Turkish Baked Rice Pudding

Instructions

1. Stovetop Cooking
   01

   Simmer the short-grain rice

   Combine your short-grain rice and water in a medium pot set over medium heat. Bring everything up to a gentle simmer and let it bubble away for roughly 15 minutes, giving it an occasional stir so nothing sticks. You want the grains tender, plump, and having soaked up nearly all the liquid so they melt right into the dairy later.

   15:00

   1/2 cup short-grain rice1 2/3 cup waterMedium Pot
2. 02

   Stir in the whole milk and vanilla

   Pour your whole milk straight into the pot with the cooked rice and splash in the vanilla extract. Keep cooking over medium heat until you see lazy bubbles forming at the surface and the rice kernels start floating upward. This infuses the rice with rich milky flavor and kicks off the initial thickening phase.

   3/8 cup whole milk1 tsp vanilla extract
3. 03

   Dissolve the sugar and salt

   Tip in the granulated sugar alongside a small pinch of salt, whisking or stirring until every sugar crystal has melted in. That tiny dash of salt is a classic home-cook secret here - it cuts through the richness and really pulls out the sweet, rounded dairy notes in the pudding base.

   1 cup granulated sugar1 pinch salt
4. 04

   Whisk and thicken with the starch slurry

   Grab a small prep bowl and whisk the wheat starch into the cold whole milk until it turns completely smooth with no lumps. Drizzle this slurry into the simmering pot while stirring continuously. Let it bubble gently for another 5 minutes until it coats the back of a spoon; it should still feel a little runnier than standard custard since it tightens as it cools.

   05:00

   3 tbsp wheat starch3/8 cup whole milkWhisk
5. Baking and Chilling
   05

   Set up your water bath

   Ladle the hot pudding into six oven-safe bowls, leaving just a bit of headspace at the rim. Settle the bowls into a deep baking tray, then slowly pour cold water into the bottom of the pan until it reaches halfway up their sides. That water bath creates a gentle buffer so the creamy bottom does not boil over while the top gets blasted with high heat.

   Oven-safe Bowls or RamekinsDeep Baking TrayLadle
6. 06

   Broil for that signature charred top

   Slide the entire tray onto the upper rack of an oven preheated to 200°C (400°F). Fire up the top broiler or fan-assist setting and let them bake for around 10 minutes until deep, caramelized freckles blister across the skin. Do not walk away from the kitchen here - the moment they start coloring, they can go from gorgeous to burnt in a flash.

   10:00
7. 07

   Cool down, chill, and finish

   Carefully lift the tray out of the oven and let your bowls sit undisturbed until cooled to room temperature. Pop them into the fridge to chill for at least 2 to 3 hours, though leaving them overnight makes the texture even better. Right before you serve, crown those blistered tops with crunchy crushed roasted hazelnuts and a dusting of ground cinnamon.

   180:00

   1/4 cup hazelnuts1 tsp ground cinnamon