Mamma’s Rice Pudding
Some foods will always remind me of my childhood and of family. Among these are my Grandma June’s pecan pie, my mom’s chicken velvet soup, dutch babies, bar-b-cups, spritz cookies, Swedish rye bread at Sundbeck Christmas, Swedish pancakes, and the Rystrom family’s rice pudding. Of course there are plenty more now that I begin brainstorming, but I’ll focus on this one today.
I asked my mom where this recipe originated but she doesn’t really know. Her mom made it when she was young, and I plan to make it for my kids…whenever they choose arrive.
My mom grew up in Richvale, California. Her dad, better known as Gramps, is a rice grower in Northern California, and so they ate a lot of rice growing up. My mom met my dad in college and he brought her to the great state of Texas. Thanks to my sweet Californian mother, I don’t have too much of a Texas accent, and I ate of lot of perfectly cooked rice as a kid.
This rice pudding is best made with a medium grain rice. Most of what I found in the grocery store was long grain white rice. I bought a short grain sushi rice for the pudding. I was worried after mom said, “It may contain too much gluten and get too sticky.” But that’s the rice I had, so that’s the rice I used. It ended up being thicker than my mom’s pudding, but very delicious.
Make sure to wait at least 20 minutes before adding the vanilla. You can eat this pudding warm, but I like it chilled. If your pudding is too thick when you remove it from the oven you can stir in a bit more milk.
Rice Pudding
- 1 cup white rice
- 1 cup white sugar
- 8 cups 2% milk
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- Preheat oven to 300° F
- Stir together 1 cup rice, 2 cups milk, 1 cup sugar and 1.4 teaspoon salt in an oven proof dish. *I used an enamel coated dutch oven. My mom, the pro, uses a corning-ware type dish.
- Bake for 30 minutes.
- Stir, add 2 cups milk, stir.
- Bake for 30 minutes.
- Stir, add 2 cups milk, stir.
- Bake for 30 minutes.
- Stir, add 2 cups milk, stir.
- Bake for 30 minutes.
- Stir, bake for 30 minutes.
- Stir, bake for 3o minutes.
- Remove from the oven and let sit for 20 minutes.
- Stir in 1 tablespoon vanilla.
Enjoy plain or with cinnamon sugar, or lingonberry jam.