Depending on where you’re from, pudding can be anything, from savory to sweet. For certain countries, it’s a simple, gelatinized dessert, but it may even be the main course in other nations.
Thus, your journey of discovering pudding doesn’t end with instant pudding recipes. There’s a whole range of pudding cuisine to try out, from the most familiar, like homemade vanilla or chocolate pudding, to the bizarre, like black pudding.
I’ve compiled various recipes to cover as many flavors and types of puddings as possible. Start exploring the world’s different pudding cuisines with this post.
1. Homemade Chocolate Pudding
We’ll start our recipe compilation with more familiar flavors – like this homemade chocolate pudding from Taste of Home. It’s just like the chocolate pudding in a cup we loved eating as kids, just better because it’s homemade and from scratch.
You’ll need sugar, baking cocoa, cornstarch, salt, whole milk, butter, and vanilla extract. Except for butter and vanilla, combine the rest of the ingredients in a saucepan and boil over medium heat.
Add butter and vanilla; as simple as that, you have delicious chocolate pudding. As an upgrade, serve it topped with whipped cream and M&Ms!
2. Homemade Vanilla Pudding
Are you looking for an elegant-looking and delicious dessert that’s easy to make? This homemade vanilla pudding looks sophisticated yet effortless to prepare.
The vanilla pudding recipe calls for whole milk, cornstarch, salt, sugar, egg yolks, butter, and pure vanilla extract. Use vanilla bean paste for elevated flavors. Pure vanilla extract is the next best thing if you don’t have bean paste.
As for the milk, it’s preferable to use whole, but you can use coconut milk or almond milk. Use a medium saucepan for cooking the pudding, then serve with fresh berries and whipped cream.
3. Banana Pudding
This banana pudding looks more like a trifle than the usual pudding cups. But it’s still pudding, just in an elegant form with layers of sliced bananas, cream, and vanilla wafers.
To replicate this dessert, you’ll need the following: cold milk, vanilla, instant pudding mix, sweetened condensed milk, heavy whipping cream, vanilla wafers, fresh bananas, and powdered sugar. Combine instant pudding, milk, condensed milk, and whipping cream to form a whipped cream mixture.
Form the layers carefully, starting with the wafers, bananas, and whipped cream. Optional step, but you can drizzle salted caramel sauce or spread peanut butter between layers.
4. Meyer Lemon Pudding
If your flavor preferences lean towards tart and citrus, you must try this delicious Meyer lemon pudding. This homemade pudding uses Meyer lemon zest and juice, so the flavor comes through for the dessert.
A taste of this pudding also lets your tongue recall other great dessert recipes, specifically lemon curd, custard, and pie. Instead of making all those three (which takes time, effort, and money), make this pudding!
While the recipe specifies Meyer lemons, regular lemons are a great substitute. However, there are subtle changes in the flavor profile as Meyer lemons are sweeter and less acidic.
5. Mango Pudding
This mango pudding recipe from the Little Sweet Baker is a lovely dessert with tropical and sweet flavors. It’s silky smooth, elegant, and incredibly delicious when topped with fresh diced mangoes and shredded coconut.
I highly recommend using fresh mangoes to make the puree this recipe needs. But if you don’t have access to them, substitute with frozen or canned mango pulp. It won’t taste as fresh, but intense mango flavors remain.
Besides the mangoes, you’ll need hot water, unflavored gelatin, granulated sugar, salt, and coconut milk. Check the recipe for substitutes for gelatin and coconut milk.
6. Sticky Toffee Pudding
I’m not a fan of sticky desserts, but if it’s as good as this sticky toffee pudding is, I’m down for it. This decadent treat has two components: toffee sauce and cake, both from scratch.
For the toffee sauce, you’ll need heavy cream, unsalted butter, light corn syrup, and granulated sugar. The cake’s ingredients list comprises pitted dates, water, flour, baking powder and soda, salt, butter, brown sugar, egg, and vanilla.
Use ramekins for baking the cake to achieve the perfect shape and size. Make enough sauce to cover the cake and its layers. Serve with vanilla ice cream.
7. Butterscotch Pudding
Butterscotch is a rich combination of bourbon, butter, vanilla, and caramel. This complex of flavors elevates butterscotch from a sweet treat into a dessert with depth and dimension.
This pudding has milk, heavy cream, yolks, cornstarch, water, dark brown sugar, salt, butter, vanilla, and a choice of scotch or bourbon. Except for dark brown sugar and alcohol, the rest are common ingredients of most dessert puddings.
Dark brown sugar provides flavor and color, so make sure to use that instead of light brown sugar or regular granulated sugar. Top with salted caramel sauce and whipped cream.
8. Yorkshire Pudding
Starting with this Yorkshire pudding recipe, we’ll transition into more unusual recipes, which can be sweet or savory. This pudding, in particular, is a delicious baked pudding you can serve as a main course.
Unlike most dessert puddings which are silky smooth, Yorkshire pudding has a crispy exterior. It’s a mixture of eggs, flour, milk, salt, and water poured into a muffin tin greased with beef drippings. The drippings provide flavor.
Bake for up to 25 minutes, depending on the size of the Yorkshire puddings. Serve with some hot gravy and meat, and you have a meal!
9. Rice Pudding
Rice pudding is a sweet, creamy gruel that you’ll find quite a comforting dessert. It’s made with milk, sugar, salt, long grain rice, vanilla, and the optional cinnamon (although you’d want to add that).
Although cooked in a saucepan over heat, rice pudding isn’t served warm. Once done, it’s refrigerated to cool. Then, it’s eaten with milk, ground cinnamon, or raisins.
While making the rice pudding, note its consistency. You’ll want it to be as thick as yogurt, so there should be more milk than rice. Thickening the pudding takes time, so be patient.
10. Bread Pudding
Bread pudding is such a popular dish. It has many variants worldwide, such as those from the United Kingdom, the Philippines, Mexico, Belgium, and Hong Kong. This recipe is a New Orleans version.
Making this recipe is a way to reuse leftover bread, as it’s added to a milk mixture made with sugar, eggs, and raisins. Along with the sauce, they hide the bread’s stale flavor.
This recipe serves the pudding with bourbon sauce, but they also provided tips for an alcohol-free version. But if you want that kick from the bourbon, even the bread pudding has whiskey.
11. Cabinet Pudding
Around Europe, especially in the United Kingdom, you’ll encounter a great variety of pudding, such as bread, diplomat, castle, and Malvern. One of them is this cabinet pudding, which you may know as chancellors or Newcastle pudding.
Some common ingredients unite cabinet pudding recipes: sponge cake, fruits, and sweet sauce. This recipe uses a readymade sponge cake, butter, glazed cherries, amaretti biscuits, eggs, caster sugar, thin cream, and Amaretto (or kirsch).
Steam the pudding mixture to cook, then serve with heavy cream. Overall, cabinet pudding is like a sweet custard with a unique texture.
12. Black Pudding
When you read “black pudding,” what you imagined is probably unlike the real thing. This is not a black-colored, sweet treat. It’s a savory pudding made with blood and oats.
In all forms and appearances, it’s more of a blood sausage than pudding. Eating cooked blood may seem bizarre, but it’s part of many cultures worldwide, not just that of the UK and Ireland.
If you’re curious, why not try out this recipe? You’ll need dried pig blood, pork fat, onion, porridge oats, pearl barley, spices, and seasonings. You also need black pudding casings to mold the sausage.
13. Hot Pudding
Most of the time, you eat pudding after it’s cooled, especially when it’s a dessert. On the other hand, hot pudding is a dessert best eaten while warm, hence, the name.
This hot pudding recipe from Sugar, Spice, and Glitter is specially designed for kids. Thus, if you have young kids at home, I highly encourage you to make this pudding with them so they can enjoy both the making and eating process.
You’ll only need a microwave, hot chocolate mix, cornstarch, and milk. You can also add flavorings, like butterscotch, and garnishes, like chocolate chips.
14. Queen of Puddings
With a name like Queen of Puddings, it isn’t surprising that this dish is from Britain. A look and taste of this traditional British treat will tell you that it does provide sophistication and elegance that lives up to the name.
This pudding features a meringue topping, jam filling, and custard base. You’ll only need seven ingredients to make those elements: butter, milk, lemon zest, sugar, breadcrumbs, eggs, and jam.
Cook the custard first before in a breadcrumb-coated casserole dish. Then, spread jam over the cooked custard before covering it with soft meringue. Toast the meringue before serving!
15. Malvern Pudding
As I’ve emphasized, the United Kingdom is abundant with puddings, and to wrap up our post, we will end with one of them – the Malvern pudding. It’s an apple custard pudding from Worcestershire, featuring a caramelized sugar topping.
It looks like a creme brulee because of the dark caramelized sugar hiding a creamy custard underneath. However, the bottom layer of Malvern pudding comprises a cooked apple mixture, which contributes exciting flavors and texture.
Pour the custard mixture over the apples. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar blend all over the custard before the whole dish is perfectly grilled.
15 Delicious Pudding Recipes
Make the best sweet and savory puddings from around the world with these recipes.
Ingredients
Homemade Chocolate Pudding
Homemade Vanilla Pudding
Banana Pudding
Meyer Lemon Pudding
Mango Pudding
Sticky Toffee Pudding
Butterscotch Pudding
Yorkshire Pudding
Rice Pudding
Bread Pudding
Cabinet Pudding
Black Pudding
Hot Pudding
Queen of Puddings
Malvern Pudding
Directions
- Select your favorite recipe.
- Organize all the required ingredients.
- Prep a pudding in 30 minutes or less!