Firin Sütlaç – baked rice pudding

Ingredients for 8 servings:

• 100 g short grain rice
• 1 liter of milk
• 80 g sugar
• 1 vanilla pod(s)
• 1 tbsp rose water
• 2 tbsp rice flour
• 1 egg yolk

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Rest time approx. 8 hours; Total time approx. 8 hours 30 minutes

classic Turkish dessert

Add the washed rice to a pan with enough water to just cover it. Bring to a boil and simmer on low heat until the rice is slightly overcooked and almost no longer has any bite. Add a little more water if necessary. Remove some of the milk and add the rest to the rice along with the sugar and the scraped vanilla pod. Simmer on low heat for ten minutes. Stir occasionally to prevent burning. Remove the vanilla pod, let it cool slightly, and stir in the rice flour. If you don’t want to buy extra rice flour, finely grind some uncooked rice in a coffee grinder or use starch instead. Bring back to a boil and, if using rice flour, let it cool for a few minutes, as it doesn’t thicken immediately. The rice pudding should have a thick consistency. Stir in the rose water and pour into dessert molds. Turkish restaurants have special flat, wide clay molds for this purpose. Whisk the egg yolk with the removed milk, drop a teaspoon of it into the center of each dessert, and spread it evenly over the surface. Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C (top/bottom heat) until the surface turns dark. This usually happens irregularly and can even lead to black spots. This is part of the recipe and not a preparation error! Let cool and refrigerate overnight.