Growing up I thought that to make “homemade” vanilla pudding you opened a box, added milk and gave it shake. When I learned that you could make real homemade pudding with staples from your pantry and refrigerator, I was hooked.

Once you make homemade vanilla pudding you’ll never go back the boxed stuff again.

Ingredients

¼ cup cornstarch
2/3 cup sugar
¼ tsp salt
2 cups scalded milk
3 slightly beaten egg yolks
2 tbsp butter
½ tsp vanilla

How to Make Vanilla Pudding

Scald the milk in a thick bottomed pot. I like to melt an ice cube in the bottom of the pan to keep the milk from scotching.

In double boiler, mix cornstarch, sugar and salt. Gradually whisk in the scalded milk. I don’t have a real double boiler, so I just use a metal bowl over a pot, just like when I make lemon curd. It works just fine.

Stir continually and cook until thickened (about 10 minutes). 

Add some of the thickened mixture to the yolks to warm them up. Then add this egg mixture to the milk mixture. Mix in well. If you’re using fresh farm eggs, the vanilla pudding will have a yellow color, if you’re using store bought eggs, it will have a cream color.

Cook 5 more minutes.

Add the butter and vanilla. Stir well.

Remove from heat. Allow to cool. 

If we’re going to serve the pudding in individual servings, I’ll go ahead and put them in the dishes and then let them cool. If we’re using it for something like a punch bowl cake, I’ll just let it cool in the pan.

Making a Punch Bowl Cake

One of our favorite ways to use homemade pudding is to make Punch Bowl Cake with it. We call it that because you layer the ingredients in a punch bowl. You can make all kinds of Punch Bowl Cakes but one of our favorites is strawberry-banana.

To make this you need about 3-4 bananas sliced, a pound of sliced strawberries, an angel food cake that has been cut up and a double batch of homemade vanilla pudding.

In a punch bowl you layer the cake, then pudding, then bananas and strawberries. You continue layering until you run out of stuff. I can usually get 2 layers in my big punch bowl and 3 in my smaller one.

This is also a nice desert to put in individual dessert cups.

Tried this recipe? Please leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ star rating in the recipe card below and/or a review in the comment section further down the page. We always appreciate your feedback. You can also save the recipe for later by pinning it or clicking on the heart in the lower right hand corner.

Thanks for sharing with your friends!