Chocolate and Vanilla Pudding Add-Ins: Not Just Your Average Pudding

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Pudding, while tasty, can also get old pretty fast with its uniform texture and color. I’ve been experimenting with pudding add-ins to make it more fun, especially as an ever so slightly healthier “dessert” option for my kids! I buy sugar free pudding and use either skim or almond milk, so these turn out to be fairly low calorie treats.  The puddings don’t set with quite the same consistency as pudding prepared with whole milk, but I’m willing to overlook the texture in order to be a little healthier.

If you too are looking for ways to make pudding less bland, here are some fun chocolate and vanilla pudding add-ins that I’ve come up with.  All you have to do is prepare your pudding according to the package directions, let it chill and set, and then either stir in or top with these great pudding add-ins!

If you prefer to make things from scratch, I’d recommend this recipe for homemade vanilla pudding.

My Favorite Chocolate and Vanilla Pudding Add-Ins

To make birthday cake pudding or cupcake pudding

These are such simple chocolate or vanilla pudding add-ins!  Just stir sprinkles into chocolate or vanilla pudding.  I especially like the texture it gives to the pudding, and having the sprinkles to chew makes it so much more fun to eat.  If you’re wanting to do seasonal, holiday themed puddings, you can add in holiday colored sprinkles.  Try black and orange sprinkles in chocolate pudding for a special Halloween treat.


For double chocolate chip pudding

Stir in a handful of chocolate chips into chocolate pudding for some added crunch.  This pudding add-in works for any flavor pudding, really.  What doesn’t get better with the addition of chocolate?

Candy Bar Pudding

Crumble candy bars into the pudding mix. My favorite is Snickers pudding. Yum!  We also like to do Twix pudding and Rolo’s pudding.

Sundae Pudding?!

You can also add whipped cream, nuts, and a cherry! Pretty much anything you can add on top of ice cream, you can add on top of pudding!  This works well with most flavors of pudding as well.

Cookie Crumble Pudding

Stir crushed Oreos or chocolate chip cookies into vanilla or chocolate pudding.  You can bake your own cookies to add in, or you can just get the store-bought ones like I do.

Turtle Pudding

Drizzle caramel sauce over the top or add a little extra chocolate sauce to chocolate pudding for an extra rich taste. Also, if you add in a few pecans…turtle pudding, anyone?


Butterscotch Crunch Pudding

This pudding can be made by adding tiny, crushed pieces of butterscotch candy or butterscotch morsels to butterscotch pudding.  We’re not huge fans of butterscotch in our house, but I know lots of people who love it!

Vanilla Wafer Pudding

Add in some vanilla wafers and even banana chunks and whip cream to banana pudding for a simple Vanilla Wafer Pudding. There are hundreds of other recipes out there for making more sophisticated banana pudding you can check out also.


This brings us to….Just top with fruit!  A simple chocolate or vanilla pudding add-in, but tasty nonetheless!  And a little healthier than some of the other options like the ones with cookies or candy.  I like to serve my kids more of the healthy puddings if I can.  I save the other ones for a treat for me after they’ve gone to bed!

What fun ways do you have to prepare pudding?  Any other chocolate or vanilla pudding add-ins you suggest?

Like food?  Check out more simple recipes here.