Rice Gelato

Nevermind that it's 20 degrees outside - I'm making ice cream! This recipe is from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz. It's a gorgeous cookbook with all the traditional ice creams and sorbets. Some, however, are more unusual, like this recipe. It's essentially a frozen rice pudding. I wasn't sure if I liked it better than rice pudding at first, until I sprinkled a little cinnamon on top, and then it started to grow on me. I bet I'd like it even better if it were 80 degrees outside and not a bitter 20!

Rice Gelato
from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

1/2 cup arborio rice
3 cups whole milk
3/4 cup sugar
pinch of salt
1 vanilla bean, split in half lengthwise
two 1-inch wide strips of orange zest
5 large egg yolks
1 cup half-and-half or cream
pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

To cook the rice, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a 2-quart baking dish, stir together the rice, milk, 1/4 cup of the sugar, and the salt. Add the vanilla bean and strips of orange zest. Cover the dish snugly with aluminum foil and bake for one hour.
Remove the rice from the oven and remove the foil. Stir in the remaining 1/2 cup sugar, then continue to bake the rice, uncovered, for another 30 minutes, until it is tender. There should be about 1/2 inch of milk covering the rice.
Remove the rice from the oven, remove the vanilla bean and orange zest, and briskly whisk in the egg yolks all at once. Then whisk in the half-and-half and nutmeg.
Puree half of the rice mixture in a blender or food processor until chopped quite fine, then stir it back into the cooked rice.
Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.
(The ice cream is hard to scoop right out of the freezer, so I place the container in the microwave for a few seconds, until it is scoopable. This also softens the grains of rice for a little yummy chewiness.)