There are so many things you can do with a batch of rice pudding, sort of like topping a sundae. Just set out lots of options—nuts, dried or fresh fruit, coconut, raisins, chocolate chips, M&Ms, whatever might appeal to your crew. For me, it’s coconut and raisins; for Ted, it’s chocolate chips. For me, it’s low-sugar; for Ted, it’s lactose-free.
I used a combination of canned, whole fat coconut milk and lactose-free whole milk, a total of about 3.5-4 cups, but you could use lots of other substitutions, like almond milk or soy milk and even more coconut milk. I use the full-fat products to make up for the missing sugar, so that I still get a full, rich mouth feel from the pudding. If sugar isn’t a problem for you, you could also use other sugars, like honey or maple syrup in place of refined sugar. But I must say that the Truvia Baking Blend® tastes pretty good and Ted will never know.
Slow Cooker Brown Rice Pudding, Low-Sugar, Lactose-Free
Ingredients
- 1 cup Jasmati brown rice or any brown rice of your choice
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 can full-fat coconut milk
- 2 cups whole lactose-free milk, scalded in microwave
- 1/2 cup (or less) Truvia Baking Blend® sweetener or equivalent
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- pinch of salt to taste
- more milk to achieve creamy texture
Preparation
- Butter the bottom and sides of a slow-cooker crock.
- Place rice and cinnamon in crock.
- In separate bowl, mix milks, sweetener, and vanilla, stirring until sweetener is dissolved in the warm mixture.
- Pour liquids over rice, cover and cook on low setting for 4 hours.
- After 4 hours, open crock and stir to check for doneness and creaminess. My rice was pretty much done, but I covered it for another 25 minutes just to be sure.
- Stir in about 1/2 cup more milk for creamy texture. Stir in a big pinch of kosher salt to taste.
Remove pudding to separate bowls, depending on how you want to serve it. I divided it into two bowls of about 2 cups each. To one bowl, I stirred in 1/4 cup Bob’s Red Mill Unsweetened Flaked Coconut® and 1/4 cup raisins, while the rice was still warm. I put the other bowl in the refrigerator to cool before stirring in about 1/2 cup chocolate chips.
Rice pudding can be served warm or cold—or both.
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