Salted Caramel Rice Pudding Brûlée
This one is properly special. We came up with this when we wanted something that felt a bit fancy but was still totally achievable on a weeknight, and honestly it delivers every single time. You get that creamy, comforting rice pudding base made with oat milk, warming vanilla and cinnamon, and then that salted caramel hit running through it. The brûlée top is the bit that really gets us though, that satisfying crack when you tap through the caramelised sugar into the soft pudding underneath is just chef's kiss. Make this tonight and you will absolutely not regret it.
Before You Start
- Preheat grill to high
- Baking dish or 4 ramekins
- Saucepan
- Blowtorch (optional, for brûléeing)
Ingredients
- 200g Arborio risotto rice
- 1 litre - Oddlygood Salted Caramel Oat Drink
- 30g soft brown sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
- ½ tsp sea salt
- ¼ tsp cinnamon
- 125ml plant-based double cream
- 50g demerera sugar
Method
Cook the rice
- Place the rice, oat drink, brown sugar, vanilla, salt and cinnamon in the saucepan and bring to a simmer
- Cook for 30 minutes until the rice is cooked and thickened, stirring regularly to stop it from sticking
- Stir through the cream and transfer to a baking dish or divide between 4 ramekins
Brulee the top
- Preheat the grill to high or use a blowtorch to grill the top
- Sprinkle the sugar over the top and cook until caramelised
Tips & Variations
- Get the brûlée right: If you've got a blowtorch, use it. It gives you way more control than the grill and a much more even caramel top. Just keep it moving so you don't catch any one spot.
- Stir, stir, stir: We cannot stress this enough. Rice pudding will stick to the bottom of the pan if you leave it, so keep stirring every few minutes, especially towards the end of cooking.
- Make it your own: We love a pinch of cardamom in here alongside the cinnamon. It gives it a slightly more exotic flavour and works brilliantly with the caramel. Henry always adds a tiny bit extra salt on top before serving too, just trust him on that one.
Why This Works
The trick here is cooking the rice low and slow in the oat milk and stirring it regularly. That's what gives you that thick, creamy, almost silky texture rather than something stodgy. The salt in the caramel is doing a lot of heavy lifting too, it cuts through the sweetness and makes the whole thing taste more complex and grown-up than you'd expect from a rice pudding.