Start by rinsing and draining the rice. Then add the rice to a large pot. Add the sugar, milk, butter, and vanilla to the rice and stir them together.
Turn the stove on high heat until the milk starts to boil. Then reduce the heat to medium. Cover with a lid while the rice pudding is cooking. Stir the rice pudding every 7-10 minutes.
Cook the rice for 45-50 minutes. To test if it's ready, take out a small amount of rice and taste it to make sure that it's soft and chewy, and not crunchy. *Blow on it first to cool it off before testing it so that you don't burn yourself!
Once the rice has cooked, remove from heat. Most of the liquid will have evaporated, but there should still be a some liquid left. The consistency should be fairly runny. If you like the pudding to be thicker, you can cook the pudding for longer and adjust it to your preference.
Once you have removed the rice pudding from the heat, add in the coconut cream. This will make the rice pudding thicker.
You can add the cinnamon into the rice pudding and mix it in, or you can leave it out and top each bowl of rice pudding that you serve with a layer of cinnamon (like I have in the photos above).
You can enjoy the rice pudding warm or refrigerate it and enjoy it cold. You can store in the fridge for about 5-7 days.
Video
Notes
Be sure to use a large enough pot. You want to have room to boil the milk and for the rice to increase in volume.
Don't skip the stirring! Make sure you stir the rice every 7-10 minutes while cooking to prevent it from sticking.
Don't turn the heat too high. Cook the pudding on medium low heat to medium heat to ensure the rice cooks evenly.
Store leftover pudding in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 5-7 days. Leftover rice pudding can be reheated in the oven or microwave or enjoyed cold.