Lighter Creamy vanilla rice pudding

Use semi-skimmed milk and half-fat crème fraîche to cut the calories and fat of this comforting childhood classic

• Prep: 5 mins 
  Cook: 1 hrs 30 mins 
• Serves 4
• Easy

Nutrition per serving

• Calories 204
• Carbohydrates 29
• Saturated Fat 3.9
• Sugar 12.6
• Protein 8.1
• Fat 6.1
• Fibre 0.6
• Salt 0.2

Ingredients

• ¼ tsp butter, for greasing
• 85g short-grain (pudding) rice
• 1 tbsp light muscovado sugar
• 2 tsp golden caster sugar
• 700ml semi-skimmed milk, plus 50ml
• ½ vanilla pod
• 3 tbsp half-fat crème fraîche
• fresh raspberries, to serve (optional)

Method

1. Heat oven to 150C/130C fan/gas 2. Grease a 1.2-litre (about 5cm deep) ovenproof baking dish (see tip, below left) and stand it on a baking tray. Tip the rice into a pan with both the sugars and all the milk. Split the ½ vanilla pod horizontally, scrape out the seeds into the pan and drop in the pod. Heat the milk, whisking. As it is about to come to the boil, immediately remove from the heat. Pour the mixture into the dish, scraping out all the rice and seeds from the bottom of the pan.
2. Bake for 30 mins, then remove and stir. Return the pudding to the oven for another 30 mins. Stir again and return for a further 25-30 mins until the rice is cooked and has absorbed enough of the milk to give the mixture a creamy consistency.
3. Remove the pudding, let it sit for 1-2 mins, then stir in the crème fraîche to make it extra creamy. Serve with raspberries, if you like.

Tip

Choosing a baking dishe 
The depth of the rice pudding mixture in the baking dish is important to ensure it doesn't dry out during the long, slow cooking. Choose a small, shallow dish where the depth of the pudding mixture is about 4cm once it has been poured in.