Really Quick Mixed-flavor Pudding

First video is slide show; second video is motion.

Like creamy dessert without ice-cream chilliness? How about something convenient to make with few ingredients and implements? Pudding! You can customize for flavors and milks (fat-level content, lactose/lactose-free). Yogurt, custard, and soft-serve are additional creamy desserts without ice-cream chilliness, but this article is about pudding that uses instant pudding powder and milk.

My recent pudding batch used 2 4-serving boxes (chocolate, butterscotch) and 4 cups of 1% lactose-free milk. (Vary the ingredients as you'd like.)

Quick-glance Recipe Info

Use a mixing bowl and wire whip to combine (~90 to 120 seconds), occasionally scraping bowl sides. Pour the mixture into smallish jelly jars or 7-8 oz plastic or paper cups. Serve immediately or cover and store in the refrigerator.

Use a mixing bowl and wire whip to combine (~90 to 120 seconds), occasionally scraping bowl sides. Pour the mixture into smallish jelly jars or 7-8 oz plastic or paper cups. Serve immediately or cover and store in the refrigerator.

Because I think 4-oz servings are too small for my taste, I poured the mixture into 6 portions rather than 8. View videos (slide show) and (motion version) for the following step-by-step stages:

• Implements (bowl, wire whip, rubber spatula, small plate for holding the other three items)
• Ingredients (milk, pudding powder, optional chocolate chips)
• Process (assembling, mixing, mixture distributing, food-wrap covering, storing in refrigerator)

Caloric Considerations

Sugar free pudding powder has significantly fewer calories than regular powder. For an example, Jell-O Sugar Free Vanilla Instant Pudding Mix has 4 servings (powder only) at 25 calories each, but Jell-O Vanilla Instant Pudding Mix calories is 90.

Milk comes in fat-free, whole, and in-between low-fat-percentage varieties. Various other milks are available, such as soy and almond. (I have no experience with non-cow milk myself.)

Lactose Considerations

Lactose-free milk is good for lactose-intolerant people. Lactaid is a big name, but Mootopia and store-brand clones are also available. Not all milk-fat lactose-free milks are always available. Calcium-fortified lactose-free milk might or might not be available where you shop.

Some instant milk powders contain milk products, which can cause discomfort for lactose-intolerant consumers. Jello brand does not. (Jello brand costs a bit more than house brand, if you're considering price.)

Pudding Powder Sizes and Varieties

Box size options at the store vary. Larger boxes don't seem to be double-servings of smaller boxes. For instance at my store, the larger Jello box (5.1 oz, $1.18) claims to serve 6, and the smaller Jello box (3.4 oz, $ .87) claims 4 servings. You can get some savings by buying the bigger box, but not hugely.

The serving sizes calculate out to about 1/2 cup milk for each serving. A 4-serving box calls for 2 cups of milk; a 6-serving box calls for 3 cups of milk.

My local supermarket hit list for pudding mixes shows vanilla, chocolate, pistachio, lemon, and butterscotch. By getting smaller boxes, it's easy to mix and match suitable flavors.

Additional Thoughts

You can, uh, think outside the boxes, and add chocolate chips (as I did) or crumble Oreos or other yummies onto (into?) the mix. The pudding's set within minutes of mixing.

For another pudding idea, visit "Minty Choco Chip Pudding".

Minty Choco Chip Pudding

Look ma, no cooking! Just combine, whisk, stir, and pour ingredients into cups. Ready to eat within minutes. Reasonably lo-cal at a smidge over 200 calories each container.

The idea for the flavor came from a recipe for mint soft-serve ice cream that's in page 20 of the Cuisinart Instruction Booklet (for soft-serve ice cream maker). Having tried the recipe and stirring in grated Wilton Dark Cocoa Mint Candy Melts, I figured the flavors can transfer to a pudding recipe. The ingredients for the ice cream are as follows:

1 cup whole milk, well chilled
¾ cup granulated sugar
2 cups heavy cream, well chilled
1 teaspoon mint extract (may use peppermint or spearmint)
4-5 drops green or pink food coloring

The boxed instant vanilla pudding, which I had on hand, listed the following ingredients for the normal recipe:

1 package instant pudding powder
2 cups of milk [Whisk into pudding powder for 2 minutes.]

In assessing suitable amounts of additions, I considered the following factors:

• The pudding fluids amounted to 2/3 of the ice cream ingredients.
• The ice cream contains lots of air, thus, spreading out mint flavoring by volume.
• The pudding powder already contains sugar.

My pixstrip shows the implements I used (YMMV), the ingredients, and the cups of pudding.
Ingredients

• 1 package instant pudding powder
• 2 cups of nonfat milk
• 1/2 teaspoon spearmint extract
• 4 drops green food coloring
• 2 ounces grated Wilton Dark Cocoa Mint Candy Melts, replaceable with chocolate chips, minty or otherwise

Instructions

1. Whisk the powder and milk for two minutes.
2. Add the extract.
3. Add the food coloring, one drop at a time. More on that later.
4. Stir in the grated candy. Otherwise, you can add Hershey's or Nestle mint chocolate chips, which you might find either at your supermarket.
5. Pour into 4 containers. Sprinkle some candies or chips on top if you like. Eat now or store in fridge for consumption later.

Post-Recipe Thoughts
Good that I guessed right to not put in a whole teaspoon of the extract. As for the food coloring, I wish I had thought earlier to try the blue food coloring, a drap at a time, as the pudding started out vanilla yellowy. Y'know, blue and yellow make green. Oh, well, next time.

I stirred in candy melts, which I had grated and stored in the fridge awhile back. I did experiment with a few regular-sized chocolate chips for bouyancy. I spooned a very small sample of the mixed pudding into a paper cup and stirred in the chips. The pudding had thickened up enough during whisking so that the chips did not sink to the bottom. (Yay!)

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A similar but different pudding recipe: "Really Quick Mixed-flavor Pudding"