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This creamy rice pudding is easy to make on the stovetop and perfect for any season. Serve it warm on a chilly afternoon or cold from the fridge on a hot summer day. It’s a cozy, quick-fix dessert that never goes out of style.
If you’ve never had rice pudding, now’s the time to change that. This creamy dessert is pure comfort. It’s warm and cozy with brown sugar, vanilla, and a hint of cinnamon that makes it perfect for wintry days. But it’s just as good chilled, straight from the fridge when it’s hot out. Smooth, sweet, and just the right amount of indulgent, it’s one of those simple, old-school recipes that totally holds up. My twins love it!
Why This Rice Pudding Recipe’s a Keeper
- It’s wonderfully simple. No fancy ingredients, no complicated steps. Just classic, comforting ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen.
- Cozy, familiar flavor. Brown sugar and cinnamon give this pudding a warm, nostalgic sweetness that’s hard to beat.
- The texture is everything. As the rice simmers, it softens and puffs up into the dreamiest blend of creamy and tender. Each spoonful is rich, smooth, and so satisfying.
What You’ll Need
Here’s a quick look at what you’ll need to make this rice pudding recipe. Be sure to scroll down to the recipe card below for a printable list.
- Egg: Not all rice pudding recipes call for an egg, but I 100% recommend it. It adds a richness that is so worth it. Plus, it helps to thicken the pudding without having to cook it a ton. Ultimately, that gives the pudding a creamier texture.
- White or Light Brown Sugar: Both are delicious, but the brown sugar adds some really nice flavor, so I prefer using that.
- Vanilla Extract
- Ground Cinnamon: You could also sprinkle a small amount of freshly ground nutmeg on top of your finished pudding.
- Whole Milk: You could also use low-fat milk, but whole milk results in a creamier pudding.
- Heavy Whipping Cream: I always use a combination of whole milk and heavy cream. You could use all whole milk, but this pudding is meant to be creamy, and the cream really adds that lovely richness.
- Short Grain White Rice: Don’t substitute for a different variety of rice as the cooking time will be different.
- Salt: Just a touch to enhance the sweetness of the pudding and add dimension to the flavor.
Tips for Perfect Rice Pudding
- Use short-grain rice: You want to use a short-grain rice, like Arborio rice. It’s more starchy than long-grain rice, so it helps to thicken the pudding nicely and gives it a better texture.
- Slowly add the rice mixture to egg mixture: When adding half a cup of the rice into the bowl with your egg mixture, do it slowly and whisk constantly to prevent the eggs from scrambling.
- Don’t let it boil: Once you’re finished combining your mixtures, don’t let the pudding come to a boil. If you do, it’ll curdle. You just want to keep it over low heat until it starts to thicken. Remember that it will continue to thicken as it cools.
- Add raisins: Rice pudding and raisins go together like bread and butter. To make this dish even more classic and flavorful, add some in!
How to Store & Reheat
- Store in the fridge: Keep leftover rice pudding in an airtight container. Once cooled completely, store it in the fridge. Rice pudding stays fresh for 3 days in the fridge or 3 months in the freezer. If you store it in the freezer, thaw it in the fridge overnight before eating or reheating.
- To reheat: Some people like cold rice pudding, but you can easily warm up your leftovers on the stove if desired. Do so over low heat and stir continuously. Add a little bit of milk at a time to thin out the pudding until it’s reached your desired consistency.
Watch How To Make Rice Pudding
More Pudding Recipes
Recipe
Rice Pudding Recipe
- Prep Time: 0 minutes
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 4
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Stove
- Cuisine: Spanish
Description
Looking for a quick treat to cozy up with on chilly afternoons? This classic rice pudding recipe is creamy, comforting & full of warm flavors!
Ingredients
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 cup (52g) white or light brown sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 cups (480ml) whole milk
- 1/2 cup (120ml) heavy whipping cream
- 1/3 cup (65g) short grain white rice (I used arborio)
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- Whisk together the egg, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon in a small bowl. Set aside.
- Add the milk, cream, rice and salt to a medium-sized saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat.
- Once boiling, reduce the heat to low and simmer until the rice is tender, about 20-25 minutes. Stir frequently to keep the rice from sticking to the bottom of the pan.
- Slowly add about half a cup of the hot rice mixture to the egg mixture, whisking quickly, to temper the egg mixture.
- Add the egg mixture to the saucepan with the remaining rice mixture. Stir everything together and continue heating on low heat for about another 5-10 minutes, or until thickened. Don’t boil. It will thicken quickly. Keep in mind that the mixture will continue to thicken as it cools, so you don’t want it to be too thick before you take it off the heat. A touch soupy still is ok.
- Remove from heat and serve warm.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 221
- Sugar: 19 g
- Sodium: 425.8 mg
- Fat: 6.8 g
- Carbohydrates: 32.2 g
- Protein: 7.2 g
- Cholesterol: 65.9 mg
Delicious and easy to make. Only modification was less cinnamon as I am not a big cinnamon fan. Lovely pudding (quite white in color) and the rice was cooked perfectly.
Awesome! I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Not best
Colour turned brown which I really didn’t like because didn’t look like rice pudding. Rice didn’t cook so had to keep cooking and it turned too thick. Flavour good but colour and texture not
It sounds like, maybe you added too much cinnamon. As for the rice not cooking properly, it sounds like you had the heat turned up too high. If the temperature is too high, the rice won’t have a chance to soak up that moisture slowly, and it won’t cook properly. It’ll thicken quickly, but the rice won’t cook properly.
Not a bad recipe. Omit the cinnamon next time as it turns the rice pudding brown color.
I love base for this recipe! I just modified it just a bit for my taste: decreased cream to 1/4C, decreased the brown sugar to 1 TBSP, increased cinnamon to 1/4tsp and added a few sprinkles of nutmeg. It’s amazing! Thank you.
I’m so glad you enjoy it!
The minute I saw your recipe I knew it was a winner. The key? Egg! This is the creamy, custardy, perfect rice pudding I’ve been looking for. I did add a few cardamom pods because I love that flavor. I was buying rice pudding at Whole Foods for over seven dollars a pound before I found your recipe. I’ve tried other recipes but they just didn’t cut it. I also like that I can make this pudding a little thinner or thicker by just adding milk or allowing it to cook a little bit longer to thicken. Super easy! This is absolutely delicious. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!
Awesome! So glad you enjoyed it!
Delicious! Made as written except added a little orange zest mixed in while it was cooling off. Perfect recipe, thank you!
So glad you enjoyed it!
I used coconut sugar & it curdled. Did I stir too long, what happened?
The eggs need to be tempered properly so that they don’t curdle. At what point did the curdling happen for you?
I’ve made this recipe a handful of times and my family absolutely loves it! It’s coming into winter so I definitely need to stock up on ingredients
I’m so glad it’s been a hit!
I enjoyed this recipe however it wasn’t the best, the end result was over thick & once cooled in the fridge it went hard, not enjoyable to eat texture wise but the flavour was nice
It sounds like you may have cooked it for too long. The longer you cook it, the thicker it will get and the firmer it will be when it cools.
The best rice pudding I have ever eaten
So glad you enjoyed it!
Do you simmer the milk and the rice with the lid on or off?
I left the lid off.
Taste was good but the recipe failed. I used Arborio as recommended and it was way too starchy and thick. I added another extra cup of milk and a cup of cream as I was stirring for 45 minutes but it was so thick and the rice still was still a bit crunchy and i called it a day. Wish I had just used Jasmine rice.
It is great! I also tried substituting the sugar for monk for a lower sugar version and it was still great!
This is such a good recipe? It works for me every time and everyone loves it !
I love it! It’s so yummy, this recipe just tastes like more!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Absolutely perfect! I’ve never made rice pudding on the stovetop before, and never included an egg – but this was heavenly and will be my go-recipe from now on!
Awesome! So glad you enjoyed it!
I made this pudding 2times the first time it was very tasty but the second it didn’t come out right it is too runnie and sweeter it’s probably my I fault but I whis they would make it clear about the dircetion if you want. To make a different amount how can I thicken it
If it was sweeter than last time, it’s possible that you accidentally added too much sugar, which would thin it out. Sugar melts and becomes liquid.