My family loves pudding, but the powdered and already-made versions are bland, expensive, and not very healthy. I researched recipes and realized just how easy and economical it is to make. I was looking for an egg-free recipe and ran across this one on All Recipes. I had about a cup of milk left in my fridge before going shopping, so I figured I’d experiment by halving the recipe below. It took all of five minutes to make. What an amazingly delicious recipe! Top with homemade whipped cream (whip some sugar and heavy cream until it forms peaks). You’ve got a frugal, quick, healthier and delicious dessert for pennies!
- Pouring my experimental vanilla pudding into small glasses to be topped later with homemade whipped cream.
Vanilla Pudding Recipe (adapted from All Recipes)
- 2 cups cold milk (I used Trader Joe’s whole organic milk cut with water and I’ll try almond milk another time)
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon butter
Put all ingredients into a bowl, except the butter. This step prevents lumps from forming when cooking. Briskly whisk ingredients in bowl. (Next time I plan to use an electric mixer for this step to eliminate every potential lump.) Then, pour ingredients into pot on medium high heat, whisk more, then wait for bubbling to start. Don’t boil. Add in butter, whisk. Lower heat, keep whisking (it thickens up quickly). Take off of heat, pour into cups/glasses, chill in fridge. Enjoy!
Enjoy! ~Marilyn, TFF
Related articles
- Homemade Vanilla Pudding Mix (cupcakesandcandles.wordpress.com)
- Banana Pudding (21nogluten.wordpress.com)
Two Frugal Fairfielders 
did you try almond milk? i’m curious how that turned out if you tried it. or if anyone else has. cost effective it’s cheaper to use milk but for my family cow milk is no welcomed.
Thanks for the follow up. I tried runnign the numbers, minus the cost fo the milk, as that would be the same, regardless of the mix vs fropm scratch.
sugar-15 cents worth ($3/5 lb bag)
cornstarch ?
salt-negligible
1 tsp vanilla -6 cents (I use Penzey’s double strength $18/8 oz bottle, I’d use 1/2 tsp)
butter-6 cents ($2/lb)
Total 40 cents not including cornstarch. If one were to use organics, this would also bring the cost up. SInce I am currently spending 33-50 cents a box, the from scratch is about equal in cost for me.
Huge thanks for running numbers! Homemade is great when there’s nothing sweet in the house and these items are usually always on hand. It tastes so much richer than boxed mixes, though. That’s a selling point for me, too. ~M
Did you do an actual cost comparison? While the 2 cups of milk is moot (that is what a box mix requires) how much was the total for your sugar, cornstarch, salt, vanilla and butter? How does that compare to what you have been paying for a box mix? I’ve been meaning to try from scratch pudding but I am not certain that it will yield significant savings. I usually pay 33-50 cents/4 serving box mix.
Oh my goodness, it was pennies, literally–the most expensive part was the milk, I’d imagine, but of course that’s halved with water. I made this from scratch more for the health benefits– also my kids are beginning to really hate anything that smacks of processed taste. Yay! As far as chocolate goes….that’s another experiment.~Marilyn