A bone-chilling day like today calls for extra helpings of comfort food. One of our favorites is rice pudding. We’ve made it every way, including conventional, with rum-soaked raisins, with dried cherries and cranberries replacing the raisins, and a Thai-inspired version with black rice and coconut milk.

Today, it’s Hungarian rice pudding. This is the recipe made by the Hungarian grandmother of Branko Podrumedic, owner of Little Bucharest Bistro in Chicago. In Hungarian, the recipe is called budinca de orez.

Rice pudding is usually served as a dessert, but Branko notes that it also makes a delicious breakfast. If you’d like an eggier pudding for breakfast, you can increase the eggs to four, and reduce the honey for a less dessert-like (sweet) dish.

For a richer rice pudding, use half and half instead of regular milk. For a non-dairy version, use coconut milk.

Ingredients For 4 Servings

 
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*We prefer white basmati rice, which makes a creamy rice pudding but holds its texture.
Preparations

1. COOK the rice. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

2. BEAT the eggs in a large bowl. Add the milk, honey, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Beat very well with a whisk or electric beaters, ensuring that no honey remains at the bottom of the bowl. Add the rice and raisins to the liquid mixture. Stir until combined.

3. GREASE a baking dish, and gently pour in the rice mixture.

4. SPRINKLE nuts on top and dust top with cinnamon.

5. PLACE the baking dish in a pan of warm water and bake for approximately 50 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean. Serve hot or cold with cream, fresh berries, fruit sauce and/or toasted coconut garnish.