HUB 02 · Rice Cookers
How to Make Rice Pudding in a Rice Cooker
Rice pudding is a natural fit for a rice cooker - creamy, hands-off, and made from a cup of rice you already own. The one wrinkle is that milk foams and scorches in ways plain rice never does, so the method is built around adding the dairy at the right moment. Here is how to do it without a boil-over.
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Why milk changes the rules
A rice cooker makes lovely rice pudding, but milk behaves nothing like water. It foams, it climbs the sides, and it scorches on the hot base far more easily than the starchy water rice normally cooks in — which is exactly why rice cookers boil over. So the trick is to cook the rice soft in water first, and add the dairy afterward on a gentler setting. A fuzzy-logic cooker with a Porridge program (like the Zojirushi Neuro Fuzzy) handles this best because it uses a lower, controlled heat; a basic on/off cooker can do it but needs more watching. It is one of the more rewarding entries in what else you can cook in a rice cooker.
Step 1 — cook the rice soft in water
Use a short- or medium-grain white rice (arborio or a pudding rice is ideal; regular short-grain works). Rinse about 1 cup of rice, add roughly 1.5 cups of water— a little extra so the grains cook past firm to soft — and run a normal white-rice cycle. You want the rice fully tender before any milk goes near it, because milk slows the cooking and you cannot fix undercooked grains once it is a pudding.
Step 2 — add warm milk, sugar and flavor
When the rice is soft, stir in about 2 cups of warm milk (whole milk for richness; part cream for a luxurious version), 1/4 to 1/3 cup sugar, a pinch of salt and a splash of vanilla. Warming the milk first keeps the cooker from having to fight a cold pot. Set the cooker to Porridge if it has one, or back onto the cook setting, and let it come to a gentle simmer, stirring every few minutes. This is the stage to watch: keep the lid cracked or stay nearby, because milk is what foams up and over.
Step 3 — thicken on Keep Warm and finish
Once it is simmering and starting to thicken, switch to Keep Warmand let it sit for 15–30 minutes, stirring now and then, until it is as thick as you like — remember it firms up a lot as it cools, so pull it while it still looks a touch loose. Stir in a beaten egg yolk at the end for a custard-style pudding, or a handful of raisins and a dusting of cinnamon. Two honest cautions: do not walk away during the milk simmer (the boil-over risk is real), and clean the pot promptly— scorched milk is the stubbornest thing you will ever scrub, so see how to clean a rice cooker.
The hardware
The cookers this page is about
The cookers referred to above, with prices pulled live from Amazon and dated on every card. Full rankings live in the roundups linked from this page.
680 W
Zojirushi NS-ZCC10 Neuro Fuzzy Rice Cooker & Warmer, 5.5 Cup
The rice cooker every other one is measured against. Its Neuro Fuzzy microcomputer adjusts heat through the cook rather than running a fixed timer, which is the whole reason a $260 rice cooker cooks rice better than a $30 one. Made in Japan, 680 W, and the settings that matter are all there.
Wattage not published
Aroma Professional ARC-954SBD Digital Rice Cooker & Multicooker
The budget pick, and an honest one. It is a digital cooker with a Saute-Then-Simmer function and a slow-cook mode, which makes it a genuine little multicooker for around forty dollars. It cooks rice well enough for most people — just not the way a fuzzy-logic cooker does, because it does not adjust heat as it goes.
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Questions
Frequently asked
Can you make rice pudding in a rice cooker?
Why does the milk boil over when I make rice pudding?
What kind of rice is best for rice pudding?
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