Homemade Vanilla Pudding Recipe- Vegan, Refined Sugar Free Options

I love pudding. My kids really love pudding as well. Who doesn't love pudding?
My kids would love if I would give them pudding every day, but buying pudding can get pretty expensive, and I don't even want to think about all the junk in the pudding from the store.
So I just make my own pudding. I have included 2 different alternative recipes for vanilla pudding- one is refined sugar free, but it's more expensive. The other is with regular sugar, though I bet it would work just as great with coconut sugar or other non refined granulated sugars, though again, that ups the price.
One thing I like about making pudding is that you can use it to make a fancy dish, like this parfait shown, by layering your homemade pudding, crumbled cookies or cakes, and homemade jam. In fact, the cookies in that picture were an experimental batch of cookies that I made that ended up being too crumbly but tasted great- so into a parfait they went! I've also made parfait with cakes that were too crumbly. I layered them with the pudding and homemade plum jam that I made with free plums that I picked myself.
Both recipes for pudding that I am posting are egg free, and both can be made vegan easily by using dairy free milk in place of the dairy milk.
Of course, I use homemade dairy free milks to keep down the price, but if you don't have the time to make them yourself and/or don't mind the price increase, you can certainly use store bought non dairy milks. I have not tried making these with other non dairy milks, such as rice or oat or soy milk, but feel free to experiment with them.

Homemade Vanilla Pudding Recipe- Vegan, Refined Sugar Free Options

Homemade Vanilla Pudding Ingredients
4 cups sunflower, almond, or dairy milk
1/2 cup potato, corn, or tapioca starch
3/4 cup sugar
1 pinch ground vanilla (I use homemade) or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pinch salt

Refined Sugar Free Vanilla Pudding Ingredients
5 cups milk (almond, coconut, sunflower, dairy milk)
1/2 cup honey
2 cups potato, corn, or tapioca starch
1-2 teaspoons vanilla or 1 pinch ground vanilla
1/2 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions:
1. Mix all the ingredients together.

2. Whisk well to ensure no clumps.

3. Heat over a medium flame, stirring constantly, until thickened. Be very careful not to let any stuff stick to the bottom, because this burns easily.

4. Serve either hot or chilled.

Enjoy!

Do you like pudding? Do you usually buy it or make it from scratch? How do you usually make yours? Does this look like a recipe you'd try?

Penniless Parenting

Mommy, wife, writer, baker, chef, crafter, sewer, teacher, babysitter, cleaning lady, penny pincher, frugal gal

9 Comments

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  1. I looove homemade Pudding! :-) The only plant-milk that never worked is rice milk, it just does not thicken at all. So I ended up with a rich chocolate drink. :D

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  2. Thanks for providing so many options! I look forward to trying these!

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  3. Can I use flour instead of potato starch?

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  4. I was wondering how do the kids do when it's time to eat down and eat and its not something they like? My son usually wants the same dishes over and over when I introduce something different or new (produce have on hand or trying a new recipe) he doesn't want to eat or give it try to see if he likes it. I either eat cause I will not waste or try to make something different out of it. I just was wondering what u and hub do.Thanks

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  5. I might have to give this a shot. The recipes I've used usually involve tempered eggs. It thickens beautifully and tastes divine, but it is a bit of a pain to make, as it involves tempering the eggs and then cooking the pudding until it thickens again.

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    1. IF you're used to recipes with tempered eggs, I'm just warning you that this wont be as rich. the yolk adds a richness to the recipe that you dont get without. This is still good, but just warning you.

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    2. Don't tell my husband, but the overwhelming richness of the recipe is part of the reason I don't like it ;-)

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  6. I made this last night. It was pretty good and popular with the family :)

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  7. This worked really well in the slow cooker. (I'm too lazy to stand around and stir.) Made it with pistachio milk, honey, potato starch and cooked on low, checking every hour. In my cooker it took four hours. Then added vanilla and cardamom. Yum. I ended up with a lot so will try churning the leftover into ice cream today just because it's hot and also why not.

    Great recipe, I can think of lots of ways to use it. (Pie...)

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