Frugal Foodie Mama: Slow Cooker Apple Butter Rice Pudding

Creamy, comforting rice pudding is jazzed up with apple butter & chunks of fresh apple in this easy to make Slow Cooker Apple Butter Rice Pudding...

Since a good, home cooked risotto happens to be my favorite savory adult comfort food, then a creamy rice pudding has to be my ultimate sweet comfort food. But rice pudding wasn't a comfort food that I came to love as a child. Now my mama made this great quick version of rice pudding with a little leftover rice mixed with melted margarine & sprinkled with cinnamon & sugar.

But the first time that I tried an honest for goodness homemade rice pudding was when I baked up a batch myself a few years after moving out of my parents' house. Yes, making rice pudding from scratch equals adulting when you are in your earlier 20's. ;) And thus began my love affair with creamy, comforting rice pudding.

But the thing with most homemade rice pudding recipes is that they require both stove top cooking & oven baking and thus twice the dirty dishes. Is it worth the extra effort and dish washing? Yes!

But I knew there had to be a better way to whip a homemade rice pudding recipe that I would love without all the extra steps. My solution? The slow cooker- duh! ;)

You literally just dump everything in, mix, and let the slow cooker do the rest. Now I jazzed up the basic rice pudding with spicy apple butter and chunks of fresh apple for this Slow Cooker Apple Butter Rice Pudding I am sharing with you all today, but you could leave out the apple flavors for a classic creamy rice pudding (just increase the cinnamon to a 1/2 teaspoon)...

Slow Cooker Apple Butter Rice Pudding

by Frugal Foodie Mama

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 4-5 hours

Ingredients (6-8 servings)

3/4 cup Basmati or Jasmine rice
1/2 cup milk
12 oz can of evaporated milk
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp kosher salt
2 medium apples, cored & chopped
1/3 cup apple butter (plus more for topping, if desired)

Instructions

Spray your slow cooker with cooking spray for easy clean-up.

Combine all the ingredients except for the apple butter in the slow cooker. Mix well. Cook on Low for 4-5 hours, stirring occasionally. Add in the apple butter during the last 30 minutes of slow cooking & mix until just incorporated.

Serve warm with a drizzle of apple butter, if desired.

Enjoy!

I always make a a couple of batches of my Homemade Crock Pot Apple Butter in the fall, and by winter time I am looking for ways to use it up before it goes bad. This rice pudding recipe is a perfectly delicious way to do just that.