I made the cinnamon rice pudding just for the two of us, my daughter and me.
Flavia really loves it. And so do I.
Not so much, however, for the two men in the family (well, what do they know!! 😅). And so it’s only their fault (😄) that I haven’t made this simple and delicious dessert in a long time.
But my dear friends, when there’s a Light and Tasty release involved, there are no excuses, and today’s ingredient, rice, required our sacrifice. And we were very happy to sacrifice ourselves by eating their portion too!

I know that rice pudding is a dessert that tastes of childhood and reminds people of grandmothers, do you agree?
In my case, it’s not like that. At my house, when I was a child, this dessert wasn’t there, nor at my grandmothers’ houses. And, although I don’t know why, not even at friends’ or other relatives’ houses. In my memories, I associate rice cooked in milk with the time when my father suffered from an ulcer, and the diet he had to follow during the treatment included rice cooked in milk (for meals, thus not in a sweet version), and when in later years my mother mentioned it, it was always in reference to that period, when “dad had to eat rice cooked like that.” Therefore, I grew up with the notion that rice cooked in milk was a sort of medicinal food, which by association of ideas couldn’t possibly be… that great!

This is why my discovery of rice pudding as a dessert only dates back a few years.
To the day when I was looking for a dessert that was soft, healthy, and nutritious and suitable for elderly diets.
Yes, exactly. Not a dessert for a special occasion, or for my children’s snack, but a dessert for their grandmother, whom I was starting to care for intensively at that time, and who needed an appropriate diet that was soft, healthy, and nutritious.

And from there, the transformation into a dessert to be repeated every time “mom, when are you making cinnamon rice pudding again?” was a very short step. 💛

〰〰〰

Other of my recipes with rice:

Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Economical
Rest time: 1 Hour
Preparation time: 5 Minutes
Portions: 4
Cooking methods: Stovetop
Cuisine: Italian
Seasonality: All seasons

234.47 Kcal

calories per serving

Info Close

Energy 234.47 (Kcal)
Carbohydrates 51.66 (g) of which sugars 20.98 (g)
Proteins 4.74 (g)
Fat 1.26 (g) of which saturated 0.07 (g)of which unsaturated 0.15 (g)
Fibers 1.02 (g)
Sodium 4.95 (mg)

Indicative values for a portion of 140 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA^* and FoodData Central^** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.

^* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ^** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov

Ingredients

5/8 cup rice (round grain)
1 cup semi-skimmed milk (whole milk is also fine)
1 cup water
1/3 cup sugar
1 cinnamon stick
to taste lemon zest (half a lemon)
2 tsp honey (for decoration)
1 pinch ground cinnamon (for decoration)

Tools

Saucepan
Molds for pudding

Preparation

Here are the ingredients:
Put the milk and water in a saucepan, add the sugar, the zest of half a lemon, and the cinnamon stick and bring to a boil, stirring with a spoon.
When the sugar is dissolved, add the rice, mix and cook on low heat, stirring frequently.
Cook for about 30 minutes (it must be well cooked).
If it dries out too much during cooking, add hot milk as needed, or water.
Once cooked, the rice should be compact and creamy.
Remove the lemon zest and the cinnamon stick, pour the rice into small cups or bowls, or into pudding molds.
Cinnamon rice pudding is excellent hot (or warm) but also cold. In this case, it requires at least an hour in the fridge to cool down.
Serve by decorating each portion with a sprinkle of ground cinnamon and, if desired, a teaspoon of honey.
With this recipe, you get 4 small dessert-sized portions. Or 2 abundant portions for a substantial snack (for the kids 😃). But I also like it for breakfast!
Decide how to serve it, your cinnamon rice pudding! 😋
Beyond the many possible flavor versions – rice pudding can be made in many flavors: vanilla, cocoa, fruit, almonds, and so on – the main variations I want to suggest are:
Firstly, the vegan version. You can replace cow’s milk with any plant-based beverage of your choice. The most popular one is usually rice beverage, but lately, my daughter has a preference for rice and coconut beverage, which I think is perfect for a vegan coconut rice pudding (I’ll try!).
And then the recycling version. That is, you can make this cinnamon rice pudding or any other flavor you like every time you have leftover boiled rice. In these cases, I go by eye, I don’t weigh anything, I pour milk and sugar by eye, add cinnamon, and off I go, and it always turns out great anyway. And in much less time, since the rice is already cooked 😉
Finally, I must tell you that this recipe of mine is also a variant, as the original rice pudding should be cooked entirely in milk and not half with water as I do (because it becomes lighter, and I prefer it that way). So, you can easily replace the water with semi-skimmed milk or whole milk for a richer version.
For those following the WW Propoints dietary style: 6 p per serving, excluding honey (that’s 24 p for the entire recipe divided into 4 servings). Optional addition of a teaspoon of honey as a topping: + half a point 😉