Slow Cooker Rice Pudding is a simple old fashioned holiday dessert for a crowd. Creamy, easy, cooked in a Crockpot with just six ingredients!
Old-Fashioned Rice Pudding is an easy, crowd-pleasing Dessert Recipe that can double as breakfast. This dump-and-go slow cooker recipe is great for busy holiday breakfasts when your family table is full and everyone is hungry.
Sabrina’s Slow Cooker Rice Pudding Recipe
Creamy Rice Pudding made in a slow cooker is the easiest way to prepare this rich, simple old-fashioned dish. It’s so easy, kids could do it! This is a great recipe for holidays because it frees up your oven for all your main dishes. Plus, you can serve the leftovers for breakfast the next morning.
Recipe Card
Ingredients
- butter , or oil for greasing
- 3/4 cup medium grain white rice
- 3 cups whole milk
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter , cut into small pieces
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- cinnamon , to serve
Instructions
- Rinse rice and drain.
- Completely grease the slow cooker with butter or oil, getting the sides too.
- Add the milk, rice, sugar, salt, and vanilla extract into the crock pot. Stir gently.
- Dot the top of rice mixture with butter pieces.
- Cover with lid and cook on low for 3-4 hours, stirring occasionally, until rice is tender.
- Stir well and sprinkle with cinnamon before serving.
Nutrition
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Table of contents
About this Recipe
This easy Slow Cooker Rice Pudding recipe only has 6 ingredients, and all of them are found in your pantry or refrigerator already! Unlike the stovetop Rice Pudding recipe, there are no eggs to temper, but it is so rich and creamy, you won’t miss them. Since there is no egg mixture, you can easily swap the milk for non-dairy milk to make Vegan. Almond milk is a great non-dairy choice!
Can this be made ahead of time?
This recipe is so easy to throw together, and it cooks mostly by itself in the slow cooker with only minimal stirring. Making it ahead won’t free up much of your time on the day you’d like to serve it, and it will certainly taste best the day it is prepared. While you definitely can make this ahead, it isn’t ideal. Just remember that if you do make it ahead of time and you want to serve it warm, you’ll need to reheat it with a little bit of milk in order to get that creamy consistency again.
Recipe Tips & Tricks
Crock Pot Rice Pudding is a hands-off recipe, although you can stir it a couple of times if your slow cooker runs hot. To test whether the slow cooker runs hot, turn the cooker on high for 10 minutes. If it starts simmering and boiling within 10 minutes, you will want to stir your pudding a few times during the cook time so it doesn’t burn or stick.
What to Pair With
Making a simple pudding means everyone can top it however they like. Serve with toppings on the side like sliced almonds, raisins, ground cinnamon, brown sugar, honey, berries, and chocolate chips. For a decadent slow cooker holiday dessert, top with Salted Caramel Sauce and Candied Pecans. A little Whipped Cream is a simple, sweet topping, too!
How to Store
- Serve: Pudding can be kept on warm for up to 4 hours or at room temperature for up to 2 hours before it should be stored.
- Store: Cool pudding completely before storing in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Add 1 tablespoon of milk at a time until the desired thickness, while reheating.
- Freeze: Once the pudding is cooled, transfer to a sealed container or freezer-safe bag. Freeze pudding up to 6 months and thaw overnight in the refrigerator before reheating.
Alternative Cooking Techniques
Instant Pot
- Rinse and drain rice.
- Add all the ingredients, except cinnamon, to the Instant Pot.
- Secure the lid and set the pressure valve to sealing.
- Select the “Porridge” function if the pressure cooker has it, or set it to Manual High Pressure for 20 minutes.
- When cooking time is complete, Quick Release the pressure.
- Stir and serve with ground cinnamon or other desired toppings.
Oven Baked
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Grease a deep 1 ½ quart casserole dish with butter.
- Combine rice, 2 cups milk, 1 cup water, butter, and salt in a casserole dish and stir.
- Cover the dish with a lid and cook for 1 hour.
- Reduce the temperature to 250 degrees and bake for 1 more hour.
- Microwave sugar and the remaining 1 cup of milk, stirring occasionally, until sugar is dissolved.
- Add vanilla extract to the milk mixture and stir until combined.
- Pour sweet milk into rice pudding and mix well.
- Bake uncovered for an additional 35-45 minutes, until rice is tender and pudding is creamy.
Frequent Questions
If you find that your Slow Cooker Rice Pudding is not the right consistency that you enjoy, you can make some adjustments to help it along. If the Pudding is too thin, you may not have cooked it long enough. Give it a little more time in the Crock Pot to thicken up. If your Pudding is too thick, you can always stir in a little more milk before you serve it. Add a small amount at a time so that you don’t make it too thin.
Rice Pudding has been a popular dish all over the world and can be traced back over a thousand years. It is difficult to figure out its origin because rice is such a major food source in many countries.
Variations
- Raisins: Raisins and rice pudding are a classic combination. Use regular raisins or golden raisins. You can also use other dried fruit like apricots, cranberries, or dates.
- Spices: Cook the pudding with 1-2 whole cinnamon sticks for easy flavor. Try this pudding with ground holiday spices like nutmeg, allspice, cardamom, or Pumpkin Pie Spice.
- Coconut: Make a tropical Coconut Rice Pudding with 1 can cream of coconut and 1 cup coconut milk for 2 cups milk, and add shredded coconut before cooking. Top with toasted coconut to serve.
- Chocolate: For Chocolate Rice Pudding, add a ¼ cup of cocoa powder and ½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips to the pudding mixture. Top with more chocolate chips.
- Citrus: Add some lemon or orange zest to your pudding for a kick of citrus flavor. You can cook it with a large shaving of orange or lemon peel as well. The citrus will pair well with the other spices mentioned above, or with raisins or chocolate.
- Arroz con Leche: Make Arroz con Leche, or Mexican Rice Pudding, by substituting 2 cups of milk with 1 can sweetened condensed milk and 1 cup evaporated milk. Add 2 teaspoons of cinnamon to the pudding mixture before cooking.
- Cold Pudding: Try serving the rice pudding cold, as a refreshingly cool dessert similar to tapioca pudding.
Types of Rices
- Medium Grain: Use uncooked medium grain or short grain rice for creamy, smooth pudding. Medium grain rice is the type of rice used to make risotto, like Arborio, and short grain rice is often called sushi rice.
- Long Grain: Long-grain rice, like Jasmine rice, will take a bit longer to cook and have more texture, so your pudding will be less smooth.
- Minute Rice: Parboiled, or pre-cooked, minute rice is the next best rice to medium grain. It will cook faster, so check your rice after 2 ½ hours.
- Cooked Rice: This is a great recipe to use up leftover rice. Your pudding will not need to cook nearly as long, so check it after about 1 ½ hours.
- Brown Rice: Brown rice is a healthier swap for white rice. Keep in mind that brown rice takes much longer to cook and will be chewier. Add about an hour to the cook time.
Related Recipes
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These photos were in a previous version of this post
Is there a specific size of slow cooker to use for this recipe?
Thanks for asking Kathy. We used a smaller slow cooker (1 – 2 quarts) for this pudding. A slow cooker works best when filled 1/2 to 3/4th full.
Taste was great
I think I cooked to long was lumpy
Should it be watery when you take it out
Mine was more solid
Help will try again
Crockpots can cook differently. Crock Pot Rice Pudding is a hands-off recipe, although you can stir it a couple times if your slow cooker runs hot. To test whether the slow cooker runs hot, turn the cooker on high for 10 minutes. If it starts simmering and boiling within 10 minutes, you will want to stir your pudding a few times during the cook time so it doesn’t burn or stick. If it’s too thin, you can cook it a little longer and if it’s too thick you can add a little milk.