Orange Rice Pudding

I have this thing for rice pudding. Thanks to Tuesday's with Dorie, now whenever I see a recipe for rice pudding, I have an urge to try it and compare it to Dorie's recipe. I think that rice pudding is pretty much always on the light side as far as desserts go, even if it is made with whole milk, but this was a lighter version I saw in Woman's Day Magazine. I love the combination of orange and cardamom, so I put this little dessert on the menu.
We liked it. I still think that Dorie's recipe is the best one I have tried, but this one was good. If you don't like cardamom or aren't familiar with it, I would reduce the amount or go with cinnamon. I really love cardamom and can't get enough of it, so I thought is was a great combination.
I recently stocked up on Arborio rice since I have fallen in love with risotto and rice pudding. Great stuff, that arborio. I can't wait to try more rice pudding.

Orange Rice Pudding from Woman's Day
Active Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 5 hours
INGREDIENTS
2⁄3 cup Arborio rice

8 cups water

Pinch of salt

4 cups protein-fortified fat-free milk

3 Tbsp each packed light brown sugar and granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1⁄2 tsp grated orange zest

1⁄4 tsp ground cardamom or cinnamon
PREPARATION
1. Place rice in sieve. Rinse under cold water, stirring with fingers to remove excess surface starch. Place in a 5-qt saucepan with water and salt, and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium and boil 7 minutes, or until tender. Drain rice; return to pot.

2. Stir milk and sugars into rice, stirring to dissolve sugars. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low to maintain a slow simmer. Simmer, stirring frequently at first and constantly toward the end, for about 25 minutes, or until rice doubles in size, is very soft and tender, and milk has the consistency of heavy cream (mixture will be very liquidy).

3. Pour into a bowl; stir in vanilla, orange zest and cardamom. Cover surface of pudding with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming. Let cool. Refrigerate until chilled, about 4 hours, before serving.

Orange Rice Pudding Parfaits: For each parfait, spoon 1⁄4 cup orange rice pudding into a glass, then top with 3 orange sections, 1 Tbsp thawed reduced-calorie whipped topping and 1 tsp fat-free butterscotch caramel topping. Repeat layers

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