Slow Cooker Rice Pudding

I've owned a slow cooker now for a year but the one thing that I rarely try to cook in it is a pudding. Stewed fruit always seems the most obvious but I've never been confident enough to try anything more adventurous. One thing that has been niggling away at me to try though is rice pudding, perfect for Winter time, and when I saw a packet of pudding rice on the shelf in the supermarket it seemed I could avoid it no longer.

I got home to discover the recipe on the packet called for three eggs which needed separating. As I don't do eggs, I panicked until I found this incredibly simple recipe online. I decided to give it a go one evening, and even though it was quite late already to put the slow cooker on, I carried on.

Ingredients:

• unsalted butter
• 150g pudding rice
• 40g of sugar (I actually used sweetener)
• 1.5l of milk (I used whole milk for a creamier taste)
• 2 teaspoons of spice (I used cinnamon and nutmeg)
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla bean paste
• 30g of raisins or sultanas
• 2 measures of Baileys's (optional and clearly not to be added if giving to children!)

1. Use the butter to grease the inside of the slow cooker pot to prevent the rice from sticking.
2. Add the milk, spices, sugar, vanilla bean paste and pudding rice and stir thoroughly.
3. Put the lid on, turn the slow cooker onto 'high' and leave for two hours, stirring occasionally. (Every time the lid is lifted off the slow cooker, 15 minutes has to be added onto the cooking time, so keep this to a minimum).
4. The rice will suddenly swell at around 1hr 45, it may need more milk added. This was also the point that I added the Bailey's and the fruit (30 minutes before the end of the cooking time).
5. Serve immediately with grated chocolate sprinkled on top

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