Budino di riso fiorentino

A delicious tuscan pastry 😋

The budino di riso toscano is a pastry that I discovered when I visited Florence. It is one of my favorite pastries, but I haven’t found it anywhere else. That’s why I decided to do it myself so I could eat it again. The first step was to found the recipe for the tuscan pastry since based on my search I found out there are different versions for the budino di riso, with the pudding style being the most popular one. Once I found various recipes, the second step was to choose the recipe that looked like the easier recipe to prepare. My cooking skills are very limited so I always try to choose recipes that I believe I will be able to prepare. The third and last step was to prepare it. It took me two rice packages and about four years to finally make this recipe. I was really afraid of the process and the result, but this Covid quarantine period gave me the push I needed. The recipe I followed is from an Italian website, so the ingredients for the recipe are probably very easy to found there. On the other hand, I live in a Caribbean island, so we don’t have all the ingredients and it is too expensive to order them online and get them shipped to the island. That’s why I looked for ingredients’ substitutes and made some slightly modifications to the recipe. I also watched a YouTube video explaining to make sure I understood all the cooking steps. Continue reading for some tips that can help you if you decide to try this recipe.

Here are some of my tips:

Put the rice in water for at least two hours before cooking it. I didn’t do it the first time I tried this recipe and it took me “years” to soften the grain. The second time I did it, following the process we do to the “arroz con dulce” dessert and it worked 😁.
Use a cupcake pan for the dough. Don’t worry about cutting a perfect circle to place it in the pan. Just cut the dough with a glass and then work the dough similar to when you are making a pie crust.
Mix the sugar with the rice/milk once the rice has the consistency you want. I learned making the arroz con dulce that once you put the sugar in the mix, the rice won’t soften anymore. I will try this tip next time 😉.
Other Tips:
👉🏼 Zucchero semolato- I used regular sugar and it worked fine.
👉🏼 I used vanilla extract.
👉🏼 Riso Originario- I used the Arborio rice.