Week 37 : Vanilla Bean Rice Pudding

6 cups milk

1 1/2 cups rice, uncooked

1 cup sugar

1 cup raisins

1 Tbs butter, melted

1/2 tea salt

1 vanilla bean, split

1 large egg

1/2 tea cinnamon

8 ou sour cream

Combine milk, rice, sugar, raisins, butter and salt in slow cooker.  Stir well.  Scrape inside of vanilla bean and add to the mixture.  Add empty bean as well.  Cook on HIGH 2 1/2- 4 hours or until the rice is tender.  Place egg in small bowl; whisk together with 1/2 cup warm rice.  Return to cooker and stir.  Mix in cinnamon and sour cream.  Discard vanilla bean.  Enjoy warm or cold.

Let me first admit that I forgot to take a pic of this recipe, so the picture above is not from this batch...however, rice pudding looks like rice with some vanilla and cinnamon in it!  The cooking time on this is a bit long I think, or the amount of milk is too little.  After 3 hours, all the milk was absorbed.  This made for a wonderful first serving right out of the pot.  However, after the leftovers cooled and absorbed the rest of the milk, this became a little thick.  To fix this problem, I just scooped a serving into a bowl and poured a little extra milk over the top, microwaved until warm and then stirred it back to its original consistency.  I even chose to eat this for breakfast...why not?  I don't eat oatmeal, so this seemed a good substitute!  I love how the raisins get nice and plump in here and was later thinking that adding golden raisins as well might add a little something.  Definitely use the whole vanilla bean.  I used half of one and I wish that I had more of a vanilla taste.  This recipe came from the Fix-It and Forget-It recipe book.  Use this for dessert or breakfast!!