Polish rice with apples (ryż z jabłkami) is basically a casserole made with rice pudding and cinnamon apples. It’s topped with sweetened sour cream and baked in the oven. I think everyone who grew up in Poland had this dish prepared by their grandma. I’m sure you can imagine how good it is – pure comfort food. My kids love this so much!
Ingredients
Here’s what you need to prepare this dish:
The rice is cooked with milk and water, although you can cook it with just milk (it will take a little bit longer to cook). I don’t recommend cooking it with just water. It’s sweetened with sugar and seasoned with vanilla (although in Poland usually vanilla sugar and not extract is being used). Regular, long-grain rice is used for this recipe.
Apples a cooked quickly to evaporate all the juices and to soften the apples. They are seasoned with vanilla and lemon juice. I like to use sweet apples such as Gala for this recipe. Soft apple varieties are preferred because the apples will soften more quickly.
You can also use sour apples but you may need to add more sugar to sweeten them.
Sour cream topping is not very traditional, to be honest, the rice is usually topped with just butter slices or poured with heavy cream if milk has not been used to cook the rice. I’ve seen this topping once on a website of a Polish grocery store and absolutely loved it. Now I always top this casserole with this topping.
There is not a lot of topping – most of it will be absorbed by the rice while baking so you could double the amount if you’d like this dish even more indulgent.
How to make it step by step
STEP 1: Cook the rice: Add all the ingredients into a medium/large pot. Bring to a boil, stir until the butter is melted, cover the pot and cook over lowest heat for 20 minutes.
STEP 2: Take the pot off the heat, the mixture will look too runny but after a couple of stirs the rice should absorb the excess liquid (the rice should be just a little bit runny).
Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
While the rice is cooking, prepare the apples.
STEP 3: Peel the apples then grate them on the large holes of a box grater.
Heat the butter in a large frying pan over medium heat. When hot add the apples and the remaining ingredients.
STEP 4: Cook for 5-10 minutes or until the apples are softened. The apples shouldn’t be too dry, just most of the liquid should be evaporated.
STEP 5: Grease a baking dish with butter (I used a 9-inch/23cm deep dish pie plate), spread 1/2 of the rice.
STEP 6: Top with all the apples, even out the surface.
STEP 7: Spread the remaining 1/2 of the rice.
STEP 8: Sift powdered sugar then combine it with sour cream. Spread sweetened sour cream on top of the rice.
Bake for 30 minutes.
Take out of the oven and sprinkle with cinnamon, wait about 5 minutes for the rice to set then divide into servings.
Serve warm with more sweetened sour cream/sweetened heavy cream/whipped cream and enjoy!
NOTE: Baking is not obligatory, you can just serve cooked rice with sauteed apples but in that case I would cut the apples into small cubes instead of shredding them.
Storage
This dish tastes best right after it’s been made, warm. It can also be reheated. It makes a great make-ahead breakfast. Keep it in the fridge, wrapped in foil, for up to 3 days. Reheat in a microwave or in the oven. Serve warm.
More Polish dessert recipes for you to try
- Pączki (Polish Doughnuts)
- Piernik – Polish Gingerbread Loaf
- Sernik – Polish cheesecake recipe
- Polish apple pancakes (with yeast)
- Chrusciki recipe (Faworki or Polish angel wings)
- Naleśniki recipe (Polish crepes with sweet cheese filling)
- Blueberry Pierogi
- Sweet cheese pierogi
- Rogaliki recipe (orange walnut rugelach)
- Fluffy sweet steamed buns with blueberry sauce (Pampuchy)
Did you make this recipe? RATE THE RECIPE or tell me in the COMMENTS how you liked it! You can also add a photo of your dish. It would make me very happy and will help other readers. Thank you!!
Polish Rice with Apples
Ingredients
for the rice layer:
- 1 1/4 cups rice 240g
- 2 cups milk 480g
- 3/4 cup water 180g
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
for the apples:
- 2 lbs (900g) apples
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- pinch of salt
for the topping:
- 1/2 cup sour cream 120g
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar 30g
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Instructions
- Cook the rice: Add all the ingredients into a medium/large pot. Bring to a boil, stir until the butter is melted, cover the pot and cook over lowest heat for 20 minutes. Take the pot off the heat, the mixture will look too runny but after a couple of stirs the rice should absorb the excess liquid (the rice should be just a little bit runny).
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
- While the rice is cooking, prepare the apples.
- Peel the apples then grate them on the large holes of a box grater.
- Heat the butter in a large frying pan over medium heat. When hot add the apples and the remaining ingredients. Cook for 5-10 minutes or until the apples are softened. The apples shouldn’t be too dry, just most of the liquid should be evaporated.
- Grease a baking dish with butter (I used a 9-inch/23cm deep dish pie plate), spread 1/2 of the rice, then top with all the apples, even out the surface and spread the remaining 1/2 of the rice.
- Sift powdered sugar then combine it with sour cream. Spread sweetened sour cream on top of the rice.
- Bake for 30 minutes.
- Take out of the oven and sprinkle with cinnamon, wait about 5 minutes for the rice to set then divide into servings.
- Serve warm with more sweetened sour cream/sweetened heavy cream/whipped cream and enjoy!
Notes
- Baking is not obligatory, you can just serve cooked rice with sauteed apples but in that case I would cut the apples into small cubes instead of shredding them.
- Calories = 1 serving (1/5 of the recipe). This is only an estimate!
2 Comments
Joan
20 February 2022 at 01:13Yum. I can’t wait to try these recipes
Aleksandra
20 February 2022 at 07:16thank you!