If you love all things sweet and creamy, you’ll love this stovetop orange rice custard. Similar to traditional rice pudding, this is a dessert that comes together on the stove and that’ll make you wonder why it took you so long to make it. What we love here is the addition of orange peel that really does perfectly flavor the custard. It’s a subtle, sweet, citrusy addition that rounds out the overall flavor so, so nicely.

If rice pudding isn’t in your normal recipe rotation, this recipe will quickly change (read: fix) that. While you could cook the rice in the heavy cream, we like cooking it in water and then adding the heavy cream and egg mixture later to really thicken it up and make it smooth and delicious. Your orange peel, vanilla extract and nutmeg are going to go into your egg and sugar mixture, which later gets added to the hot rice – the warmth of which will enhance those flavors you just added. You want to make sure to temper your eggs first so they don’t scramble, but once that’s taken care of, the eggs make it thick and creamy, plus the orange flavor really comes out to shine in the best way possible.

If you’re already a big fan of traditional rice pudding, this is an easy update…you might just never go back to the old version! Warm or cold, this is a winner of a recipe that never disappoints. Try it and you’ll see!