This creamy vanilla rice pudding with the hint of cinnamon is the perfect counterpart of Indian rice kheer!
I will be honest to you! I was quite surprised when I got to know about vanilla rice pudding recipe! You wanna know why?
In Indian cuisine, we have the exact same recipe which we call ‘payesh’ or ‘payasam’ or ‘kheer’ depending on the region with the only exception of the flavoring ingredient. We generally use cardamom powder or pistachios instead of vanilla.
The Indian rice pudding is considered to be a very important and celebrated part of every household and it is primarily prepared on special occasions like birthdays or on auspicious days.
So, I thought of trying this Western version of rice pudding with vanilla and cinnamon which would be new to our taste buds. Which one I liked more? Both!
Honestly both the rice puddings are winner. I loved the flavor of cinnamon mingled with the essence of vanilla which was completely new to me and has given me various new ideas to play with this combination.
I kept my rice pudding simple this time since I was trying it for the very first time. Assortments of nuts like almonds, pistachios, walnuts etc. will add a nice crunch to the texture which I will try next time.
- Short-grain white rice – ½ cup
- Whole milk – 1 & ½ liter
- Sugar – 1 & ½ cup to 2 cups
- Salt – ¼ tsp
- Cream – 200 ml
- Pure vanilla extract - 1 & ½ tsp
- Cinnamon powder – ½ tsp or more to taste
- In a large heavy bottomed pan, combine milk, sugar, salt and the rice.
- Put the pan on high heat and bring it to boil.
- As soon as the milk comes to boil, bring the heat down to the lowest.
- Stir and cook till the rice is tender and the milk has thickened and reduced to less than half. Keep stirring occasionally.
- When the pudding has turns quite thick and almost all milk has evaporated, stir in the pure vanilla extract. Remove the pan from the fire [for me the whole process took a little more than one and a half hour] and let it cool completely.
- Once cooled, transfer the pudding to a large baking dish or bowl and cover with a plastic wrap/cling film making sure that the plastic wrap is touching the top of the pudding. This will prevent the formation of a layer in the top while chilling.
- Now refrigerate the pudding for least 4 hours, preferably overnight.
- Once the pudding is chilled nicely, remove the plastic wrap and add the cream. Mix the cream with the pudding using a wooden spoon with soft strokes.
- Sprinkle some cinnamon powder and serve into individual bowls adding more cinnamon powder if desired.
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