Dessert

Rice pudding

Name: Rice pudding
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 1 h
Total time: 1 h 5 min
Yield: 5–6
Cuisine: Australian
Ingredients: 1 tbsp unsalted butter, for greasing; 1 L (4 cups) milk; 75 g (⅓ cup) white sugar; 2 tsp vanilla extract; 150 g (¾ cup) medium-grain white rice, uncooked; 80 g (½ cup) sultanas or raisins; ¾ tsp ground cinnamon; 125 ml (½ cup) thickened cream

Serves 5–6 Prep 5 min Cook 60 min Total 65 min

Rice pudding is a dessert staple we keep on Scoops & Dishes because it rewards a clear metric method: grams and millilitres, Australian cups (250 ml), and steps you can follow without scrolling past a novel. As written it serves 5–6. Budget about 5 min to prep and 60 min to cook or bake, roughly 65 min all up, across 8 ingredients and 5 method steps. Key building blocks: unsalted butter, milk and white sugar. If you need a substitute, change one thing at a time and expect the texture notes below to matter more than the timer. Good for puddings after roast night, birthdays, and bring-a-plate invites. Portion generously; leftovers keep if covered in the fridge. Keep Australian cup measures (250 ml) so the ratios match what we tested on the page. Everything on this page is metric-first for Australia. If you are converting from cups on an old card, weigh flour, sugar, and butter whenever the ingredient line shows grams.

Ingredients

1 tbsp unsalted butter, for greasing
1 L (4 cups) milk
75 g (⅓ cup) white sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
150 g (¾ cup) medium-grain white rice, uncooked
80 g (½ cup) sultanas or raisins
¾ tsp ground cinnamon
125 ml (½ cup) thickened cream

Method

Heat oven to 180°C. Grease a large casserole dish.
Warm milk, sugar and vanilla until foamy (don’t boil).
Put rice, sultanas and cinnamon in dish; pour over milk. Cover.
Bake 1 hour, stirring every 20 minutes.
Stir in cream. Serve warm.

Tip: Medium-grain rice gives the best creamy texture.

Notes

Serving ideas without fluff: serve warm or chilled depending on the style. Keep accompaniments simple so the dish stays the hero — a green salad, steamed veg, rice, mash, or crusty bread depending on the style. Metric measures stay consistent across Scoops & Dishes, so once you trust the cups and scales here, the rest of the site cooks the same way.
Before the heat goes on, line up unsalted butter, milk and white sugar and anything perishable from the list. Soften butter, bring eggs off the fridge if the method needs them room-temp, and preheat so you are not waiting mid-recipe. For a dessert cook of this size (5–6), a clear bench saves more time than any gadget.
Kitchen sense: wash hands and boards after handling raw meat or eggs. Do not leave cooked rice pudding at room temperature for hours. Reheat leftovers until piping hot in the centre. These notes are general home-cooking guidance, not medical or food-safety certification advice.
Putting it together for Rice pudding: work clean, taste as you go, and do not rush browning or reduction steps if they appear in the method. If you are cooking for mixed diets, plate sauces and toppings separately where practical. Keep this page bookmarked if it becomes a household regular — we update wording when cooks report a confusing step. Metric consistency across Scoops & Dishes means once you trust the cups and scales here, breakfast through dessert behaves the same way.
Extra cook's margin: if your pan is thin or your oven runs cool, give Rice pudding another minute and check again rather than guessing from memory. Salt in small pinches, especially late in soups, sauces, and batters. Wipe up spills before they bake on. When doubling the recipe, brown or bake in batches so steam does not trap and soften crusts. Write any tweak that worked on a sticky note — your kitchen, your pans, your preference — and keep the published metric baseline as the starting point next time.