Slow cooker rice pudding
It’s the start of October and the temperature has plummeted. The girls come home from school like ravening wolves, their appetites sharpened by the cold, ready to eat through each other – and me – in the five minutes it takes to get an after-school snack on the table.
There are days, those really hangry days, when even toast takes too long.
That’s when it’s good to have a slow cooker rice pudding at the ready. A favourite from my own childhood, rice pudding was a regular treat when we had more time in the afternoons. Now, with longer school days and working hours, it’s good to have an easy option waiting as we tumble through the cottage door with school bags, tracksuits and moods askew.
It’s like having a post-school reset button. At least until the homework battle begins.
Slow Cooker Rice Pudding
Enough for two small – but starving – girls. Their mother scrapes out the pot and devours any leftovers. Use a small slow cooker for this otherwise it will cook too fast – mine has a 3 litre capacity. Serves 2.
A knob of butter
75g pudding rice
500ml milk
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
Butter the inside of a 3 litre slow cooker generously. Tip in the pudding rice, milk, brown sugar and vanilla.
Stir. Replace the lid and cook on low for 6 hours, or until the rice is soft and has absorbed the milk. This normally takes from just before we leave the house at 9am until we’re back at 3pm. Stir, and add an extra splash of milk if you feel it needs it.
Serve with a dab of jam – damson is a particular favourite and we have also been known to crack open a jar of rhubarb and strawberry.
