Baked rice pudding with honeyed apples

As you can see, I’m still on comfort food mode on. :)

I remember seeing these apples on the magazine and thinking “wow, they look so good!”, but did not feel as enthusiastic about the porridge; don’t get me wrong, I love oats, but those golden, beautiful apple slices deserved more – so I decided to pair them with rice pudding. And that was absolutely brilliant – modest mode off. :)

Baked rice pudding with honeyed apples
recipes adapted from Donna Hay magazine

Rice pudding:
½ cup Arborio rice
4 cups (960ml) whole milk
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
4 tablespoons caster sugar
2 pieces lemon zest – 5cm (2in) each
ground cinnamon, for sprinkling

Honeyed apples:
3 red apples, sliced
3 tablespoons honey

Preheat oven to 160°C/320°F. Place the rice in the base of a 7 cup-capacity shallow ovenproof dish. Combine the milk, vanilla bean and seeds, sugar and lemon zest, pour over the rice and stir to combine. Cover tightly with foil and place on a baking tray. Bake for 1 hour, remove the foil and stir. Bake, uncovered, for a further 30 minutes or until al dente.
Make honeyed apples: heat a large frying pan over high heat. Cook the apples for 1 minute each side. Add honey and cook for a further 1–2 minutes or until golden and caramelized.
Divide the rice pudding among 6 bowls, dust with the cinnamon, top with the apples and serve.

Serves 6