The Canned Ingredient For Richer, Tastier Instant Pudding

Using instant pudding mix is a great hack to getting your nostalgic pudding dessert, with just a few added ingredients and minimal fuss. It's hard to argue with the soft and velvety pudding that your boxed mix gives you, especially since it's ready to eat within minutes. But one department that instant pudding sometimes lacks is taste. You may have already experimented with some different hacks to make your pudding more flavorful, but feel like nothing is quite doing the trick. Well, it's time to take the canned evaporated milk out of your pantry – the key ingredient to making your instant pudding taste like it's homemade.

Swap out the milk that's called for on your boxed mix recipe with the same amount of canned evaporated milk, and you'll get a creamier and more luxurious-tasting pudding. Evaporated milk contains 60% less water than regular milk, giving it a thickness that will make your pudding creamier and richer. The water evaporation also gives this milk a caramelized and toasted taste, which will infuse into your pudding for a burst of flavor.

Canned evaporated milk is a great quick fix to get you a richer flavored and creamier pudding, but if you don't have it on hand, don't worry. There are a few other canned milk options you can use instead of regular milk which will also elevate your instant pudding. Canned coconut milk, similarly, has a thicker consistency and will give your pudding a creamy texture. Replace the required milk amount with ¾ the amount of coconut milk. Taste-wise, you will notice an intense coconut flavor which, if you're a fan, will make you forget this pudding is from a box.

If you feel like the thing your instant pudding is missing is sweetness, then a can of sweetened condensed milk might be the ingredient your pudding (or even banana pudding) is missing. Condensed milk is essentially evaporated milk but with added sugar. Knowing which ingredient to use and the difference between them will give you a creamier and richer pudding while adding caramel notes to your instant dessert. Since condensed milk is so thick, you can mix ½ cup of condensed milk with ½ cup of water to replace 1 cup of regular milk. Whichever one of these canned ingredients you have on hand, adding them to your instant pudding will have everybody asking for your secret recipe.