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Rice pudding with butterscotch apples

Rice pudding with butterscotch apples

Thanks to the school version (out of an enormous tin, I suspect), I used to hate rice pudding. Only recently did I discover how sublime it can be. It’s easy, too, the secret being in the occasional stir that helps separate the grains, and the half and half mix of milk and cream.


Ingredients:

Thanks to the school version (out of an enormous tin, I suspect), I used to hate rice pudding. Only recently did I discover how sublime it can be. It’s easy, too, the secret being in the occasional stir that helps separate the grains, and the half and half mix of milk and cream.
There are all sorts of treats and toppings to serve with the perfect rice pudding, such as hot jam, or booze-soaked dried fruits (rum and raisins, prune and Armagnac, apricots and whisky, for example). The simple toffee sauce described for pancakes on page 00 is also divine with rice pudding, as are melted Mars bars! But these ‘butterscotch apples’, an experiment a few years back, have become a great favourite.

Serves 8


Melt 50g unsalted butter in a saucepan over a low heat and add 100g pudding rice, stirring so it is coated with the butter (it shouldn’t fry or even so much as sizzle).
Add 500ml whole milk mixed with 500ml double cream and stir in 50g caster sugar. Stir for a couple of minutes to warm the milk and dissolve the sugar.

Transfer to a buttered deep ovenproof dish and grate a little nutmeg over the surface if you like. Place in a slow oven (140°C/Gas Mark 1) and cook for 11/2–2 hours, opening the oven door every 20 minutes or so to stir the pudding gently from the bottom to the top, separating the grains and working the surface skin back into the pudding.

When the rice has expanded to fill the dish and is quite tender (a little over an hour should do it), leave without stirring for the last 20–30 minutes so it can form a nice, golden-brown skin. You can even give it a flash under the grill if you like.

Prepare the butterscotch apples. Peel and core 4–5 firm, tart eating apples (about 400–500g); Cox’s or Granny Smiths are perfect, as they have good acidity and keep their shape when cooked. Cut them into 1–2cm dice.

Melt 50g unsalted butter in a large frying pan and fry the apples very gently. After a couple of minutes, sprinkle over 50g light brown sugar.

Keep tossing and gently frying the apples until they are tender and lightly coated in a buttery, sugary, appley glaze (about 12–15 minutes in all). Serve hot, with the hot rice pudding.