Homemade Pudding

Make homemade chocolate or vanilla pudding from scratch using this simple recipe.

When I got my wisdom teeth out a few weeks ago, I was dying for something that tasted good and didn’t hurt my mouth, but I couldn’t go to the store. After searching online, I found a recipe for homemade pudding using stuff I had on hand. Could it possibly be as good as boxed pudding? I was desperate enough to give it a try.

A few minutes in the kitchen, and guess what? I made perfect pudding from scratch! It tastes as good as the Jello kind, if not better. I have made vanilla and chocolate, and they are both super tasty. And the best part is that this recipe only uses ingredients I almost always have on hand, so now I can make pudding any time I want.

And believe me, I have been making it. A lot. Ha!

So here’s the recipe, along with some tips I have discovered for getting the pudding to turn out perfectly.

Homemade Pudding
Makes 3 servings 

3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
1 tablespoon butter
2 teaspoons vanilla

2 tablespoons cocoa powder (optional)

Mix together cornstarch, sugar and salt (and cocoa if you want chocolate pudding) in a pot. Slowly whisk in cold milk until all lumps disappear.

Place pot on medium heat and whisk constantly until the mixture just starts to thicken, and is just about to start boiling. One of the times I made this, I let it cook too long and the pudding was too thick for my liking, so if yours is too thick, you’ll know you cooked it too long.

Remove from heat; add butter and vanilla. Place pot in a bowl of ice water and stir until it stops steaming. (This prevents a hard skin from forming on the top of the pudding, which, believe me, is kinda gross.)

Pour into serving dishes and refrigerate until cold and set.