The rice pudding of Cuba is this Arroz with Leche. It has more sweetness and richness than typical rice pudding. Being a native of Cuba, I much enjoy this particular rendition of this delectable treat. Sprinkle cinnamon over the food before serving or serve with a cinnamon stick as a garnish.
| Prep Time: | 10 mins |
| Cook Time: | 40 mins |
| Total Time: | 50 mins |
| Servings: | 10 |
| Yield: | 10 servings |
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cups water
- 1 ½ cups short grain rice
- 1 (1/4 inch x 3 inch) strip lime peel
- ½ cup water
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 2 tablespoons anise seed, crushed
- 1 (12 ounce) can evaporated milk
- 1 (14 ounce) can condensed milk
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup raisins (Optional)
Instructions
- Combine 2 1/4 cups of water, rice, and lime peel in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes until the rice is tender.
- While the rice is cooking, combine 1/2 cup of water, the cinnamon stick, and anise in another saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring mixture to a low boil for 3 minutes, then remove saucepan from stove. Strain flavored water into a bowl and set aside, discarding cinnamon stick and anise pieces.
- After rice has simmered for 20 minutes, carefully remove the lime peel with a slotted spoon, and over low heat, gradually stir evaporated milk and condensed milk into the rice. Mix in the cinnamon and anise-flavored water, vanilla, and salt. Add raisins, if desired. Continue to stir until the mixture thickens, about 7 to 10 minutes.
- If the pudding is too watery after 10 minutes, turn up heat to medium-low and stir continuously. When pudding reaches desired consistency, remove from heat and pour into individual dishes, or a large bowl. Store in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 325 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 59 g |
| Cholesterol | 23 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 2 g |
| Protein | 8 g |
| Saturated Fat | 4 g |
| Sodium | 148 mg |
| Sugars | 32 g |
| Fat | 6 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I left out the lime peel and the anise and I thought it was delicious. I like my arroz con leche with a lot of liquid so I didn’t simmer for very long. Thanks for sharing your recipe.
I’m not a personal fan of arroz con leche but husband is so I tried this recipe for him & LOVES it! I’ve been making it for him for years now & he’s happy. Haven’t changed a thing
I did half the recipe since there’s only two of us at home. So flavorful! I topped it with a sugar, vanilla, cinnamon topping.
This was delicious. My mother used to make it the old fashioned way with milk and lots of sugar…but this short cut version came out tasting just as good. Definitley a keeper.
Very nice addition with the anise seed!
This is such a tasty recipe! I have had other versions of arroz con leche, and this is different but I love it so much! My family and I will be eating quite a lot of this I think, we all loved it! Thanks for sharing this delicious recipe!
My daughter ate it, even will all the seasonings and she didn’t complain. I came back and half the bowl was gone!! My room mate tried it so it was a hit!
First of all, I would like to say that those giving this recipe a bad review because it does not compare to the Mexican version should not be rating. The description clearly indicates that this is a CUBAN version. With that being said, I tried this recipe and followed everything EXACTLY as described. The recipe is good and tastes good but there are few things that I would say are missing to give it the five stars: 1. The recipe calls for too much vanilla extract. 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract overpowers the flavor. I believe that 1/2 a teaspoon would be enough for this recipe. 2. There are people who stated they felt something was missing (those who were looking for the Cuban version I presume). I found the secret is to add a cinnamon stick to the rice as well, not just to the water with anise (not to exclude the cinnamon to the water, you still keep that). If you another cinnamon stick along with the milk, that should give it the kick that some may be looking for. You would then discard that cinnamon stick when serving. Overall, this is a good recipe. It took me a bit of tweaking to fix the overpowering taste of the vanilla but I will definitely be making again!
I wouldn’t change anything, and I am glad that the raisins were optional.
I made this for the first time, im cuban and grew up on my grandmothers arroz con leche this recipe brought back so many memories. My family loved it and made me make them a second batch today.
arroz con leche is the hispanic version of rice pudding, much more liquidity to it. its amazing one of mexicans (and other hispanic cultures) favorite desert. i added a tiny bit more milk to this recipe.
i adore mexican style rice pudding and got so excited for this. It is past too sweet.
it was a little tooooooo sweet for me but so delicious. I also added freshly squeezed lime juice in final product.
Really good. Nice and sweet just the way I like it. I added raisins soaked in hot water with Rum.
Followed recipe except for anise and added nutmeg and allspice. Plus some almond extract came out delicious, rich and flavorful.
This is so good!! Delicious as written.
Wow! Who needs to buy candy when you can just make this?! I absolutely loved it. I’m still pretty new to cooking for just myself and it was easy and only took an hour. Now I’ve got Cuban rice pudding for days. 🙂 Thanks a lot for the recipe. If anything, I’d maybe go with a little less condensed milk since it was so sweet. But I’m pretty sure I’m going to make it the exact same way again next time too. 🙂
Delicious, a bit sweeter than I prefer but ok if you are having a small serving as a treat.
The anise gave it an interesting kick but I omitted the lime peel. All in all in was still creamy and yummy, just not the flavor profile I was looking forward to.
Very tasty and simple! I also modified and restricted my ingredients to cinnamon, water instead of milk, evaporated milk, half the condensed milk, raisins, and vanilla. Very good!
I used long grain rice (what I had on hand) and adjusted water (1 3/4 cups water per 1 cup long grain rice) and cooking time (cooked rice for 25-30 mins) accordingly. I cooked rice with half water/half milk ratio, anise and 2 cinnamon sticks because of previous reviews of not getting enough of cinnamon taste. I still didn’t get as strong a taste as I would’ve liked so I ended up adding ground cinnamon afterwards and also added nutmeg and allspice. I left out the raisins and didn’t have evaporated milk/condensed milk, but traditionally it was used with 100% full-fat whole milk, so I used that instead. Since I didnt use condensed milk, I added about a cup of sugar to compensate. Mixture definitely thickens the longer you cook it and will thicken as it sits. Although my changes were significantly different compared to the original recipe, I used this recipe as an outline on how to make rice pudding and it came out great!!