almond rice pudding

The Science of a Rice Pudding (+ Recipes)

A rice pudding, isn’t that just a regular, simple dessert? Nothing special or fancy?

After making a rice pudding the other day (for testing The Turkish Cookbook), and of course, making several steps along the way, I thought the contrary: rice puddings are actually very interesting desserts. They’re rich and creamy, with pretty simple ingredients and showcase rice in a very different way than its more common savoury appearance (e.g. risotto).

At first, making a rice pudding seems quite simple. However, once you start entering the world of rice puddings you will realize there are hundreds, if not thousands of types of rice pudding. You will read whether or not you should wash and rinse your rice on forehand, whether you should grind the rice and what flavours go well with it. There’s more (science) to your regular ol’pudding.

What is a rice pudding?

For the sake of simplicity we call anything a rice pudding that is: “a sweet dish with rice as a main ingredient, generally cooked in a liquid that makes up the rest of the pudding”. A rice pudding can be made with whole rice kernels, ground down rice (as the recipe below), with all sorts of milk, with or without dairy and with all sorts of sweeteners and spices. You can travel the world trying out all sorts of different rice puddings!

Why to use rice in a pudding?

Rice, of course, has a major role to play in a rice pudding. Rice contributes some flavour, but really most of what it does, is determining texture. Rice is what thickens the pudding and ensures that your liquid milk (or cream or water) transforms into a creamy slightly solid consistency.

The rice does this thanks to an important component of the rice: starch. Starch is not unique to rice, there is plenty of it in potato, corn and wheat flour, to name just a few, as well. Even though all these foods contain starch, the types of starch differ per source. This is because starch is not just one molecule. It is a combination of molecules and by changing their sizes and ratios the properties of the final starch changes.

Starch in rice

Starch is not just one molecule, instead, it is made up of two different types of molecules: amylose & amylopectin. These two molecules and the ratio of the two in your rice, determine, to a large extent, how your rice pudding will turn out. These same molecules also determine whether your potato is a waxy or a starchy one.

Amylose & amylopectin are both long chains of glucose molecules. Glucose molecules are so called monosaccharides and belong to the carbohydrates. Amylose is a long linear chain of these glucose molecules, with only minor branched out portions. Amylopectin on the other hand is a highly branched molecule, meaning it has a lot of sub-branches coming out of the longer linear chain. The types of amylopectin and amylose present in your chosen rice, will greatly influence how well it forms your pudding. For instance, the amylose in starch is best at forming (heat stable) gels whereas amylopectin makes a stickier paste.

almond rice pudding

What happens when making rice pudding

When you make your rice pudding the starches undergo several transformations. An important property of starch is that it can absorb a lot of moisture. By heating the starches gently and placing them in water (or milk, for that matter) the starches will start swelling up and absorbing a lot of this water. At increased temperatures these swollen starches will break. This thickens the mixture further by freeing a lot of these moisture absorbing molecules. It is what thickens the pudding (similar to what happens when making a pie filling or bechamel sauce) and is called gelatinization.

Which rice to use in rice pudding?

Generally, a rice with a high amylose content will stay in tact easier and cook into dry separate rice kernels. A rice with a low amylose content though will be sticky after cooking. The amylose content tends to be anywhere in between 0 to about 30%.

The world of rice classifications is not a very clear and precise one (as we also noticed when discussing the science of a great risotto). Rice can be classified based on size (short, medium or long grained), based on its application (paella rice) or its breed (e.g. arborio) for instance. It does not give the amylose content on the packaging though. Instead, you should use the applications shown on the packaging as a guide. A sticky rice will likely be one with a low amylose content, whereas one used for a fried rice will tend to contain more amylose.

Returning to that question of which rice to use though: you can use just about any rice. The different types will just result in different types of rice pudding. If you’re looking for a stickier, variety, use one that’s low in amylose. If you prefer to taste the individual grains a bit better, take a high amylose one.

You can use the simple small recipe below to test you different rice varieties. We tested, amongst others, risotto vs basmati rice. They came out very different, but both tasted great and it just depends on your preference, or what you’re used to, which one is best for you!

rice pudding made with risotto and basmati rice

Rice Pudding - Testing rice varieties

Yield: 2 portions
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes

This recipe is designed to be simple, to allow you to experiment with different types of rice for your rice pudding. Notice when making the different varieties how each one comes out different and choose your favorite one based on that!

Make as many pudding, with as many different rice varieties as you'd like to test, taste and compare!

Ingredients

  • 50g rice (choose which variety you want to test)
  • 250g water
  • 50g sugar
  • 1/8 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 small bay leaf

Instructions

  1. Place all ingredients in a small saucepan and mix together.
  2. Bring to the boil and turn down the heat such that the milk is just boiling. You don't want it to boil over or spill over the sides, nor take too long.
  3. Stir regularly and continue cooking until your rice is fully cooked. It should not contain any more raw pieces in there. Once the rice is fully cooked, take off the heat. If your rice is not yet fully cooked, but if the mixture is too dry and starting to stick to the bottom of your pan, add extra milk in 50ml increments. Continue cooking.
  4. If you feel that the pudding is too dry, just pour in a little extra milk (in 25 ml increments) while it's still hot, stir it through and leave to cool down.
  5. Enjoy and compare your different varieties!

Notes

We tested risotto and basmati rice and both worked well with this method. There was a clear difference in consistency between these two varieties. The risotto was a little more creamy, but still a little chalky, whereas the basmati was fully soft, but a little more grainy. Both tasted great.

Turkish cookbook ride pudding

Using parboiled rice

Generally, the advice seems to be not to use instant or other pre-cooked rices for rice pudding. It’s not really clear what the reason is for this (and whether everyone will actually agree with this), but it might have something to do with the retrogradation of starches.

Parboiled rice is made by pre-cooking the rice before bringing it to market. This way, the consumer only has to finish off the cooking of the rice. By parboiling the rice the starch is gelatinized already. During storage the starches molecules will again reorganize themselves and tighten up in a process called retrogradation. As you may have noticed when reheating some left over rice, this rice will be a little firmer than the original which is because of the retrogradation. Whereas you can still make rice pudding from parboiled (or left over) rice.

This same retrogradation process is also why a freshly made rice pudding will have a different texture than one a few days old. (Even though it’s still delicious if stored safely in the fridge.)

Grinding the rice

In the recipe we made (see bottom of article), we used a jasmine rice but ground the rice up. That way, the rice loses its structure and you end up with a smooth rice pudding. By breaking up the rice kernels, you also accelerate the leakage of amylose from the kernels. As a result, the whole pudding cooks more quickly.

almond rice pudding

Almond Rice Pudding

Yield: 4 portions
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour

This recipe makes a smooth rice pudding, without any intact grains of rice left. It is based on a recipe from The Turkish Cookbook.

Ingredients

  • 50g rice (medium grain) + 200 ml water
  • 30g almonds (or almond meal)
  • 30g pistachios (or pistachio meal)500ml milk
  • 1/2 egg yolk
  • 2 drops of vanilla extract (optional)
  • 150g sugar
  • pinch of cinnamon
  • a few roasted almonds and pistachios (optional)

Instructions

  1. Add the rice and water to a small pot and slowly heat up. When the water starts bubbling, just before it comes to a boil, take it off the heat and leave to stand, covered with a lid. Goal is to soften the rice here, it is not much of a problem if it is slightly overcooked since you'll be processing it later.*
  2. In the meantime, in a food processor, grind down the almonds and pistachios in a rough meal. Do not blend for too long or it will become very fatty and sticky (the fat will get free). Place the meal in a separate bowl for later use.
  3. Once the rice has softened, place the rice in the food processor (no need to clean it thoroughly after grinding the nuts, you'll mix them together anyway). Process the rice until it has formed a smooth paste with no more rice kernels left.
  4. Take a sufficiently large pot (at least 2l) and add the rice slurry, milk, egg and vanilla. Stir well using a whisk and bring to a slow boil over a medium heat. You will notice that the pudding will thicken along the way.
  5. Stir in the sugar and nut meals and continue to cook for a few more minutes on a low heat. You want to make sure the sugar has time to dissolve. The nut meals may make the mixture a little thicker still.
  6. Pour the mixture into 4 bowls (to accelerate cooling) and store in the fridge to cool down or serve immediately (if you prefer warm rice puddings!). They will thicken further when they cool down.
  7. Add a little cinnamon and some roasted nuts (optional) on top to add some extra flavours and texture.

Notes

* The alternative, which works as well, is to pre-soak the rice for 4 hours and process it after that. However, if you're a little short on time, this method quickens things up a little and still gives a nice smooth pudding. Even faster: use rice flour, it's good to leave it to soak for a couple of minutes, but then there's no need to process it!

Don't think the pudding is thick enough? Increase the amount of rice + water (keep the ratio of the two the same). Rice is what thickens the pudding, so adding more of it will thicken it further.

Want a richer pudding? Add a whole egg yolk.

Note: if you put whoel nuts on top or even through the pudding (also delicious), keep in mind that they will take up moisture over time from the pudding. As a result, within the few hours the nuts will be very soft and have lost their crispiness. Best to add them just before serving!

Sources

Devon Cameron, Ya-Jane Wang, A better understanding of factors that affect the hardness and stickiness of long-grain rice, Cereal Chem, 82(2),: 113-119, DOI: 10.1094/CC-82-0113 ; if you really want to know how amylose and amylopectin impact rice puddings, this will be a good start, it’s not just the content of either one that matters, also their type and properties!

In Myoung Park, Ana Maria Ibáñez, Charles F. Shoemaker, Rice starch molecular size and its relationship with amulose content, Starch/Stärke, 59 (2007) 68-77, DOI 10.1002/star.20060056, link

S. M. H. Saif , Y. Lan & V. E. Sweat (2003) Gelatinization Properties of RiceFlour, International Journal of Food Properties, 6:3, 531-542, DOI: 10.1081/JFP-120021457, link

Kalidas Shetty, Gopinadhan Paliyath, Anthony Pometto, Robert E. Levin, Functional foods and biotechnology, 2008, CRC Press, chapter 3, link

Wikipedia, List of rice varieties, link ; showcasing just how many different ypes of rice there are, not just your general brown vs white rice for sure

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2 Comments

    • Hi Theresa,

      The final texture may be slightly different than a rice pudding with milk, but yes, ours was still creamy :-).

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