Arroz Doce (Portuguese Rice Pudding)
- Prep
- 10 min
- Total
- 45 min
- Servings
- 8
Arroz doce is one of the most traditional Portuguese desserts: carolino rice cooked slowly in milk with sugar, lemon peel and egg yolks, creamy and decorated with cinnamon. It takes about 45 minutes.
There’s no christening, wedding, Christmas or village festival without it. That yellowish rice in a thick cream, decorated with cinnamon hearts or diamonds, tastes of grandmothers’ kitchens.
Rice pudding has Asian roots, but in Portugal it took its own shape over the centuries, with sugar from Brazil, cinnamon from the East and the egg yolks of convent sweets. Unlike English rice pudding, which is baked, the Portuguese one cooks slowly on the stove.
Recipe
Arroz Doce
Carolino rice cooked slowly in milk with sugar, lemon peel and egg yolks, with a cinnamon pattern on top. Served cold, and never missing at Christmas or Easter.
Ingredients
Method
- 1Put the milk, sugar, rice and salt in a pan over the heat, and when it boils, add the lemon peel.
- 2Simmer over low heat, stirring now and then, until the rice is fully cooked but still loose and soupy.
- 3Break up the yolks with a fork in a bowl, stir in a little of the cooked rice, then mix it all back into the pan.
- 4Return the pan to very low heat and stir for about a minute.
- 5Take it off the heat and spoon it into individual bowls or a serving dish. Once it has cooled, decorate with ground cinnamon.
Creamy, not runny
Stirring is what releases the starch, as in a risotto. Don’t add the yolks straight to the boiling pan, or they scramble: mix them with a little hot rice in a bowl first.
It always thickens as it cools, so take it off the heat a little looser than you want it in the end. If it’s still runny, give it 10 more minutes on the lowest heat, stirring all the time.
In the north (Minho, Porto) arroz doce is yellower and richer in yolks; in the center and south it tends to be whiter, made with just milk, sugar and lemon peel. Both are traditional.
At Christmas
On Christmas Eve, arroz doce shares the table with rabanadas and bolo-rei. Because it’s served cold and is better the next day, it’s one of the easiest Christmas sweets to plan: make it on December 23, pour it into dishes, and add the cinnamon on the day. For a big table, double the recipe and use two pans rather than one overfilled pan, so the rice cooks evenly.
