Traditional Portuguese Sweet Rice Pudding • Arroz Doce

Merry Christmas Everyone! So for Christmas Eve, how about a classic Portuguese sweet, it’s a very traditional Christmas dessert in certain parts of Portugal, but it’s also enjoyed all year round all over the country.

A Sweet Rice pudding or Arroz Doce is a simple sweet, it’s very similar to a sweet rice porridge, although in Portugal we have several different recipes that ill eventually share hehehe, but this one is one of the classic ones for Christmas, since it’s very rich, it has butter and egg yolks (some recipes don’t even have either) so the end result is a more creamy and rich sweet rice pudding perfect for festivities.

It’s also more common to enjoy a rice pudding cold, although you can easily enjoy it warm as well, topped with a sprinkle of cinnamon, it’s also common to make different designs on the top of the sweet with grounded cinnamon being the most basic just crossed lines and then add more cinnamon to taste in your own plate after serving, so let’s check the recipe.

Traditional Portuguese Sweet Rice Pudding • Arroz Doce

Servings: 8
Time: 40mins
Difficulty: Normal
Rating: ★★★★★
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Classic portuguese recipe of sweet rice pudding, this is a very common recipe from the northen part of Portugal its a bit more rich version usually done for Christmas.

Ingredients

Water – 500ml
Butter – 150gr
Cinnamon – 1 stick
Lemon – 1 peel
Sugar – 9 Tablespoons
Milk – 1lt
Carolino Rice – 200gr (Or other small grain sticky rice)
Egg Yolks – 6
Cinnamon – To sprinkle
Salt – A pinch

Directions

Add water, salt, lemon peel, butter and cinnamon stick to a pan over medium heat, when the butter melts add the rice, cover the pan and let the rice cook and absorb all the water.
Pour in the milk and cover the pan and let it continue to cook slowly until the rice is cooked.
When the rice is cooked add the sugar and cook for another 5 minutes, then remove from the heat, take out the lemon peel and the cinnamon stick.
Whisk the egg yolks in a bowl, then add spoonfuls of the cooked rice with milk and stir well to warm the yolks and prevent them from curdling.

Then put the rice back on a low heat and pour the yolk mixture over it, stirring all the time, let it cook slowly without letting it boil so as not to spoil it. When it starts to thicken, let it cook for about 2 minutes more and remove it from the heat.

Pour into a serving dish or in small bowls, decorate with cinnamon powder when it cools, keep it in the fridge, bon appétit and Merry Christmas.

Notes: One of the common mistakes doing this recipe is trying to rush, and the rice is not cooked, or the cream has not thickened, so make sure the rice is cooked before adding the eggs and make sure it thickens, if you overcook it’s not perfect but still good, but undercooked is not edible.

This recipe for Traditional Portuguese Sweet Rice Pudding • Arroz Doce was originally created on BakeAfter.com. Esta receita de Arroz Doce Natalício foi publicada em português no Iguaria.com.