The Brown Rice Pudding Experiment

[kimberly_a]

So I made rice pudding today, and I used the following recipe I found online:

Creamy Brown Rice Pudding

Ingredients:

• 2 cups cooked whole grain brown rice
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1/2 cup maple syrup or 1/2 cup honey (I used maple syrup.)
• 1/2 cup dark raisins (optional) (I don't like raisins, so I used chopped dried apricots.)
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon or 1 teaspoon nutmeg or 1 teaspoon allspice (I used cinnamon.)

Directions:

1. In medium saucepan, combine rice, milk, syrup [& raisins, if including them], & bring to boil.
2. Reduce heat & simmer 20 minutes, stirring frequently.
3. Remove from heat & stir in butter & cinnamon.
4. If desired, garnish with additional cinnamon.

Servings: 4

(Recipe found at http://www.food.com/recipe/creamy-brown-rice-pudding-219390)

I waited until it had cooled a bit, then ate a few spoonfuls to see how it had turned out. Holy mackerel! This stuff is incredibly sweet! Sweet as in "I think I'll use half as much maple syrup or honey next time!"

So I'm not wanting to throw it out -- it is tasty, after all -- but I'm trying to figure out how to tone down the sweetness. Maybe eat it with some unsweetened whipped cream or something.

Also, next time I'll use significantly less cinnamon. I like my rice pudding to taste like rice and pudding, and not so much like extraneous ingredients. If I wanted to eat a bowl of sweet cinnamony mush, that's what I'd do. In fact, I often have it for breakfast, and I call it "oatmeal."

How to make this batch more palatable? Perhaps I could cook another batch, but include only the basic ingredients -- the rice, the milk, and the butter -- then mix the two batches together. Those of you who cook, does this sound like it would work?

Ah well. Experiments are educational. I'll try it again after I manage to eat the results of this first attempt.