I have given this hearty old-fashioned recipe a modern adult twist with the addition of raisins soaked in dark rum – Havana Club or similar will do the trick. It’s the perfect dessert for a winter’s night and any leftovers will be terrific eaten cold. Hopefully you’ll agree this is light years ahead of the claggy version most people remember from school dinners.

Baked rice pudding with rum-soaked raisins

Serves 4

100ml dark rum

100ml water

150g raisins

1300ml milk

150g caster sugar

20g butter

1 cinnamon stick

2 vanilla pods (cut in half and scraped)

125g pudding rice

1 small piece of nutmeg

50g demerara sugar

Start by warming the rum and water in a small saucepan, then add the raisins and remove from the heat. Allow the raisins to soak in the rum for one hour.

Set the oven to 140C/120C fan/gas mark 0.5.

In a large saucepan bring the milk, sugar, butter, cinnamon stick, vanilla pods and rice to the boil. Once boiling remove from the heat and pour into a large casserole style baking dish. Add the raisins and any remaining liquid in the saucepan to the rice and stir thoroughly before grating the nutmeg finely over the top. Place the dish in the oven and bake for between 90 minutes and two hours.

After this time the rice should be cooked, having absorbed all the milk, and it should have a thick consistency.

Now sprinkle the demerara sugar over the top of the rice and grill until glazed before serving.