8 months +, toddlers & young children, grown ups too!
Homemade rice pudding is so super douper easy everyone should give it a go. Most recipes bake it slowly in the oven but I’ve successfully experimented with simmering the milk and rice in a pan on the hob and considerably shortened the cooking time. The addition of lots of dried fruit gives this pud an extra healthy punch, and even kids adverse to dried fruit will probably enjoy it this way being so meltingly soft. If your making the pud for really little ones or kids that truely do not do dried fruit then omit and add a touch more sugar.
I used to make lots of milky puddings when my wee boy was weaning as once he had his first taste of solids he barely drank another drop of milk and I had to make sure he still got plenty of the white stuff down one way or another. Together with a few milky puds, I was always lucky that the little fella loved his yoghurts, cheese, porridge and milky cereals so it was never too much of a problem. He’s just turned two now and still refuses to drink milk on it’s own!.
Milk is the most important source of calcium to little people, as well as containing protein and a whole bunch of vitamins and minerals. Raisins, sultanas and dried apricots not only count towards your child’s five a day but are a wonderful natural sugar and sweetener. I always add a handful to my kids’ porridge and regularly use in puddings and cakes to replace large, and often unnecessary, quantities of sugar.
for a family of four:
90g of pudding rice (½ cup)
30g of golden caster sugar (1⁄8 cup)
675ml of full fat milk (3 cups)
80g of raisins or sultanas (⅓ to ½ cup)
60g of finely chopped dried apricots (just over ⅓ of a cup)
Simply place all the ingredients in a saucepan, stir to combine, and place on as gentle a heat as your hob will allow.
Slowly bring to a simmer and allow to bubble away for 30 minutes, stirring at regular intervals. If the rice looks like it’s drying out add a touch more milk.
The rice should be gloopy and very very soft. Serve whilst warm or hot.
Here’s some of my other puddings: Sticky Apple Pudding and Bread & Butter Leftovers Pudding
Chez Foti 
May 10th, 2012 at 2:01 pm
My (almost) 2 year old has also refused to drink cows milk since she stopped breastfeeding so we have a lot of rice puddings too 🙂 I love rice pudding but hate the skin you get from oven cooking so this recipe sounds great thanks! Just as an aside, I asked our doctor about the non-milk-drinking issue and she said it’s a myth that children need as much milk as we think – cow’s milk is for baby cows after all, not baby humans! I thought this was a good point!! As long as your children are getting a good mixture of fresh foods then no need to worry apparently – certainly made me relax about it.
May 11th, 2012 at 5:00 pm
Hi Leanne, I was a bit worried at first too when Jacques stopped taking any milk, but was consoled by the fact that he was such a good and enthusiastic eater and had a pretty varied diet with lots of calcium.