Ingredients in Homemade Vanilla Pudding recipe
How to make homemade Vanilla Pudding from scratch
Homemade Vanilla Pudding
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 Tbsp. cornstarch
- 3 cups half-and-half
- 4 egg yolks lightly beaten
- 1 Tbsp. butter
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1/4 tsp salt
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar and cornstarch and then add the half-and-half. Gently stir over medium heat until bubbling. Once the mixture starts bubbling, cook and stir for 2 more minutes.
- Remove from heat and add one cup of the mixture to the egg yolks. Slowly whisk the egg yolk mixture into the rest of the half-and-half mixture in the saucepan. Bring to a gentle boil and reduce heat to low. Cook and stir 2 minutes more.
- Remove from heat and add the butter, vanilla and salt. Mix until well combined and then pour into six individual dishes or one larger container. Cover the top with plastic wrap and let the pudding stand for about 45 minutes. You can either serve it warm at this point or chill in the refrigerator before serving. It takes at least a few hours to get really cold and I prefer it that way, but it really is delicious at any temperature.
Can you make vanilla pudding with other kinds of milk?
I usually make pudding with half and half, but you can use regular milk. The higher the fat content, the thicker the pudding will be, but the flavor of the pudding doesn’t change too much no matter what kind of milk you use.
Can you make other flavors of pudding?
This recipe for vanilla pudding is very easy to tweak a little bit to make a few different flavors! If you want to make butterscotch pudding, just swap out the granulated sugar with dark brown sugar and keep everything else the same. To make chocolate pudding, increase the sugar to 1 1/3 cups and then add 1/3 cup cocoa powder at the same time you add the sugar. Omit the butter, but leave everything else the same.
What do you serve with vanilla pudding?
This vanilla pudding recipe is delicious plain, but I love to add fruit to the top for a delicious (and pretty!) dessert! My kids love having pudding as a fun little treat after school and it’s a great way to get them to eat lots of fresh fruit. We love eating vanilla pudding with blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries – any kind of berry is delicious!
Love dessert? So do we! Here are some other simple dessert recipes:
- Mandarin Orange Cake (with Whipped Pineapple Frosting)
- Glazed Strawberry Fruit Pizza
- Strawberry Cake Mix Cookies
- Lemon Drop Glazed Mini Cupcakes
- Sugar Cookie Cupcakes
- Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Raspberry Vanilla Jello Salad
- Better than Caramel Popcorn
- Oreo Balls
- Snickerdoodle Apple Pie Cookie Cups
- Lemon Cheesecake Bars
- Mini No-Bake Cheesecakes
Alice says
I just made chocolate pudding from scratch today! The recipe was pretty similar. I put most of the pudding into popsicle molds for fudgesicles.
Fanele says
Best Vanilla pudding I have ever are u are so amazing
Alison says
So glad you love it Fanele!
Mrs. Martin says
I’ve made this recipe twice now, and I LOVE the flavor! However, both times my pudding hasn’t been completely smooth. I would almost describe the texture as grainy. It’s still completely delicious, it’s just not the smooth texture I want. Do you know why this could be?
Nellie says
I’m not sure! It seems like the only thing that would cause the pudding to be grainy would be the sugar if it wasn’t completely dissolved…so maybe cook just a little bit longer and see if the sugar dissolves fully at that point?
Diana says
No fail delicious pudding!
Alison says
I’m so glad you love it Diana!
Ash says
I love love love this recipe! Delicious! I use half the amount of vanilla, but that’s just my taste preference. I’ve made this 3 times in the past week!
Meghan says
Added a little extra vanilla only because I love vanilla. Higher quality really does matter here. I ran the cooked pudding through a fine mesh strainer after cooking for ocd reasons but my goodness, it’s so good. Smooth.