Homemade Lemon Pudding

The most delicious, homemade lemon pudding that’s rich, creamy, and made with real lemons. You can use this pudding in a trifle layered with vanilla cake and whipped cream, spoon it into bowls and eat it with berries, or serve it with cake.

You might also love these iced lemon curd linzer cookies, soft lemon poppy seed cookies, and baked lemon sugar cake donuts.

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Why You’ll Love This Recipe

No Boxed Pudding Mix. This from scratch recipe contains only real, fresh ingredients for the best flavor in your lemon pudding.

Make Ahead Dessert. You can make this pudding a day or two ahead of time, keep it refrigerated, then serve it when you’re ready.

See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.

Ingredients

• Lemons. You’ll need fresh lemons to use both the zest and the juice, although you’ll be straining out the zest after cooking the pudding for a perfectly smooth texture.
• Granulated Sugar. Sweetens the pudding to offset the sourness of the lemons.
• Corn Starch. Helps to thicken the pudding as it cooks.
• Egg Yolks. Adds body and richness, for a custard like texture.
• Milk + Cream. Be sure to use whole milk and heavy cream. The high fat content helps to prevent the lemon juice from curdling the dairy.

Instructions

• Measure the sugar into a bowl, then zest the lemons over the sugar. Use your fingers to rub the lemon zest into the sugar.

• Cut the lemons and juice them into a glass measuring cup to get 2/3 cup of juice.
• In a medium sized saucepan, whisk together the lemon sugar with the corn starch. Whisk in the lemon juice until smooth, then whisk in the egg yolks.
• Add the milk and the cream (and the yellow food coloring, if using), and whisk until combined.

• Place the saucepan over medium to medium low heat. Use a silicone spatula to stir the mixture constantly, while gently cooking the pudding. Cook until the pudding starts to thicken enough to coat the spatula, and is just beginning to bubble, but do not let the pudding start boiling hard. This should take about 15 minutes of cooking for the pudding to thicken. Remove from the heat.

• Set a mesh strainer over a bowl, and press the pudding through the strainer to remove the zest.
• Place a piece of plastic wrap over the bowl, with the plastic resting right against the surface of the pudding to prevent a skin from forming. Let cool at room temperature for one hour, until warm, but no longer steaming hot.
• Enjoy the pudding warm, or place the bowl in the refrigerator to chill.

Serving Suggestions

• Lemon Trifle. Layer soft vanilla cake with lemon pudding and whipped cream in a pretty glass trifle dish for a wonderful summer dessert.
• With Berries. Spoon the pudding into bowls or individual glass jars and serve with fresh berries and crumbled graham crackers or shortbread cookies.
• With Gingerbread Cake. Lemon and ginger are fantastic together, and a dark and spicy gingerbread cake served with lemon curd or lemon pudding is one of the best things ever.
• With Angel Food Cake. Serve big wedges of fluffy angel food cake with lemon pudding for a treat that everyone will love.
• In Lemon Lush. This lemon pudding is one of the layers in my lemon lush dessert, one of my favorite summer desserts.
• On Cheesecake. Spoon on top of slices of creamy vanilla bean cheesecake.

Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!

Frequently Asked Questions

Why doesn’t the lemon juice curdle the milk in the pudding?

Thanks to the high fat content of whole milk and heavy whipping cream, the acid in the lemon juice is stabilized, so it won’t curdle. You also need to heed the instructions and not let the pudding boil. Take it off the heat as soon as it thickens, but before it begins to boil hard.

Can I use meyer lemons instead of regular lemons?

Yes. Meyer lemons are less acidic, so your pudding will be a bit sweeter with less tartness.

Will this recipe work for pie filling?

It’s a bit too soft to use as pie filling, unless you increase the corn starch by at least 2 additional tablespoons.

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