Mana's Southern Rice Pudding (my favorite way to eat rice!)

Ever wondered what to do with leftover cooked rice. I'll tell you what to do - make a rich and comforting baked rice pudding, the very essence of "comfort food." I've seen some recipes that are cooked on top of the stove, but mom's was baked in the oven where it develops into a wonderful custard. It's great just like that, but I saw a recipe in a Southern Living Magazine once that added two ingredients at the end and made a crunchy caramel brulee-like top and although I've never tried it, I'm putting it here because I think it would really be the pièces de résistance. Prep time on this is only 5 min. It cooks for 1 hr. 30 min. This recipe serves 4.

Ingredients
4 eggs, beaten
3 cups milk
1 cup sugar
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups cooked leftover cooked rice ( If you don't have leftover rice cook 1/2 c. uncooked rice with one 1 c. water. Let rice fully cool before using. )
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ cup raisins

Instructions
Beat eggs. Stir in sugar. Add other ingredients. Stir.
Spray oven proof casserole dish with Pam. Pour mixture into dish.
Set dish in pan of hot water and bake at 300 degrees for 90 minutes.
After 30 minutes of cooking insert spoon at edge of pudding and stir from the bottom to distribute rice and raisins.

Place the baking dish in a larger pan and filled with hot water to within 1” of the top of the baking dish. To make this easier to handle, I place my filled baking dish in the empty larger pan. Then sit it on the oven rack and add the water. Much easier than trying to carry the pan filled with hot water and pudding all together! Bake uncovered for 1 to 1 ½ hours. Stir well after the first 30 minutes of baking, pulling the rice/custard up from the bottom.. Continue baking until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Start checking after the first full hour of cooking and remove immediately when done. Do not overcook. This is good at room temperature or chilled (I prefer it warm.)

Allow the pudding to cool for about 30 minutes.

Combine the sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Sprinkle over the cooled pudding. Place under the broiler (or use a torch) until the topping is melted and bubbly.
Topping:
2 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon