A tall golden-brown molded rice pudding turned out onto a cream-colored plate, its crumb-crusted sides straight, a pale cream sauce poured over the top and running down, with one wedge cut to show the dense rice inside flecked with macaroon crumbs. — Molded rice pudding with macaroon crumbs, masked with a pale cream sauce.

Rice Pudding with Macaroons (1814)

Name: Rice Pudding with Macaroons
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 1 h 15 min
Total time: 2 h 5 min
Cuisine: French, British
Ingredients: 125 g short-grain rice; 500 ml whole milk; 1 tsp finely grated lemon zest; 30 g crisp amaretti; 30 g soft almond macaroons; 1/8 tsp salt for the rice; 90 g sugar; 2 whole eggs; 2 eggs, separated; 15 g butter for the mold; 15 g fine dry breadcrumbs; 1 1/2 tsp all-purpose flour; 150 ml heavy cream; 1 tsp orange-flower water; 1/8 tsp salt for the sauce; 1 tbsp sugar for the sauce; 10 g butter for the sauce

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Beauvilliers’s rice pudding with macaroons, 1814: rice cooked firm in lemon milk, mixed with crushed bitter macaroons and eggs, baked in a mold and masked with an orange-flower cream sauce.

By The Forgotten MenuPublished Oct 28, 2026

Recipe makes: One 1.5-liter mold, 6 servings
Prep: 20 min
Cook: 1 hr 15 min
Total: 2 hr 5 min

The rice simmers about 30 minutes and then cools for 30 minutes before the eggs go in. The pudding bakes 40 to 45 minutes; make the sauce while it is in the oven and pour it over as soon as the pudding is turned out.

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Molded rice pudding with macaroon crumbs, masked with a pale cream sauce.

The story behind the recipe

“Ainsi saucé, se nomme pouting”: masked with this sauce, Beauvilliers wrote, the cake is called a pudding. In his L’Art du cuisinier of 1814 a gâteau au riz is rice cooked firm in milk with lemon, mixed with crushed macaroons and eggs, lightened with whipped whites and baked in a mold. Pour a hot orange-flower cream sauce over it as it comes out of the oven and it becomes the poutingue de riz of the dinner à l’anglaise he printed for twelve to sixteen guests, between the Welsh rabbits and a Roman jelly.

When is a rice cake a pudding?

For Beauvilliers, a rice cake became a pudding once it was served under a sauce. His English menu, shown in Where Did the Victors Dine in Paris After Waterloo?, borrows the words as he heard them: the plum pudding is a plombpoutingue, and his pastry chapter also gives a “Pouting à l’Anglaise” of flour, beef suet, raisins, eggs, brandy and cream. For the rice he did not start again. He took the molded French rice cake already in his book and added a sauce, so that one dessert served both kinds of table.

The macaroons are the French part. Of the dozen in his full recipe, “dont six amers,” six are bitter ones. A crumbed mold gives the pudding a thin crust when it is turned out. It is the pudding a Paris kitchen offered English taste the year before Waterloo.

Making it today

Crisp Italian amaretti are the easiest bitter-almond macaroons to buy, and soft almond macaroons stand in for the sweet half. This is half Beauvilliers’s quantity, our choice, for a 1.5-liter mold. Spoon the sauce over while the pudding is hot, as he says. For an English pudding baked plainly in its dish, TuneMyRecipe has Mrs. Beeton’s Baked Rice Pudding (1861) (opens in a new tab). Just before it on Beauvilliers’s menu comes a savory, the Welsh Rabbit (1814).

Gâteau au Riz.
Epluchez, lavez et faites blanchir une demi-livre de riz; faites-le crever dans un peu de lait que vous aurez fait bouillir avec le zeste d’un citron; mouillez ce riz petit à petit, et maintenez-le ferme; lorsqu’il sera bien crevé, laissez-le refroidir; incorporez-y une douzaine de macarons, dont six amers, une pincée de sel fin, un quarteron et demi de sucre, quatre œufs entiers et quatre jaunes, dont vous conserverez les blancs; beurrez une casserole avec du beurre clarifié; mettez-la sens dessus dessous, afin qu’elle s’égoutte; saupoudrez-la de mie de pain; fouettez vos quatre blancs d’œufs; incorporez-les légèrement dans votre riz; versez-le dans votre casserole qui devra vous servir de moule; mettez-le au four une demi-heure ou trois quarts d’heure avant de servir; sa cuisson achevée, dressez-le et servez-le de suite.
Vous pouvez faire un gâteau de vermicelle, et procéder en tout, comme il est dit pour le gâteau de riz.
Si vous voulez servir ce gâteau comme pouting de riz, masquez-le d’une sauce ainsi préparée :
Mettez dans une casserole la moitié d’une cuillerée à bouche de farine que vous délayerez avec de la crème, une cuillerée à café de fleur d’orange, un peu de sel fin, une cuillerée à bouche de sucre fin et gros de beurre comme une noix; mettez sur le feu cet appareil, tournez-le et faites-le cuire : sa cuisson faite, masquez, en le sortant du four, votre gâteau de riz, lequel, ainsi saucé, se nomme pouting : le gâteau de vermicelle se fait de même que celui de riz.

Antoine BeauvilliersL’Art du cuisinier, volume 2 (Paris: Pilet, 1814), Gâteau au Riz and its sauce, pp. 126–127

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Ingredients

For One 1.5-liter mold, 6 servings. Quantities are shown as written.

Quantities as written here, for One 1.5-liter mold, 6 servings.

Short-grain rice125 g
Whole milk500 ml
Finely grated lemon zest1 tsp
Crisp amaretti30 g
Soft almond macaroons30 g
Salt for the rice1/8 tsp
Sugar90 g
Eggs2
Eggs, separated2
Butter for the mold15 g
Fine dry breadcrumbs15 g
All-purpose flour1 1/2 tsp
Heavy cream150 ml
Orange-flower water1 tsp
Salt for the sauce1/8 tsp
Sugar for the sauce1 tbsp
Butter for the sauce10 g

Ingredients as written here

125 g short-grain rice
500 ml whole milk
1 tsp finely grated lemon zest
30 g crisp amaretti
30 g soft almond macaroons
1/8 tsp salt for the rice
90 g sugar
2 whole eggs
2 eggs, separated
15 g butter for the mold
15 g fine dry breadcrumbs
1 1/2 tsp all-purpose flour
150 ml heavy cream
1 tsp orange-flower water
1/8 tsp salt for the sauce
1 tbsp sugar for the sauce
10 g butter for the sauce

Equipment

Charlotte mold or deep round cake pan of about 1.5 liters
Heavy saucepan
Small saucepan and whisk
Electric mixer or whisk for the egg whites
Instant-read thermometer

Instructions

Rinse the short-grain rice, drop it into a pan of boiling water for 2 minutes and drain it.
Bring a third of the whole milk to a boil in the heavy saucepan with the lemon zest. Add the rice and simmer gently, stirring often and adding the rest of the milk a little at a time as it is absorbed, for about 30 minutes, until the rice is soft and thick enough to hold a ridge when stirred. Spread it in a bowl and let it cool for 30 minutes, until lukewarm.
Heat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Melt the butter for the mold, brush it over the inside of the mold, and turn the mold upside down for a minute to drain. Dust the inside with the breadcrumbs and tip out the excess.
Crush the crisp amaretti and the soft almond macaroons to coarse crumbs and stir them into the rice with the salt for the rice, the sugar, the whole eggs and the yolks of the separated eggs.
Whisk the whites to soft peaks and fold them lightly into the rice.
Pour the mixture into the mold and bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until risen and golden, a knife pushed into the center comes out clean and the center reads 160°F (71°C).
While it bakes, make the sauce. In the small saucepan, whisk the flour with a little of the heavy cream until smooth, then whisk in the rest of the cream, the orange-flower water, the salt for the sauce, the sugar for the sauce and the butter for the sauce. Cook over medium heat, stirring, until it boils and thickens, 3 to 4 minutes. Keep it warm.
Let the pudding stand for 5 minutes, run a knife around the edge and turn it out onto a warm plate. Pour the hot sauce over it straight away and serve.

Nutrition

420calories per serving

Recipe makes: One 1.5-liter mold, 6 servings
Servings: 6

Estimated per serving (6) from USDA FoodData Central values for short-grain rice, whole milk, sugar, eggs, amaretti, almond macaroons, heavy cream and butter.

Recipe notes

When adjusting quantities

This is half of Beauvilliers’s rice, eggs, sugar and macaroons, which fits a 1.5-liter mold. His full quantity needs a 3-liter mold and about 15 minutes more in the oven; the sauce, which he gives for one pudding, then doubles.

Notes

Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the servings.

Beauvilliers’s half livre of rice, about 245 g, and quarteron et demi of sugar, about 185 g, are halved here, along with his dozen macaroons and his four eggs and four yolks. He names “un peu de lait,” a little milk added gradually; 500 ml is our amount, as are the lemon zest grated in place of a whole zest, the 30-minute cooling, the oven temperature and the size of the mold. Melted butter replaces his clarified butter. His sauce leaves the cream unmeasured; we use 150 ml. He says the same method makes a vermicelli cake. Leftovers keep, covered and chilled within 2 hours, for up to 3 days. Contains milk, eggs, wheat and almonds.

Scaling changes the ingredients only; pan sizes and cooking times need their own judgment.