Slow Cooker Rice Pudding

Slow Cooker Rice Pudding with Evaporated Milk, Coconut Milk, dried fruit and a touch of cinnamon, a delicious pudding recipe that is super easy to make. It can be enjoyed as a healthy breakfast or a scrumptious dessert that has no added sugar, its sweetness coming from the milk and fruit. What a treat!

One of the most popular dishes all over the world, rice pudding is a childhood dessert for me. There is a holiday in Romania which takes place in June that would be translated as "Saturday of the Souls" when we remember the dead and prepare dishes to be given away in their memory. And rice pudding is the main dish, along with fresh fruit and other baked goodies.

But, apart from this main event, we are big rice pudding fans, and we often serve it as a delicious dessert with lots of cinnamon, homemade jam or fresh fruit or nuts.

My Creamy Rice Pudding is usually the recipe we go for, which is cooked on the stove top, but, perhaps not quite surprisingly, it works amazingly well in the slow cooker too. Or my Indian Rice Pudding or Turkish Rice Pudding, which is as easy to make, and as delicious!

The perfect rice pudding has a creamy texture, while the rice grain still holds its shape, rather than be all mushy. And that's when the slow cooker does an excellent job, as it cooks the rice to perfection, while maintaining its shape. Let's see how to make it!

Jump to:

• Ingredients needed to make rice pudding in the slow cooker
• Step-by-step photos and instructions
• Expert tips
• Slow Cooker Rice Pudding

Ingredients needed to make rice pudding in the slow cooker

• arborio rice - or rice pudding rice
• evaporated milk 
• coconut milk -tinned
• cinnamon
• mixed dried fruit
• sugar to taste
• butter - to grease the slow cooker

Step-by-step photos and instructions

Unlike the rice pudding that is made with regular milk, which has a pure white colour, the evaporated milk has a very light brown shade, and the cinnamon added to the pudding brings an even deeper brown touch.

• grease the slow cooker with butter
• add the rice, coconut milk and evaporated milk - I used arborio rice, but some shops might sell rice pudding rice too, which has the best texture for this dish. Also, evaporated milk is less likely to curdle in the slow cooker, while the regular milk could curdle easily at the wrong temperature.
• give it a good stir, then leave to cook on low for 2 hours
• add the dried fruit and cinnamon, give it another good stir, and leave to cook for a further 1 or 1 and a half hours until the rice is cooked, but the pudding still has a slightly runny consistency
• which the slow cooker off, and leave the pot with the lid on for 10-15 minutes, the rice pudding will cook further and become very creamy

Expert tips

As mentioned, take the pudding off the heat while it's still slightly runny, as when it cools down and absorbs the remaining liquid, it will become creamy. If cooked until no liquid left, it will become rock solid when it cools down.

Not that it's not delicious, but it doesn't have the texture we are after. What a fantastic treat this is! If served for breakfast, I would add some chopped nuts or seeds to up its nutritional value even further.

I did not add any sugar to it, as I am not a big fan of overly sweet desserts, but do feel free to add some to taste. To me, this is just right the way it is, but then I have been on a low sugar diet since the beginning of the year, so my taste buds have got used to no refined sugar. And this is it, a fabulous dessert that goes down well with the whole family! Do give it a go!

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