Posh Rice Pudding with Salted Caramel Sauce, Poached Pears and Vanilla Syrup

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Posh Rice Pudding with Salted Caramel Sauce, Poached Pears and Vanilla Syrup is a luxurious take on one of my favourite mid-week desserts. Comfort food meets decadence in this rich, creamy, dreamy rice pudding.

Imagine your normal creamy rice pudding thickened with softy whipped fresh cream and added vanilla, topped with a hot, luscious, thick, sweet and salty caramel sauce and served with warm, soft, melt in the mouth, poached, sliced pears and a sticky, vanilla syrup. Although there are a few stages to prepare, it is a remarkably easy recipe and most of the stages can be prepared in advance.

You could also make this with leftover rice pudding!

This brings a whole new meaning to using up leftovers! Why not make yourself a rice pudding during the week – make sure it is large enough to have some leftovers – and then transform the leftovers over the weekend to this decadent dessert? Up-cycling recipes, here we go! For details, see notes below.

Where is this recipe from?

Slightly adapted from the incredible Jennifer Pogmore’s Ultimate Rice Pudding recipe, this dish is easier to make than you would think and is the prefect ending to any dinner, winter or summer. Jennifer, who has a french mother, grew up in the UK but qualified in French pâtisserie at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris nearly 10 years ago. She currently lives in Perpignan, where she works as a freelance pastry chef in the south of France and runs her own cookery school on line and in person. Take a look – she offers a comprehensive range of cookery classes with a mouthwatering selection of pastries as well as some food styling options. Check out her website here and her instagram here.

How have I changed the recipe?

1. Jennifer makes her rice pudding on the hob, which I believe is traditional in France. To make this recipe a little more hands off, I cooked my rice pudding in the oven, as I always do, and then finished it as in Jennifer’s recipe.
2. Rather than topping the rice pudding with Dulce de Leche, which I have never made, I made the Salted Caramel Sauce I served with my Sticky Toffee Puddings. This is very quick and simple but if you prefer, you can use a home made or shop bought Dulce de Leche.
3. I also added some sliced pears, which I poached in a little sugar, vanilla and white wine. After cooking I reduced the cooking liquid to make a delicious syrup to pour over the pears.

How to make Posh Rice Pudding with Salted Caramel Sauce, Poached Pears and Vanilla Syrup

Collect all your ingredients together:

For the rice pudding:

• pudding rice
• milk, preferably full-fat
• icing sugar
• double/heavy or whipping cream
• vanilla paste

For the poached pears:

• pears – peeled, cored and quartered
• caster sugar
• water
• white wine
• vanilla bean, sliced in half horizontally

For the Salted Caramel Sauce:

• unsalted butter
• dark or light brown sugar
• double/heavy cream
• fine sea salt

How to make this delectable dessert:

First make the rice pudding –

1. Mix the pudding rice and the milk in a baking dish and stir well.
2. Cook in the centre of preheated oven for 2½ hours or until the rice is cooked through but the pudding still jiggles quite a lot in the centre. Remember it will continue to cook once you have removed it from the oven.
3. Set aside to cool to room temperature.

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Poach the pears and make the vanilla syrup:

1. Dissolve the sugar in the water and then add the wine and vanilla bean.
2. Add the peeled and cored pear quarters to the liquid.
3. Top with a cartouche and cook for 10 – 20 minutes or until the pears are soft. (See below for details on how to make a cartouche.) Alternatively, cover with a lid.
4. Remove the pears from the liquid, drain on kitchen towel and slice.
5. Return the pan to the heat and reduce the liquid to a thick vanilla syrup.

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Make the Salted Caramel Sauce:

1. Heat the butter and sugar in a small saucepan over a moderate heat, stirring continuously until the sugar has dissolved and is mixed thoroughly with the butter.
2. Stir in the cream and salt and heat gently to warm through. Taste and add more salt if necessary. (Be careful it will be very, very hot.)

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Make the rice pudding posh!

1. When the rice pudding is at room temperature, remove the skin from the top.
2. Using an electric whisk, beat the cream and icing sugar in a mixing bowl until it reaches soft peaks.Fold ⅓ of the cream into the rice with the vanilla paste.
3. Fold ⅓ of the cream into the rice with the vanilla paste.
4. Fold in the remaining cream.

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Assemble the puddings:

1. Divide the rice pudding between the serving bowls
2. Pour over some Salted Caramel Sauce
3. Slice the pears and add a few slices to each dessert.
4. Drizzle over the vanilla syrup

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How to make the cartouche:

A cartouche is a disc of greaseproof paper cut the same diameter as the casserole dish/saucepan you are using with a hole in the centre.

1. Cut the greaseproof paper/baking parchment to the same circumference as the pan you are using.
2. Fold into eighths and cut a small triangle from the centre to create a hole.
3. Unfold the paper and use to cover the food in the pan.

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How to make this dessert using leftover rice pudding:

• For the rice pudding you will need 500g of cooked rice pudding at room temperature. To the rice pudding, add 150g softly whipped cream and the vanilla. Do not add the extra sugar as your rice pudding will already be sweetened.
• Make the poached pears and salted caramel sauce in exactly the same way as the recipe.
• Serve as described in the recipe.

Made this recipe?

If you make this recipe, do please tag me on instagram @daffodil_kitchen. You could also leave a comment in the box directly below the recipe.