Rice pudding with cherries and salted coconut crumble

Rice pudding recipe

For a sweet, hearty, warming dessert that’s perfect for any time of year, rice pudding is one of the best go-to dishes. Creamy rice is sweetened with milk, sugar and vanilla for a completely satisfying bowlful. From India and Africa, to America and European countries, every corner of the globe has its own variation of the comforting dish, and it’s with good reason. Rice pudding is easy to prepare and the ingredients are often pantry staples, which makes it a budget-friendly sweet treat. It’s also a versatile dish - you can switch up ingredients, depending on what you have on hand or what you have a hankering for, plus you can add any topping you like, from sweet and fruity to warm spices with nuts. 

This recipe uses pitted morello cherries from a jar, a brilliant way to get the sour-sweet fruit into your pudding without having to wait for cherry season. And because it’s the perfect partner for cherries, coconut is also used with the rice for extra creaminess, and as a salted crumble topping for a savoury hit and crunch. So if you’re looking for a brilliant recipe for rice pudding, this dish delivers.

Ingredients for creamy rice pudding

To make the creamy rice pudding, you’ll need 400ml coconut milk and 1½ cups (375ml) of regular milk. A short-grain rice works well in rice puddings as they contain more starch, which gives you a creamier pudding. Arborio, used for risotto, is perfect for this recipe. You’ll also need some salt and ground cinnamon, which will give your rice pudding a warming spiced flavour, plus some caster sugar. A 680g jar of pitted morello cherries and its liquid are used, and the liquid is cooked slightly to thicken.

For the salted coconut crumble, you’ll need some butter to give the crumble a golden colour, flour, sugar, salt and flaked coconut.

How to make a warming bowl of rice pudding

First, make the crunchy crumble. Preheat your oven to 170°C and line a baking tray with baking paper. Place the flour, butter, sugar, coconut flakes and salt in a bowl and combine the ingredients, rubbing them in together so they’re mixed in well. Then spread the coconut mixture over the lined tray and bake for 10-15 minutes or until it’s golden brown. Set it aside to cool.

Then it’s time to make the rice. For this, you’ll need to use a medium heavy-based saucepan so the heat is distributed evenly during the cooking process. Place the coconut milk, milk, arborio rice, salt, cinnamon and 1 tbs of the caster sugar in the sauce pan and bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat. When it’s reached boiling point, turn the heat down to medium-low and cook for 25 minutes or until the rice is tender and the liquid is almost absorbed. Stir the mixture every now and again as you’re cooking to ensure it doesn’t stick to the pan. Set the rice aside for 5 minutes to cool down.

While the rice is cooling, you can prepare the cherries. Place the cherry liquid in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until the syrup thickens a little. Then add the cherries and stir to combine. Set aside to allow it to cool.

When it’s time to serve, top the rice pudding with the cherry and the thickened liquid and scatter the salted coconut crumble over.

Now get cooking

There are plenty more variations in rice pudding flavours for you to try. Top your next warm bowlful with the enriched flavours of roasted strawberries in this rice pudding with roasted strawberries recipe. If you’re short on time but still need your sweet fix, these quick rice puddings will hit the spot. And for a slow cooker rice pudding featuring aromatic spices, try this Persian-style slow-cooker rice pudding.