Sous Vide Rice Pudding

September 21, 2014

Sous Vide Rice Pudding

Rice pudding is one of the oldest comfort desserts around, found in some form wherever rice and milk share a kitchen, from Danish risengrød to South Asian kheer: rice simmered slowly in sweetened milk until the starch breaks down and thickens the whole pot into something soft and creamy. Cooking it in a sealed bag under a precise water bath instead of a saucepan removes the two biggest risks of the stovetop version, a scorched bottom and a skin forming on top. The rice never touches direct heat and never needs stirring, so it comes out evenly cooked from edge to edge.

The method surprises people used to sous vide’s usual role in gentle custards and delicate proteins. Rice pudding actually needs a hotter bath than a creme brulee or a poached egg, because the rice starch will not fully gelatinize inside a sealed bag without real heat. There is no simmering, no evaporation, and no spoon working the pot to help it along. At 180°F (82°C), raw arborio rice, whole milk, sugar, and a little vanilla go into the bag together and slowly turn into pudding over about two hours, with the milk-to-rice ratio doing most of the work in setting the final texture.

What comes out the other side is dense and glossy, mildly sweet with a soft milk-and-vanilla flavor, thick enough to hold a spoon standing up for a second before it settles back down, closer to a traditional stovetop rice pudding than the loose, soupy versions some pans turn out. A short massage of the bag after cooking breaks up any rice clumps and spreads the thickened starch evenly through the batch, which matters more here than it would in a pot you had been stirring the whole time.

Serve it warm straight from the bag, or let it cool and refrigerate it. It keeps thickening as it sits, so loosen it with a splash of milk if it gets too stiff for a spoon. A dusting of cinnamon or nutmeg on top is the classic finish, and the pudding holds up just as well after a big dinner as it does for breakfast the next morning.

Ingredients

Serves 4

720 ml whole milk
210 g arborio rice (or other short/medium-grain rice), uncooked
65 g granulated sugar
5 ml vanilla extract
1 pinch kosher salt
ground cinnamon (or nutmeg), for serving, optional

Directions

Preheat a sous vide water bath to 180°F (82°C). Combine the milk, rice, sugar, vanilla extract, and salt in a large zip-closure freezer bag. Three parts milk to one part rice by volume is the ratio that gives this pudding its texture, so keep the proportions if you scale the batch up or down. Stir everything together, then seal the bag using the water displacement method, pressing out as much air as possible. The mixture is heavy for its size, so double-bagging is worth the extra minute of insurance against a seam giving out partway through the cook.

Submerge the bag fully in the water bath, clipping a corner to the side of the container if it wants to float, and cook for 2 hours. That is enough time for the raw rice to soften completely and release enough starch to thicken the milk on its own. Pull it any earlier and the rice will still taste chalky in the center.

Lift the bag out of the bath once the time is up. Massage it firmly with your hands, or pour the contents into a bowl and stir hard, to break up any clumps of rice and spread the thickened starch evenly through the pudding. This step matters more here than it would with a pot you had been stirring the whole time.

Serve the pudding warm, or let it cool to room temperature and refrigerate it for later. It keeps thickening as it sits, so loosen it with a splash of milk if needed before serving. Finish each bowl with a pinch of cinnamon or nutmeg.

Notes

Arborio, or another short/medium-grain rice, gives the creamiest result because it releases more starch than long-grain rice, which is the whole point of a milk-only, starch-thickened pudding like this one. Long-grain rice works too and cooks a little faster, but it makes a thinner, less clingy pudding. Switching to it can shave 15 to 30 minutes off the cook time and still land on soft, fully cooked grains.

For a richer, more custard-like pudding, swap part of the milk for canned coconut milk. About 2 parts dairy milk to 1 part coconut milk, kept within the same 3:1 total-liquid-to-rice ratio, works well, though the cook time may need to stretch toward 3 hours since coconut milk brings more liquid relative to the rice.

Do not drop the water bath below about 170°F (77°C) for this recipe. Rice starch needs sustained heat above that floor to fully gelatinize inside a sealed bag with no stirring, and a cooler bath risks undercooked, gritty rice rather than a creamy pudding.

For a faster cook, raise the bath to 200°F (93°C) and expect closer to 1.5 hours instead of 2. It is a valid trade-off, though the bag runs close to a full simmer and benefits from being double-bagged.