This old fashioned Amish vanilla pudding made with eggs and cornstarch, is an easy yet creamy homemade pudding. This pudding recipe is from my old order Amish grandmother’s recipe collection and is delicious over chocolate cake, pumpkin pie or with chocolate Rolo toffee cookies! Keep scrolling below the recipe card if you would like to see step by step photos and extra notes on the recipe.
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Amish Vanilla cornstarch pudding
Equipment
- Large sauce pan with lid (linked below)
- Whisk (linked below)
- measuring cups (linked below)
- Glass serving bowl (linked below)
Ingredients
- 6 cups whole milk
- 1 1/4 cups sugar granulated
- 5 egg yolks
- 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch (heaping)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon salt (scant)
- 8 oz. Cool whip (optional)
Instructions
- Pour the milk into a large saucepan and then whisk in the sugar. Heat the milk over medium-high heat until around 160 degrees (do not allow to boil)
- While the milk is heating, whisk together the egg yolks and cornstarch until smooth, then stir in the sweetened condensed milk.
- Remove the hot milk from the heat and slowly stir in the egg, sweetened condensed milk and cornstarch mixture. Return the saucepan to the stovetop, then cook and stir the pudding over medium-high heat for around ten minutes until the mixture has thickened and is starting to simmer.
- Remove the pudding from the heat, then stir in vanilla extract and salt. Allow the pudding to cool to room temperature and then pour into a serving bowl with a lid and refrigerate for 4 hours to overnight before serving. When the pudding is ready to serve, stir in 6 oz. of cool whip (optional) and top with the remaining cool whip. *see note.
Notes
Equipment needed for this Amish vanilla cornstarch pudding:
- Large sauce pan I prefer to use a 3-4 quart saucepan for this pudding as the recipe makes a decent amount of pudding. A lid is very handy if you wish to bring your pudding to room temp the old fashioned way; in the snow!
- Whisk I prefer to use a big whisk with a wire handle. Having two sizes of this whisk is very handy for this recipe which requires you to mix several components.
- Measuring cups Stainless steel measuring cups are my personal favorite because they have been durable and dish washer friendly for me.
- Glass serving bowl/dish A pretty glass serving dish with a lid is perfect for this pudding if you wish to transfer it to a party or holiday event.
You may also enjoy this Seafood Cheeseball or Homemade Amish Eggnog if you are planning a party!


Ingredients needed: Whole milk, sweetened condensed milk, eggs (only yolks will be needed in this pudding recipe), cornstarch, salt, vanilla, sugar and cool whip (optional and not pictured).
Note*
If you prefer a thinner pudding that is more like a sauce for your cake or pie, you can add half of the sweetened condensed milk or less cornstarch.


Step 1: Heat the milk and sugar on the stovetop. Do not allow to boil.
Note*
If you do not have a liquid thermometer you can also eyeball the milk. If it starts steaming and is hot to touch, it is ready for the egg yolk mixture.


Step 2: Whisk the egg yolks and cornstarch until smooth and lump free, then stir in the sweetened condensed milk.


Step 3: Once the milk is heated, remove from heat and slowly add the egg yolk mixture while stirring rapidly.
Note*
Be sure to have the cornstarch well incorporated into the egg yolk mixture to avoid lumps in the pudding.


Step 3 continued: Cook the pudding over medium-medium high heat until the pudding is thickened and beginning to simmer.
Note*
The pudding mixture will seem thin at first, but should begin to thicken at around 5 minutes or so.


Step 4: Remove the pudding from the heat and stir in vanilla extract and salt. Allow to cool, then transfer to a serving dish and chill for 4-24 hours before serving. Once ready to serve, stir in cool whip and garnish with additional cool whip and chocolate shavings or candy cane if you wish.
Note*
This pudding can be stored in the refrigerator for 5-6 days. I do not recommend freezing this pudding due to separation which occurs in frozen cornstarch dishes.


Feel free to pin this recipe for later and show off your creation by tagging me on Instagram with a photo of your creation!
Creamy dessert perfection. I did reduce the amount of sugar and omitted the whipped topping. I used the cooled pudding to make a banana pudding! It worked splendidly.
That sounds like a great idea, thanks for sharing!