Chocolate Pudding Mix substitute

Substitutes for Chocolate Pudding Mix with ratios

1. 2Homemade cooked cornstarch pudding

   Close match

   Use about 2 cups, one small box's worth for every ½ cup sugar + 3 tbsp cornstarch + ¼ cup cocoa + pinch salt + 2 cups milk

   Pudding mix is doing three things: sweetening, adding cocoa flavour, and thickening with starch.

   What changes

   Cornstarch cooked with milk does the thickening properly, and the result tastes considerably better than any box.

   Best for

   pudding cups, pie filling, trifle, layered desserts, eclair cake

   Richer, less sweet and glossier than boxed pudding, with a real cocoa flavour instead of a faint one. It must come to a full boil for at least a minute or the cornstarch will not reach full thickening power and the pudding stays loose. It also needs several hours in the fridge to fully set, so it is not a last-minute option.

2. 3Cook-and-serve chocolate pudding, prepared and chilled

   Close match

   Use the same amount for prepared pudding by volume; do not swap dry for dry in no-bake recipes

   The same flavour with ordinary starch instead of modified starch, so it sets by cooking rather than by standing.

   What changes

   Best for

   pudding to eat, pie filling, layered desserts, baked cakes

   Prepared and cooled, it substitutes straight across for prepared instant pudding, and it is slightly firmer and smoother. The trap is recipes that stir dry mix into a batter or into cold cream. In a cake that then goes in the oven, cook-and-serve powder is fine because the oven does the cooking. In a no-bake pie or a cold whipped filling it never sets, and you get chocolate soup.

3. 4A dry cornstarch and cocoa blend, for baked recipes only

   Close match

   Use about one small box of dry mix for every 3 tbsp cornstarch + ¼ cup sugar + 3 tbsp cocoa + pinch salt

   For the many cake recipes that stir a box of dry pudding mix into the batter to keep it moist, this blend does the same work: starch for tenderness, sugar and cocoa for flavour.

   What changes

   Best for

   bundt cakes, dump cakes, baked cakes, cookies, muffins

   Only for things that get baked. It will not thicken cold milk on its own no matter how long you wait, because plain cornstarch needs heat to swell. Cakes made this way come out very slightly less soft than with boxed mix, since commercial mixes carry emulsifiers as well as starch.

4. 5Melted chocolate folded into whipped cream

   Different texture

   4 oz melted chocolate cooled slightly, folded into 1 ½ cups whipped cream, replaces about 2 cups prepared pudding

   A quick chocolate mousse.

   What changes

   It is a filling rather than a pudding, thickened by aerated fat instead of starch.

   Best for

   cake fillings, parfaits, no-bake pie filling, trifle

   Much richer and much lighter at the same time, with a mousse-like airiness rather than pudding's dense spoonable body. It is far less stable, so it weeps if it sits for more than a day and it will not hold up as a poke cake filling soaking into sponge. Let the chocolate cool to barely warm or it will deflate the cream.

5. 6There is no substitute for it: a no-bake dessert built on instant mix

   Taste and texture differ

   Instant pudding sets cold because of pre-gelatinized modified food starch, a specifically engineered ingredient.

   What changes

   Cocoa, cornstarch, flour and gelatin all fail to reproduce it without heat or setting time.

   Best for

   knowing when to change plans

   The least-bad options are instant vanilla mix plus cocoa, which works perfectly, or making the cooked cornstarch pudding above and chilling it for four hours before you assemble, which works but requires patience. Do not try plain cornstarch stirred into cold milk; it will taste raw and chalky and stay liquid.