This old-fashioned custard rice pudding has hints of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom. It’s baked with golden raisins and tart Montmorency cherries.

What are Montmorency Cherries?

Montmorency cherries are part of the lighter-red Amarelle cultivar of sour cherries, rather than the darker-red Morello cultivar.

Using a regular dried cherry is fine but it does provide a sweetness that is not as appealing in this rice pudding.

Watching Grandma make Rice Pudding

Rice Pudding garnished with cinnamon sticks and cardamon pods. Rice being spilled out of a wooden spoon on the side.

This is one of those dishes that takes me back over 30 years to memorable moments in time. My grandma Doris made old-fashioned custard rice pudding quite a lot when I was growing up.

I often watched her make it and asked her to teach me how. Still pretty young at the time, I wanted some measurements that could be memorized. I never did get any measurements or answers I was happy with.

Grandma transferred the rice into a shallow baking dish and poured milk over the top. She then added cream, eggs, separated eggs, and spices.

I asked, “but how do you know how much to put in? Is that about ½ cup you just put in there?”

Her reply was something similar to what mine would be these days, “honey, it just varies, it depends on how much rice you started with.”

I asked, “but how, how do you know how much to put in?”

Her response was, “I’ve just been doing it a long time, I just know.”

See what I mean about not getting the answers I was hoping for?

To Measure or not to measure?

Rice Pudding in two cups garnished with cinnamon sticks and cardamon pods, with rice spilled out of a wooden spoon on the side.

At the time, I couldn’t grasp not having measurements to combine those type of ingredients together and be able to make a custard. I think back on that moment often, laugh to myself and say “I get it grams, I get it.”

These days I rarely measure anything, well up until recently when I actually have to measure and record every ingredient for the site.

On one hand, it is definitely a good thing because I have made so many outstanding dishes only to never be able to recreate them again because I didn’t write anything down. On the other hand, I find physically measuring every ingredient out to be obstructive to my creativity and impactful to the outcome of the overall dish.

Who knew when you add a pinch of this, a dab of that, another pinch of this and so on, that it’s much easier to make your food turn out the way you really want it to?

Rice Pudding Ingredients

Rice Pudding in two souffle dishes, one partially eaten. Garnished with cinnamon sticks and cardamon pods. Rice being spilled out of a spoon on the side.

This rice pudding recipe is a traditional baked custard version, therefore a water bath is used to cook it in.

I LOVE dried tart Montmorency cherries and can never keep them around for long. This recipe uses them with a combination of golden raisins in this version of old-fashioned custard rice pudding.

Rice pudding is traditional served warm but can be served chilled as well.