Did you mark your calendar for National Rice Pudding Day on the 9th of August? We’re celebrating the beloved comfort food that’s eaten all over the world by offering you this wonderful vanilla rice pudding recipe with Difference Coffee caramel sauce. The recipe was created just for us by our friend and Michelin two-star chef Mickael Vijanen.
Vijanen’s Vanilla Rice Pudding recipe couldn’t be simpler – just slowly simmer and stir your choice of round-grain rice with sugar, vanilla and milk in a pan until it’s thick and creamy. The gourmet touch comes with folding a sweetened whipped cream into the pudding. Finally, it’s drizzled with a beautiful home-made caramel infused with our Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee.
Vanilla Rice Pudding Recipe With Coffee Caramel Sauce
Vanilla Rice Pudding
Ingredients
- 1.2l milk
- 200g rice (pudding, arborio, bomba, or any round grain rice)
- 1 vanilla pod (seeds and pod)
- 130g caster or brown sugar
Method
Place all in the pot, bring to gentle simmer for 45min stirring often, cool down.
Coffee Caramel
- 150g caster sugar
- 2 capsules of Jamaica Blue Mountain Espresso
- 35g butter diced
- 100ml cream (softly whipped)
- pinch of salt
Method
Caramelise sugar in a pot, add coffee and stir followed by butter, stir and dissolve, and add whipped cream (whipping cream before adding will help to achieve dissolving the sugar and results to much less lumps)
Cook until desired texture and serve with rice pudding.
To Finish
Ingredients
- 350ml cream
- 30g icing sugar
- coffee caramel
Method
Whip to soft peaks and fold in to rice, serve with coffee caramel
About Mickael Vijanen
Mickael Vijanen has been the head chef of The Greenhouse restaurant in Dublin since its opening in 2012. He earned the acclaimed restaurant its first Michelin star in 2016 and its second in 2020. He was also named “Best Chef in Ireland” at the Food and Wine Awards in 2019.

Vijanen is originally from Finland, where he rose to a head chef position at the young age of 23, and he has been making his mark on the Irish culinary scene since 2000. Mickael’s ingredient-driven cuisine incorporates Scandinavian and Irish traditions along with French influences, but he eschews the concept of a signature style. His approach is dynamic, innovative and entirely unique; simple and sophisticated at the same time.