Baked Rice Pudding with Meringue

It's been over five years since my husband and I went on our first date. And now we're married with the most adorable baby ever (I'm biased), a dog, a mortgage, a garden, a lawn mower...how did it all happen so fast?

Probably because he's the best guy ever (again, I'm biased) and I would've been a fool not to marry him. He cleans the house without being asked, he's willing to clean out the gutters in a rain storm, he sees the best and worse sides of me and still sticks by my side, pregnancy hormones and all.

Did I mention he's a great dad too?

You can actually see our child catching the fishing bug in this photo. Amazing.

So if we've been together for five years, that means that I've been hearing about his grandma's awesome baked rice pudding for at least four of those years.

I love rice pudding, but rice pudding for me either meant stovetop or Kozy Shack. But he insisted that his grandma's was the best. "You know, it's rice pudding, but you bake it in the oven, and it has meringue on top..." I had never heard of such a thing. Of course, his grandma has passed on now and his mom didn't have the recipe, and I didn't find anything similar in my cookbooks. Finally, allrecipes.com came to the rescue.

"This is it. This is exactly it."

I'm not going to lie, this is a pain in the butt to make, with the water bath and making meringue and all. But for my hubby on his first Father's Day, it's totally worth it.

Baked Rice Pudding with Meringue

1 cup water
1/2 cup uncooked white long-grain rice
2 beaten egg yolks
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 pinch salt
2 1/2 cups milk
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup raisins
2 egg whites
1/4 cup white sugar

Place the water and rice into a saucepan, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Stir, and reduce heat to low. Cover pan, and simmer until all water is absorbed, about 20 minutes. (If you have leftover rice from dinner, just skip this step.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat the egg yolks together with 1/2 cup sugar in a mixing bowl. Add the cornstarch and salt. Continue beating, and gradually pour in the milk. Stir in the cooked rice, lemon juice, and raisins. Pour the rice mixture into a baking dish, and place inside a larger baking pan. Fill the larger pan with water to 1 inch up the sides of the dish containing the rice mixture.

Bake in preheated oven until the pudding is creamy and most of the liquid is absorbed, stirring occasionally. If necessary, add more water to maintain the water level.

Meanwhile, place the egg whites in a mixing bowl and beat until soft peaks form. Continue beating, and gradually add 1/4 cup sugar. Beat until stiff peaks form. Remove the pudding from the oven, leaving it in the larger baking dish. Top pudding with the meringue, swirling with a spoon to create soft peaks. Bake in 400 degree oven until the meringue is golden, 8 to 10 minutes. Serve warm.