Rice pudding, the simple dessert-cum-comfort food, is having a renaissance in the foodie world as the classic, sweet rice dish is becoming a trendy food of the moment. The #ricepudding hashtag on Instagram is already full of social media foodies showing off their latest takes on and additions to the staple dessert.

The creamy bowls even featured on Lena Dunham's HBO series, Girls, when characters Hannah and Jessa argue in a New York rice pudding shop. Waitrose has even said that the trend has led to 8% year on year increases in sales, with experts suggesting that rice pudding is 'must-have' food of 2016.

Searches online for special rice pudding recipes have increased with the Stem Ginger and Orange Rice Pudding recipe up 400% year on year and the Vanilla Rice Pudding with Bay and Toasted Almonds recipe up 90%.

A photo posted by Susanna (@eatsleepgreen) on

Waitrose executive chef Jonathan Moore said this year is "all about whimsical reincarnations" of the dessert, with places like Jason Atherton's Pollen Street Social and Berner's Tavern serving re-invented rice puddings.

More continued: "The simplicity of rice pudding makes it the perfect base for a huge range of flavours. It can cope with rich, intense ingredients like dark chocolate or truffle, and works really well with tangy, citrus ingredients too.

"This trend shows it doesn't matter how humble the beginnings – a bit of imagination and experimentation is all it takes to make a dish cool again."

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