Slow-Baked Rice Pudding, Gluten Free

Instructions

1. 1

   Heat the oven and butter the dish

   Set an oven rack in the middle position and heat the oven to 300°F (150°C). Rub a 2-quart (about 8-inch square) baking dish with a little butter, right up the sides. This pudding is thickened entirely by rice starch, so there is no flour to swap and nothing about the method changes.

2. 2

   Stir everything together

   Scatter the rice over the bottom of the dish. Pour in the milk and cream, then add the sugar, vanilla, salt, and the lemon zest and raisins if you're using them. Stir well so the sugar dissolves and the grains are evenly spread rather than piled in one corner. It will look alarmingly thin and soupy at this stage. That's correct.

3. 3

   Dot and grate the top

   Scatter the bits of butter over the surface and grate the nutmeg generously across the whole thing. The butter melts into a film that helps the top brown into that classic burnished skin.

4. 4

   Bake low and stir twice

   Slide the dish into the oven, uncovered, and bake for 30 minutes. Stir gently to redistribute the rice, which likes to settle, then bake another 30 minutes and stir once more. After that second stir, leave it alone so the skin can form undisturbed.

5. 5

   Bake until just set

   Continue baking for another 1 to 1 1/2 hours, 2 to 2 1/2 hours total. It's ready when the top is deep golden and freckled, the rice is completely tender, and a spoon dragged through the edge reveals a thick, creamy pudding that still wobbles softly in the center. If it looks firm and stiff in the oven, it has gone a few minutes too far.

6. 6

   Rest before serving

   Let the pudding sit for 15 to 20 minutes out of the oven. It thickens noticeably as it cools and the flavor settles. Serve warm, scooping down through the skin so everyone gets some, with a pour of cold cream or a spoonful of jam if you like.

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Baker's Tips

• 1.

  Short-grain rice is doing the thickening work. Its starch is what turns the milk creamy, so long-grain will give you a thinner, more separated pudding and basmati will fight you with its perfumed flavor. Don't rinse the rice, you want that surface starch.

• 2.

  Skim milk makes a watery, sad pudding. Whole milk is the baseline, and the splash of cream is what pushes it over into luxurious.

• 3.

  If the top browns faster than the inside sets, lay a sheet of foil loosely over the dish for the last stretch rather than lowering the heat.

• 4.

  Grate nutmeg fresh from a whole seed if you possibly can. Pre-ground nutmeg is a faint echo of the real thing and this pudding has nowhere to hide.

• 5.

  As written, this recipe contains no wheat at all. If you're baking for someone who's celiac, the only things worth double-checking are your vanilla extract and raisins, which are occasionally processed alongside gluten.

• 6.

  A strip of lemon peel, a split vanilla bean, or a cinnamon stick buried in the milk all work beautifully in place of the extract and zest. Fish out the solids before serving.