One piece of the two part dessert I offered up at Coronation was rice pudding but it’s not the same as modern rice pudding.  The medieval text for the recipe is rather long for a recipe that really only has four ingredients, mostly because half the recipe deals with how to make almond milk.  To make this recipe correctly, do not use commercial almond milk – it’s flavoured with all manner of things that the original lacks.

Rice Pudding with Almond Milk

  • 1 cup arborio rice
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 2/3 cup almonds
  • 4 cups water
  • 2 cups additional water

Process the almonds and water together – I use a hand blender but a standard blender will work fine – for a minute.   Wash the rice, use cold water, rinsing two or three times.   Place the rice in a large heavy pot and slowly add almond a bit of a time, stirring constantly until you’ve added half the almond milk.  Add all the remaining almond milk and continue to stir regularly  (adding water as needed) until rice is cooked.  Add the sugar at the end and stir well.

I chose to make use this method because it’s very similar to how risotto is made which develops a very creamy rich texture.