Baked Brown Rice Pudding with Apricots

Ingredients (Serves 4)

• 1/2 cup brown rice
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 3 cups milk
• 4 eggs
• grated rind of 1 orange
• 12 dried apricots, diced
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 teaspoons vanilla essence

Method

1. Cook rice in 1.5 cups of water, put aside. (Rice can be cooked a day before the pudding is made and stored in the fridge.)
2. Preheat oven to 180 C.
3. Transfer rice into a baking dish (28cm x 18cm x 5cm approx.). Mix diced apricots with the rice.
4. Beat eggs, milk, honey, vanilla essence and orange rind until honey dissolves An electric hand beater is good for this.
5. Pour mixture over the rice and apricots, stir through.
6. Bake until custard sets and the top turns a golden brown crust. Approx. 40 minutes.
7. Remove baking dish from oven, leave on the kitchen bench to cool.
8. This pudding is particularly good at room temperature. It can be stored covered in the fridge for 2 days.