Creamy, flavorful, sweet and delicious this Homemade Coconut Pudding is super simple, made in one pan and whips up super quickly. Perfect breakfast, snack or dessert.
Have you ever made homemade pudding before? If not, you are truly missing out. We aren’t too keen on the boxed mixes because it is super easy to make it homemade like we do for our favorite Southern Banana Pudding. Absolutely one of our favorite desserts.
Now like I said making your own pudding at home is super easy! We start off with our base recipe which starts with minimal ingredients that you most likely have on hand at all time, trust me they aren’t super weird or anything, we don’t roll that way around here.
PUDDING BASE INGREDIENTS:
- Milk
- Sugar
- Cornstarch
- Salt
- Egg
- Egg yolk
- Butter
- Vanilla
Those ingredients right there will get you your basic Vanilla pudding recipe which we use in the Southern Banana Pudding recipe listed above. It’s great by itself, the kids love it, but when you want to spruce it up a notch you just have to add a few extra ingredients.
ALTERNATE PUDDING ADDITIONS:
To make your Coconut Pudding recipe you add some shredded coconut and add in some coconut extract along with the vanilla extract. We use 1 tsp but you can start with 1/2 tsp if you want a more mellow flavor, but I mean who doesn’t love coconut in the first place.
Adding in some cocoa powder will get you a chocolate pudding recipe. Seriously, this base recipe is exactly what you need to get you started on any of your favorite pudding combinations.
HOW TO MAKE HOMEMADE COCONUT PUDDING:
- In large sauce pan add your milk, sugar, cornstarch, salt, egg and egg yolk.
- Continuously whisk over medium high heat until thick and bubbly.
- Remove from heat and whisk in butter, coconut extract and vanilla extract until butter is melted.
- Add in the coconut and whisk until evenly distributed.
- Place Saran Wrap over the top of pudding and place in refrigerator until cool.
- Serve with toasted coconut and whipped topping.
My kids absolutely adore this coconut pudding recipe, just how we love coconut cream pie, coconut cream cheesecake and Coconut Cupcakes. They have never gobbled something up so quickly. It is one of the recipes we make most often because its just easy and delicious.
This recipe could also easily be doubled, as you can see in the banana pudding recipe we do double this since we like a big batch for layering with bananas and vanilla wafers, but with this recipe you will get the amount of servings as you would in a traditional pudding package.
This is fun for any time of year, we aren’t really picky if this is considered a cool or warm weather food, so pudding is something that is made all year long in our household, just a classic and comforting recipe
TIPS AND TRICKS:
- Why don’t we temper our egg mixture? There is no rhyme or reason behind this, we aren’t adding in eggs to a hot liquid, we are cooking them all together at the same temperature keeping them from cooking and just used as a thickener.
- Coconut fan, start with 1/2 tsp coconut extract and work your way up. People like various flavors of coconut so I say start small, but we love the full 1 tsp.
- Placing Saran Wrap over your pudding helps prevent a film from forming over the top of your pudding mixture.
- Stirring in coconut when still warm makes the coconut a little less stiff which we really enjoy.
- We love toasting coconut and placing it on top, adds a little extra flavor, you can just use shredded coconut if desired.
Homemade Coconut Pudding
Ingredients
- 2 cups milk
- 1/2 cup + 3 Tbs sugar
- 3 Tbs cornstarch
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 eggs
- 1 egg yolks
- 2 Tbs butter
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp coconut extract
- 1/2-3/4 cup shredded sweetened coconut
- Whipped topping optional
- Toasted coconut optional
Instructions
- In large sauce pan add your milk, sugar, cornstarch, salt, egg and egg yolk.
- Continuously whisk over medium high heat until thick and bubbly.
- Remove from heat and whisk in butter, coconut extract and vanilla extract until butter is melted.
- Whisk in coconut until it is evenly distributed.
- Place Saran Wrap over the top of pudding and place in refrigerator until cool.
- Serve with toasted coconut and whipped topping.
Nutrition
Tornadough Alli is not a nutritionist or dietitian, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and nutritional value is important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories and values can vary depending on which brands were used.
Leilani
Very, very easy to make and tasted great! Good way to use up milk.
Jane
This was easier and quicker than I expected! I used a full can of coconut milk and topped it off with 2% milk to get the 2 cups. I cooked it in the microwave and within 5 minutes the pudding was cooling in a dish. If it’s this tasty while still warm I can’t wait to see how good it is when chilled lol. Thanks for a great recipe when you just need that little something sweet and creamy!
Blithe
This recipe worked perfectly, I halved it to work as a filling for a coconut cake, and it turned out excellently. It was very quick to make and thickened nicely 🙂
Emily Martin
I was craving some coconut pudding; snow coming down and I needed a different flavor hit from chocolate. I downloaded this recipe. I exchanged half of the milk for coconut milk. Beautiful, kind of golden, and fantastic flavor! I toasted some sweetened coconut to put on top and the two textures complemented each other wonderfully. I’m making it again tonight, can’t get enough of it! Standing ovation! 🙂
Lynn
I just made this today and I want you to know it is excellent . I have never made coconut cream pudding/pie before I am definitely going to start now. Soooo easy THANK YOU !!!!!
Marguerite
Quick, easy recipe. So much better than box pudding.
Pam
Absolutely wonderful! I made this for my 92 year old mother today. She adored EVERY spoonful! And said she hasnt had pudding like this since she was a little girl. I served it slightly warm because we couldn’t wait to cool it first! Beautifully smooth and decadent! THANK YOU for this easy and delightful recipe.❤ I have a feeling this will be made quite regularly here.
Graceland Perry
If I could give this MORE STARS??? I totally would! Absolutely delicious pudding recipe, and SO easy to follow. I followed the exact recipe, except subbing in 1/2 cup heavy cream with the milk, and I stirred in half toasted and half regular coconut. (The perfect combo). I’m making a vlog and would love to feature this recipe link. THANK YOU! – Graceland
Cheryl
Wow! This is really good! I was actually looking for a vanilla pudding recipe that used coconut milk (I make my own, it’s super easy and it means I don’t have to worry about having milk on hand, since coconut is a dried good) & this worked really well…I agree, this was soo much easier then using a box pudding, which I can never get to sit right anyway and I hate worrying about what additives are in it. Very excited to use this in the future, thank you for sharing!
Tracy
Super easy recipe & delicious! Plus, quicker than the box mixes – who knew?
Sun
Hi there I just made this and the taste was fabulous but my pudding didn’t quite set. We enjoyed it as a coconut mousse anyway. Any idea what I did wrong? Thanks!
Tornadough Alli
I would think heating it a little longer would do the trick, some stovetops are different. It should be a thick consistency when you are done and will thicken the longer it cools. Make sure that you whisk a while, it can sometimes take 10-15 minutes to thicken completely.
James A Lane
I’ve been thinking of my Mom a lot lately, and one of my favorite memories with her was our trips to Seaside on the Oregon coast. It wasn’t the coast that was so memorable, it was a little restaurant on the way, in the middle of the woods, called Onie’s. The first time we stopped there, my mom (knowing that it was my favorite) told me “You have to try their Coconut Cream Pie”. I did and after that, Mom and I made a monthly coast trip. But it was just an excuse to stop for Pie and Coffee.
Anyway, since I’ve been thinking of her, I’ve also been craving Coconut Cream Pie. After an exhaustive search,and not finding anything up to standard, I tried this recipe. I just used Canned Coconut milk instead of regular milk, and the taste brought me back to those teenage years with my Mother by my side. The first bite brought an actual tear to my eye, and the entire pie was gone before I went to bed!
Thank you so very much for this recipe! I can only imagine how much my mom would enjoy sitting down to help me devour this!
It’s truly Amazing!
Tornadough Alli
What a sweet sweet memory! I’m so happy you enjoyed this!
Dona
Have you used this as pie filling?
Tornadough Alli
I have! Here is the link to our Coconut Cream Pie using this recipe https://tornadoughalli.com/coconut-cream-pie-recipe/
J
I made this for mother’s day and everyone loved it!! I see you mentioned adding cocoa powder to make chocolate pudding. Do you have a recipe or measurement of cocoa powder to use? And is it unsweetened cocoa powder? Thank you!!!
Hailey Points
Hi! I’m very excited to try this! I don’t see when to add the shredded coconut. Do you add it when you add the extracts and butter or wait till it’s all done & just stir it in at the end, or is it just topped with shredded coconut?
Tornadough Alli
Yes, I’m sorry about that I keep meaning to add that in there which I will do now. You just stir it in at the end or you can wait til its cooled and stir it in as well.
Charlene griffin
Could I fold into the pudding , after it has cooled, a cup of whipped cream? As I do with banana cream pudding?
Tornadough Alli
I don’t see why you couldn’t, it would make it a little lighter in texture and fluffier!
Jocelyn
The flavor of this homemade pudding was incredible!!! I can’t wait to make it again!!!
Sommer
I’m going to use this recipe to replace all my other pudding recipes. So good!
Toni
This was absolutely amazing! Everyone at my house loved it!
Kellie H
This pudding is sooooo quick and easy to make. It’s going on repeat for sure!
Aimee Shugarman
Oh my gosh, gave this a try last night as a test for Easter, SO GOOD. Will be making again soon!