You don't realize how hard it is to find a pudding recipe made with rice milk until you try searching for it. The majority of hits on a web search comes up with rice pudding, which is something I definitely did not want to make. The heavy vanilla and butter taste came through in this recipe which beats the artificial colors and flavors out of box pudding any day.
If you wanted to make vanilla pudding without eggs, simply omit the tapioca pearls.
Ingredients
2 c organic rice milk
1 c tapioca pearls, soaked in water
1/2 c organic granulated sugar
3 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp sea salt
Directions
1. If you're using a non-instant tapioca, like Reese's tapioca, start a day ahead by soaking the tapioca in two cups of water. Drain with a strainer. Set aside until ready to use.
2. In a small bowl, combine sugar, salt, and cornstarch. Set aside.
3. In a medium saucepan, bring rice milk to a boil. Gradually add some milk to the cornstarch-sugar mixture and whisk until smooth. Pour the cornstarch mixture back into the milk and cook until the liquid thickens.
4. Add one cup of tapioca pearls and cook until translucent. Whisk to keep the tapioca from burning. Remove from heat. Stir in butter and vanilla extract.
5. Let cool. Enjoy warm or chill in individual serving bowls.
I started this recipe with the idea of making rice milk from scratch. How hard could it be? It's just water and rice together.. right? Well, it turns out that ratios are everything and what came out of this experiment looks a lot like I just puréed plain rice congee in a food prep and added a touch of sugar and some flavoring. I got onto this idea since commercially available rice milk has all these other things in it that shouldn't be there, such as expeller pressed safflower oil and/or sunflower oil and/or canola oil, and tricalcium phosphate.
The sugar content in a quart of plain rice milk (Costco has 24 grams, Trader Joe's has 40 grams) is a bit high, considering that there are roughly 4 grams of sugar per teaspoon. The average cup of plain, unsweetened rice milk should be around 50 calories; but as a beverage, it has to compete with cow's milk and other "milk" products, so with all the fillers, it is now 160 calories per cup. Sugar is added and that fakes the brain out into thinking it is getting something good. I started this batch with 2 tbsp organic sugar, which comes out to just over 60 calories per cup.
This particular batch yielded 3 quarts of not-quite rice milk. I wasn't terribly keen on using an exact measurement of water in the cooking phase.
Onto the recipe...
Ingredients
1 c jasmine rice (white or brown, doesn't matter)
2 qt filtered water
sweetener, to taste
1 tsp vanilla extract or almond extract (optional)
pinch of sea salt, to taste (optional)
Directions
1. Start off by putting the rice into a large pot and rinsing the rice a few times. Strain out this liquid and cover the rice with filtered water. Cover and let sit up to 12 hours or overnight.
2. Strain out the water and add two quarts of filtered water to the rice. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 40 minutes on low heat. Remove from heat and let cool.
2a. (optional) Add any additional flavorings or seasonings.
3. Process in batches in a blender or 7-cup food prep machine. Strain liquid through a mesh
strainer into a serving receptacle of your choice. I am using a 2-liter glass carafe, which I have partly filled with two cups of filtered water to help dilute the rice slurry.
Seriously, I thought I was going to make rice milk. I hadn't counted on the rice totally disintegrating. This is much harder to get the proper consistency for drinking than it is to make almond milk or soy milk from scratch.
[Update: 2014-03-29, this recipe needs work! Do not use. Unless you want a gallon of some very slushy rice goo...]
