Twyla Sorrells's Recipe

Easy Homemade Pudding

Category: Desserts & Puddings

1 stick butter or margarine
1/2 cup flour
4 cups warm milk
3/4 – 1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

In a preheated saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. When almost completely liquefied, add the flour, stirring constantly with a wire whisk. Continue to stir with the whisk and let cook for about 5 minutes. This prevents any taste of raw flour in the pudding.

Slowly stir in the warm milk, whisking to prevent lumps. Add the vanilla and sugar and continue cooking while whisking until the pudding reaches the desired consistency. This will take at least five minutes. You may have to lower the heat if the pudding tries to scorch.

Let cool, stirring occasionally to prevent a film forming over the pudding. Pour into serving dish or individual dessert dishes and chill at least 4 hours before serving.

Variations:

Add 1/2 cup cocoa powder to the milk for chocolate pudding.

Use brown sugar and a jigger of good Scotch or Irish whiskey for Butterscotch pudding.

Add any flavor such as lemon or orange for the flavor of pudding desired.

For banana pudding, line the serving dish with vanilla wafers or graham crackers and sliced banana. Pour pudding over. Top with another layer of cookies and sliced banana. You may optionally add a middle layer of banana and cookies if you like a bulkier pudding that isn’t so creamy.

For rice pudding, stir in 2 cups of cooked rice, add a half-cup or more of sugar, and dust with ground nutmeg to serve.

For corn pudding, use the juice from a can of corn instead of part of the milk – measure the milk added to the juice to equal 4 cups, and add the corn to the pudding just as you remove the pan from the burner.

For coconut pudding, add 2 cups of sweetened flake coconut to the pudding. You may also use coconut milk instead of the whole milk, and you may optionally mix the two, as long as the uncooked liquid equals 4 cups it will work. This is good with a little caramel syrup (as used for sundae topping over ice cream) drizzled over the top.