Italian Rice Pudding Tart
Guess what? You can have rice for dessert, and it’s delicious.
This rice pudding tart comes from a small bakeshop in Florence, where it is known as Budini di riso, and it features a creamy rice pudding baked into a crisp, flaky pie crust. It’s a dessert that was also shown on the Stanley Tucci show: Searching for Italy.
I am always on the hunt for unique desserts such as this, so I’m excited to get it going.
Budini di Riso (Rice Pudding Tart)
Makes 6
For the crust:
2 cups of flour
3/4 cup of powdered sugar
A pinch of salt
1/2 cup of unsalted butter, cubed and chilled
2 egg yolks
1/2 a lemon, zested
1/4-1/3 cup of ice water
For the Filling:
2 tablespoons of butter
1/2 cup of risotto rice (arborio or canaroli)
1 1/3 ounces of brandy or Marsala wine, optional
2 cups of whole milk
1/3 cup of sugar
1 tablespoon of vanilla bean paste
2 eggs, beaten
1 lemon, zested
1 orange, zested
Powdered sugar, for garnish
Note: for a lighter tart, you could skip the crust and bake the rice pudding directly in a muffin tin.
In fact, that’s how these tarts were originally made, with no crust, so some could argue that that’s the more authentic version. I like a crust with my tart, so I’m sticking with that.
Step 1: Make the Crust
I’ve now made pie crust for this blog 4 times in the past 3 months, yet here we are again.
Dump the flour, powdered sugar, and salt into the bowl of a food processor, then pulse to combine. If you don’t have a food processor, then you can use a large bowl.
Add the butter and lemon zest, then use the processor or your fingers to break down the butter into pea-sized chunks. This is an important step in the hopes of achieving a flaky crust.
Add the egg yolks and 1/4 cup of the ice water, then pulse until a loose dough forms. If the dough seems too dry, then add more ice water, a tablespoon at a time.
The dough should be wet enough to come together without being too sticky. Also, be careful not to overwork the dough at this point…like I did…this is a strong case of do as I say and not as I do.
Dump the dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap, then use the plastic to shape the dough into a rectangle. Wrap the dough completely, then chill for at least an hour, or until the dough is firm.
(I literally just got this food processor at the time of writing this.)
Step 2: Roll out and Bake the dough
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Roll the dough on a lightly floured surface to a 14x11 rectangle, or until it’s a bit wider than the pan you plan on using.
Cut the dough into 6 pieces, then lay each piece into the cups of a jumbo muffin pan. (You could also do this in a normal muffin pan or just make a big round tart.)
Lift the edges of each dough piece to force each piece down to the bottom of each cup, then use a paring knife to trim the edges. You’ll want the dough to grab onto the sides of the pan by about 1/4 inch, but that doesn’t have to be exact.
Dock the dough by poking it all over with a fork. Lay a small square of parchment paper onto each piece of dough, then fill each piece with dry beans or ceramic baking stones.
Bake the crusts for 15 minutes, or until the edges begin to turn brown, then remove the parchment and weights and bake for another 10 minutes, or until the crusts are dry at the bottom. Remove from the oven and cool completely.
Step 3: Make the Filling
Once the crust is baked, increase the oven temperature to 400 degrees.
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan. Add the rice and the brandy/marsala (if using), then cook, stirring with a wooden spoon, for about a minute.
Add the milk, sugar, and vanilla paste, then bring to a gentle simmer and cook, uncovered, until the rice is tender and most of, but not all, the milk has been absorbed, about 15 to 20 minutes.
Don’t let the pudding get too dry, because it will become more dry in the oven, and you won’t get a moist, creamy filling in the end.
Remove from the heat and let it cool slightly, then stir in the beaten eggs, lemon zest, and orange zest.
Step 4: Fill and Bake the tarts
Divide the filling among the baked crusts.
The best way to do this is by using a slotted spoon to scoop out the rice and fill the crusts about 3/4 full then pour in the custard to cover the rice.
You should have some of the custard mixture left over, which you can cook a bit longer to turn into another lovely custard that you can serve with the finished tarts, that way nothing gets wasted.
Return the tarts to the oven and bake for about 10 minutes, or until the tops of the filling are firm and golden brown.
Set the tart pan on a wire rack to cool for about 10 minutes, then remove each tart from the pan to cool completely.
Lightly dust with powdered sugar, then serve.
These little rice pudding tarts not only look impressive but has a risotto-like creaminess accented with flavors of citrus and vanilla, and have that buttery, flaky crust to lift all that ricey goodness up to my mouth.
I will say that the crust for the tarts I made was a bit thick, I could’ve rolled out the dough much thinner, but for a first attempt at making these rice pudding tarts, I’d say it’s not a bad effort.
