Description
Rich and creamy and so easy to make, vanilla pudding can be dressed up for a special occasion or just simply served as a wholesome snack.
Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- Pinch of kosher salt
- 2 cups milk (see Note 1)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (see Note 2)
- 2 egg yolks
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- Fruit for serving, optional (see Note 3)
Instructions
- Mix dry ingredients and milk. Whisk together sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a medium saucepan. Add milk and vanilla paste and whisk until cornstarch is dissolved.
- Bring to boil. Place the saucepan over medium heat. Cook, whisking constantly until the mixture comes to a boil and begins to thicken. Remove from heat.
- Whisk eggs. In a medium bowl, whisk egg yolks until lightly beaten.
- Mix together. Slowly pour half the milk mixture into the eggs while whisking the egg mixture constantly. Pour the egg mixture back into the saucepan and place over medium heat.
- Cook pudding. Cook over medium heat while whisking the pudding until it simmers and thickens, about 2 minutes.
- Add vanilla and butter. Remove saucepan from heat. Add vanilla extract and butter, and whisk until butter is completely melted.
- Cool. Cool the pudding by putting the pan in an ice bath, being careful not to get any water into the pudding. Allow the saucepan to sit in the ice bath until the pudding is cool, whisking occasionally, about 15 minutes. (See Note 4)
- Pour. Pour pudding into dessert cups and refrigerate until set.
- Serve. Top with choice of fruit and serve.
Notes
- You can use non-fat, low-fat, or whole milk depending on your preference. Whole milk will give you the richest flavor but non-fat or low-fat are still quite good (and lower in fat).
- If you don’t have vanilla bean paste, you can omit it or substitute in half a vanilla bean that has been split and the seeds scraped out and added to the milk. Remove the vanilla bean pod before whisking the milk into the eggs.
- For this post, I topped the pudding with chopped blood orange supremes and some juice. You can also use chopped strawberries or whole raspberries.
- If you are not in a hurry, you can skip the ice bath in Step 6. Instead, pour the warm pudding into individual serving cups then press a piece of plastic wrap against the top of the pudding (this will keep a skin from forming). Chill until set.
