French Teurgoule is a slow baked rice pudding originated from Normandie. Baked for several hours in the oven at low temperature, Teurgoule is characterized by a sweet and creamy texture, flavored with cinnamon, underneath a brown upper crust.
If you know me in real life, you may be aware that my favorite dessert is homemade rice pudding! I know this is quite a controversial dessert: some love it, others hate it. I definitely belong to the first category, and this goes back to my childhood. Every Friday, my mom used to make rice pudding and serve it lukewarm for dessert. Heaven! Although she never followed a strict recipe, she mastered it every single time. She would simply trust her gut for the proportions. For me, it’s still an ongoing project…
Fast forward to when I was 18, I once paid a visit my philosophy teacher to borrow some books, and as it turns out she was baking rice pudding in the oven. The recipe was entirely different from the classic French pudding. It was baked in the oven, at a very low temperature and for a very long time. The idea intrigued me right away, so she quickly wrote the instructions on a tiny piece of paper and gave it to me. To this day, I still have it and I’m so excited to finally make my very own slow baked rice pudding and share it with you!
What is Teurgoule?
Teurgoule is a rice pudding originated from Normandie. It consists of rice cooked in milk, sweetened with sugar, and flavored with cinnamon.
Unlike classic rice pudding recipes that are usually prepared in a saucepan, Teurgoule is made in a clay-pot or a terracotta deep round dish that can go in the oven. It is then baked in the oven at a very low temperature and for several hours. Long cooking creates a thick, brown caramelized crust over the Teurgoule.
The ingredients you need:
- Arborio rice (or medium grain rice) – Due to its high starch content, Arborio rice develops a creamy texture when cooked. It is plump, doesn’t get mushy, introduces just the right amount of starch to the pudding and cooks into a creamy texture.
- Milk – I highly recommend the use of whole milk for this recipe (or at least semi-skimmed milk); this guarantees the creaminess of the recipe.
- Cane sugar – Alternatively, you can use granulated sugar. But do not substitute with any light or dark brown sugar, that have a very thin texture.
- Cinnamon – I used here both cinnamon stick to infuse in the milk and some ground cinnamon. Note that some people prefer to skip cinnamon and use a vanilla pod instead (pod + seeds).
How to make slow baked rice pudding “Teurgoule”?
The key to Teurgoule is the use of a baking dish that can go in the oven. You should get best results with a terracotta deep round dish or a clay-pot.
The recipe: Once you have your dish, simply pour in the rice into the bottom (you don’t need to grease the dish). Then, place all of the other ingredients (milk, cinnamon stick, ground cinnamon and sugar) in a saucepan, bring to a boil, and pour over the rice.
Now let’s the oven do the work: place your dish in the lower part of a pre-heated oven and bake at low temperature (300°F/150°C) for 3 long hours and a half. In the end, you should get a brown upper crust on top of a super creamy rice pudding underneath.
How to serve Teurgoule?
This might sounds obvious to you, but it’s not that simple. Should we eat it plain or with any adds-on? Warm or cold? What’s the best way to eat slow-baked rice pudding.
First of all, it’s important for you to note that traditionally, people in Normandy do not eat the browned crust that forms on top of the rice pudding. I tried it myself and didn’t dislike it but it’s clearly not the interesting part of the dish. So feel free to discard it when serving to keep the creamy rice pudding underneath exclusively.
Now I recommend you eat rice pudding still warm or lukewarm – that’s how you get the most creaminess out of it. Also if you can’t wait, just eat it straight out from the dish. If you have some leftovers, you can eat it cold but I’d rather warm it up in the microwave for just a few seconds. Ok, now I’m hungry for this slow rice pudding!!
You can enjoy it plain, or with a scoop of whipped cream on top. A few other adds-on you may consider: slivered almonds, vanilla custard (crème anglaise), berries or dried fruits. Or why not serving Teurgoule with a thick slice of brioche on the side!
More French desserts to discover:
- Best Ever French Chocolate Cake
- Apple Tarte Tatin
- Easy French Crepes
- Canelés de Bordeaux (French Custard Mini Cakes)
- Dark Chocolate Fondant Cake
- Strawberry Tart with Vanilla Pastry Cream
- Homemade Chocolate Eclairs
- Easy Dark Chocolate Mousse
French Teurgoule (Slow Baked Rice Pudding)
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 3 hours 30 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours 40 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
- Category: Desserts
- Cuisine: French
French Teurgoule is a slow baked rice pudding originated from Normandie. Baked for several hours in the oven at low temperature, Teurgoule is characterized by a sweet and creamy texture, flavored with cinnamon, underneath a brown upper crust.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (100g) Arborio rice
- 4 cups (1L) whole milk
- 1/2 cup (90g) cane sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 cinnamon stick
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
- Start by adding the rice in a small terracotta deep round dish or small clay-pot that can go in the oven. Set aside.
- Pour the milk, sugar and cinnamon in a sauce pan and bring it to the boil. Once it reached the boil turn the heat off.
- Pour the warm milk over the rice, then place you dish on the bottom shelf of the oven. Leave to slow cook for 3 and 1/2 hours until a brown crust has formed on top of the rice.
- Serve warm, lukewarm or at room temperature in small bowls or straight out of the dish. Note that we usually don’t eat the brown crust, that is rather bitter in taste, but it’s really up to you depending on your own tastes.
Did you make this recipe?
Lastly, if you make this French Teurgoule (Slow Baked Rice Pudding), be sure to leave a comment and give this recipe a rating, letting me know how you liked it. And of course, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Thank you and enjoy!
Dette’s
This is basically what my mom always made, with two important differences. First, there was no pre-cooking of the milk and sugar. Raw Carolina regular long grain rice, whole milk, sugar, vanilla, salt into the bowl. Stir. Dust entire top with cinnamon and a tiny amount of freshly ground nutmeg, put a few pats of butter or margarine on top. Put in 325 oven. Here’s the next big difference. She would stir the mixture every 30 minutes, folding the skin into the mixture. This would add to the overall flavor and texture. At the end, the last skin, with its sweet, cinnamon-y, buttery goodness was the prize. Of course, the pudding itself was spectacular, rich and creamy. But we actually fought over who got the most skin in our serving. A far difference from your need to ditch the top! We were a really poor family of 7 back in the 1950s. Rice, bread, and tapioca puddings were the main desserts, since they were made with staple household, cheap ingredients. For special treats, apple fritters, Boston Cream, her signature lemon meringue pie, deep dish sour cream apple pie topped the list. (She had worked at Ward’s and Wassels’s Bakeries in her youth, pies were her specialty.) Anyway, she said that the most important things in any recipe you should absolutely never, EVER, skimp on were a good, quality cinnamon, fresh nutmeg, and quality vanilla or other called-for extract (and never allow imitation extracts anywhere near ANYTHING you were making!) Hope one day you’ll try making it this way so you can see how good the top can be!
Delphine Fortin
Oh wow, I can’t wait to try her version. Thank you for sharing these beautiful memories 🙂 Del
Jackie Allen
The English rice pudding recipes I have seen are also made in the oven and cooked at low temperatures, and that is how my Mum made it for me as a child. The main difference is that she always used nutmeg, rather than cinnamon.
In general I think nutmeg is more popular than cinnamon to flavour puddings in England.
Delphine Fortin
Oh interesting, we would indeed never use nutmeg instead of cinnamon in French rice pudding. But this sounds absolutely delicious, thanks for sharing! Del