apple cinnamon rice pudding

This recipe is the culmination of a collage of memories. Years ago when dr bob was a relatively young thirty-something wide-eyed American visiting Milan one oppressively hot August in the company of another eclectic food fan and friend, they stumbled onto this cute little bookstore restaurant "La Libreria non Liberia" (loosely translated: "The Bookshop, Not!"). There was a vegetarian mini-menu, but the only thing that stuck in long term memory was a wonderful apple rice pudding of some sort. Bob later wrote for the recipe but never got a response. The shop disappeared by the time of the next return visit.

Then there was dr bob's addiction to Whitney's apple raisin yogurt that spoke to a similar culinary desire, minus the rice. The free market cured him of that by eliminating first the flavor choice and then the product and finally the company itself, which did not survive the merger mania of the late 20th century. Curiously a flavor combination that bob would not have ever tried by choice because of the raisin combination but when offered it by his childhood next door neighbor turned flavor chemist friend dennis (no menace), he was pleasantly surprised. Just goes to show you how important outside influences can be.

Later in life, bob was comparing all the plain rice pudding recipes he could find in the cooking team library. The cookbooks were stacked together, one inside the other, opened at the rice pudding page waiting for the right moment to act. Which never came. The books were reshelved. A contributing factor may have been indecision on the basic rice pudding question: to bake or just stovetop it all the way? The baking part often required putting the pudding bowl into a pan of boiling water, which sounds like unnecessary effort. Yet was this the secret behind really creamy rice pudding? Or a false hope? Meanwhile a local entrepreneur began marketing this really yummy creamy rice pudding in all the area supermarkets. Just pay the money and enjoy. Of course that seems like cheating in a way. And how do we share  our love of rice pudding with distant friends in distant lands?

A credit card free offer of a 6 month sub to another cooking mag we had been occasionally grabbing, Eating Well, was hard to refuse. And difficult to terminate. Clever marketing. So three cooking mag subs contributed to the information overload of the end of the millennium at dr bob central. Until the newcomer crashed and burned in 1999. Substituted by Food and Wine for a while until we worked up the courage to cancel. Anyway, the apple cinnamon rice pudding recipe arrived just in time for a cookout dessert contribution. And forced the issue of bake or no bake. Bake. Not as much of a hassle as anticipated. But not as creamy either. Maybe we over baked it?

ingredients

rice base
1 1/2 c water
3/4 c short grain rice, like arborio
1/2 t salt
2 c 1% milk
egg mixture
1 c 1% milk
2 large egg yolks
1/4 c pure maple syrup
2 T packed light brown sugar
1 t pure vanilla extract
fruit components
2 tart apples, like Granny Smith
1 t fresh lemon juice
1/2 c raisins
garnish
ground cinnamon

instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 375º. Coat an 8 in square baking dish with cooking spray.
  2. In a 2 qt saucepan, bring the water to a boil and then add the rice and salt. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the water is absorbed, about 10 to 12 minutes.
  3. Add 2 c milk to the rice and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 8 minutes. (Discard any skin that forms on the surface.)
  4. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg mixture components until smooth.
  5. Peel and coarsely grate the apples. Place them in a small bowl and toss with the lemon juice.
  6. Remove the rice mixture from the heat and stirring constantly add about 1 c to the egg mixture. Then scrape this back into the rest of the rice mixture, stirring constantly. Add the raisins and grated apples.
  7. Scrape the mixture into the prepared baking dish and place it in a shallow roasting pan and pour enough simmering water into the roasting pan to come halfway up the sides of the baking dish.
  8. Bake the pudding for 35 to 40 minutes, or until barely set.
  9. Serve warm or chilled, dusted with cinnamon.

notes

  1. Eating Well, October 1997, p.26. I wonder where (if?) extinct magazines are archived in the world?
    [It was resurrected a few years later with 4 seasonal issues per year.]
  2. This was a recipe doctored (Rx) item, lightened from a yummy high fat favorite recipe of a reader. For six servings, the original had per serving 9 g fat, 325 cal, the lightened version 3 g fat, 270 cal:  7 g protein, 3 g fat (1.4 sat), 55 g carbo, 280 mg sodium, 76 mg chol, 1 g fiber.
acrpdng.htm: 7-jan-2002 [what, ME cook? © 1984 dr bob enterprises]