Brown rice pudding

We have some brown rice left over from dinner. We do not often have dessert. So I want to try out a dessert from the KAF whole grain baking cookbook. As it turns out, the pudding is very well received.

Recipe: Maple syrup brown rice pudding (for 4)

Ingredients:
- 1+1/4 cup 1% milk
- 1 TB unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup loosely packed brown sugar
- 3 TB maple syrup
- 1 tp vanilla
- 1/4 tp salt
- 1/2 very full tp cinnamon
- 1/4 very full tp ground nutmeg
- 1 cup well cooked and chilled brown rice
- 1/3 cup dried prunes, cut into small pieces

Procedure:

1. Loosen chilled brown rice into individual grains. Mix with prunes in a baking pan. Allow rice to warm to room temperature while preparing the liquid ingredients.

2. Heat milk in sauce pan. Melt butter in the warm milk. Then add to the warm milk brown sugar, maple syrup, vanilla, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir constantly until everything is well blended. Allow the mixture to cool to a temperature that is comfortable to hand.
3. Beat two eggs in a bowl. When the egg white and egg yolks are well blended, add a few TB of the milk mixture to the egg. Beat until the liquid is well mixed. This helps making sure that the milk is not too hot for the egg when the two are mixed. Add egg into the milk mixture. Mix well. Then pour all the liquid into rice mixture. Stir to mix.
4. Bake at 325F, middle rack until the pudding is set. At this point, the edge may rise up a little, with bubbling mostly at the edge. The center should be mostly setting, with just a little wobbling. It takes about 30 minutes. Once out of oven, allow to sit for 20 minutes or more before serving.

Results:
5:05pm, all ingredients (except butter):

5:15pm, ingredients measured out:

5:22pm, scalding milk, with 1 TB butter added:

5:26pm, brown sugar added, followed by about 3 TB maple syrup (shown below), then the spices, vanilla and salt (not shown):

5:38pm, egg beaten, rice and fruits mixed, liquid ingredients prepared, ready to mix:

5:45pm, all ingredients mixed together:

5:48pm, mixture started baking at 325F, middle rack:

6:16pm, pudding baked almost 30 minutes:

6:16pm, edge of the hot pudding when just out of the oven:

6:16pm, center of the hot pudding:

6:22pm, a few drops of maple syrup added to the top of pudding, then allowing it to cool for 6 minutes:

6:23pm, edge of pudding when cooling:

8:15pm, interior of pudding when cooled to just lukewarm:

6:50pm, the dinner we host, with beef and bean curry, broccoli tofu, chicken fillet, spicy chicken feet, mini quiches, and lastly this dessert:

Observations:
1. The rice stays at the bottom half while the custard occupies the top half.
2. I love the flavor and the light sweetness of this pudding. It's simple good, not overwhelming. The cinnamon and nutmeg give a rich aroma to the dessert, that complements the egg and milk very well.
3. Fineness is in the details. This dessert has a distinctive crisp flavor of maple syrup, which is subtle but noticeably different from honey.
4. The dessert tastes just as good when chilled overnight and reheated gently in microwave the next day.

Hubby is very pleasantly surprised by the dessert. He does not like the prunes so much, but likes everything else greatly! Maybe raisins give a more familiar taste. To me, this dessert is really a sweet and memorable experience. We do not regularly have dessert and sweet at home. So this dish becomes a special treat, pleasantly sweet both to the mouth and to the heart.