the second, I pour more milk over mine to cool it slightly and it tastes even better I think like this... DON'T OMIT the butter if you like the skin and scraping around the sides all the caramelized goo...

• Total Time: 2 hrs 5 mins
• Prep Time: 5 mins
• Cook Time: 2 hrs

Ingredients:

Serves: 4

Yield: 1.0 Pudding

• 100 ml water
• 700 ml 1% low-fat milk
• 100 g pudding rice (or arborio risotto rice equally does the job)
• 3 tablespoons sugar (once again, any, I use granulated and sometimes 4tbsp if I'm feeling sweeter, you can alter it when )
• 1 slice butter (if want skin) (optional)
• 2 tablespoons raspberry jam (optional)
• 2 tablespoons honey (optional)
• 2 tablespoons golden syrup (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C Put the rice in a large oven-proof glass dish preferably and pour in the water. Place in the oven and wait for the water to be absorbed (10 minutes roughly), or when most of it has disappeared--no need to be overly fussy, just as long as the majority has.
2. Turn the oven down to 150°C and remove the rice. Pour in the milk and add the sugar, stirring briefly with a spoon. Add a knob of butter (unsalted preferably) and let it float on top, returning to the oven.
3. Check on it after an hour, but sometimes it may take longer (2 hours max) as it varies when I guess sometimes the liquid content!
4. Basically, you're looking for dark brown patches on the skin, and the milk bubbling away happily underneath with the rice granules puffy and well seen.
5. Take out, leave to cool or splash lots of cold milk in and a dollop of jam or golden syrup (you could even use honey if being health conscious).
6. This has to be one of my favourites; you can tell by the description!