Memories of Childhood Rice Pudding

I've only made the stove top variety so this baked rice pudding was quite a revelation.

It started on the stove top where medium grain rice (I used Japanese) and milk simmered for ~30minutes. The mixture was then transferred to a casserole and sugar, vanilla (I used vanilla bean paste) and (optional) nutmeg were added at different stages during the 1 1/4 hours of baking. The stove top method seemed almost instant by comparison!

However, there was no comparison when it came to texture and flavour - the mixture thickened beautifully and remained very creamy even after refrigeration, the grains of rice retained their integrity and didn't get mushy and the sugars caramelized, giving the pudding a hint of a dulce de leche flavour.

It was a bit of a time investment but really delicious. Like every family apparently does, mine fought over the brown skin that formed on the surface....next time I'll have to bake this in individual ramekins so everyone gets some!