Rice Pudding Brûlée Tart

Why have a regular bowl of rice pudding when you could have an edible tart bowl with a crunchy sugar top? # 341: Rice Pudding Brûlée Tart

Rice pudding has always fallen into the category of “it’s yummy but I’m texture bored after three bites, let’s go find some chocolate chips and other mix ins.” Where’s the crunch and snap to break up the monotony? Yes I’m also that person who dumps endless amounts of crispy onions on blended soups in order to get to the bottom of the bowl.

I understand that if you grew up with it, the nostalgic comfort level is so high it blocks out the haters. It may be considered a British classic, but India wins the true OG award, with their recipes for sweet rice pudding or kheer (derived from the Sanskrit word for milk) dating back 8,000 years ago. Casual.

Despite it’s very long history, the basics of the recipe have stayed consistent: slowly cook rice in milk and add in aromatics of your choice. I was following a British recipe so it called for nutmeg, but kheer typically has rose water and cardamom.

Instagram may be a black hole of memes to fall into, but it’s also the best for recipe inspiration! Shouts to the algorithm for understanding my life mostly revolves around desserts with a bit of reading and travel thrown in. I randomly came across Sophie Bamford’s All Day Cake posts and this one struck me as so unique I had to drop everything and try it.

Sweet tart shells, here we go!

I’ve been trying to remember to take my ring off while working with dough (flour gets stuck in all the nooks and crannies, bleh) and it always makes me think of Jennifer from Two Fat Ladies! Completely sanitary, dear.

While it might have felt thin while I was rolling it out, the small tartlet tins shook their heads and tsked at me. Plus, the dough hunched it’s shoulders in the oven, slumping into an even thicker shell. C’est la vie. Thinner next time!