How to Make Vanilla Pudding

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup cornstarch
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups half and half or milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or vanilla paste or some vanilla scraped out of a vanilla bean)
• 4 egg yolks
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

Place a fine-mesh sieve over a medium bowl; set aside. In a medium saucepan, off heat, whisk together sugar, cornstarch, salt, half and half, and vanilla.

Whisking constantly, cook over medium heat until it reaches 203°. Take care to not let the pudding burn on the bottom of the pan by stirring it with a wooden flat-bottomed utensil. Remove the mixture from the heat after it starts to sputter.

Place the eggs in a medium bowl and whisk them together. Pour a small amount of the milk mixture into the eggs and whisk. Continue whisking small amounts in until all of it is incorporated. Pour the pudding back into the saucepan and place it over medium heat. While stirring often with the flat-bottomed utensil, remove from the heat when it sputters again.

Remove from heat; immediately pour through a sieve into a clean bowl.

Stir the butter into the hot pudding. Allow the pudding to cool to room temperature.

Place plastic wrap directly on the surface of the pudding (to prevent skin from forming); chill for a few hours. It will last at least a few days.

Before serving, whisk pudding until smooth; divide among four one-cup serving dishes. Top with homemade whipping cream if you like.

And there you have it. There is no need to pay someone to put ingredients you already have in your cupboard into a box for you when you can just pull it together really quickly on your own. You got this!

Isn’t she loverly? If only you could have smelled this vanilla blessedness when I made this pudding you probably would have kicked down my door to get some and I would have said “Hey, just knock. You’re always welcome.” Yeah, or something like that.