This Hack Will Make Your Boxed Pudding Mix So Much Better

Objectively, there may be things out there that are better than a nice, creamy pudding, but good luck arguing that to your brain when the craving hits. The thing is, when you get that hankering, you might not have time to make one of the recipes for people who really love pudding. This means you'll likely either end up settling for store-bought, or trying to get the best of both worlds by grabbing some instant pudding mix and kind-of-sort-of making your own batch. 

Of course, the latter approach comes with a not-insignificant problem. As is the case with most things in life, instant mix is rarely quite as good as the made-from-scratch stuff. So, while you might manage to scratch the immediate pudding itch, there's always this nagging feeling that you could — and absolutely should — bring the dish to the next level. Fortunately, fans of chocolate pudding are now able to achieve this with little to no extra effort, courtesy of this one simple hack that will make your boxed pudding mix so much better.

It turns out that the gap between amazing chocolate pudding and potentially underwhelming boxed pudding mix is surprisingly easy to bridge. In fact, as Delish notes, all you need to do is replace one simple ingredient with another, equally simple but far more delicious one. Here's what you have to do: First, check how much water you need to add to the mix. Then, ignore the water entirely, and replace it with whipping cream instead. After that, make the pudding — and voila! You have a far richer, smoother, more mousse-like pudding than you could possibly hope to achieve with plain, old water.

Granted, this is not a hack for the health-conscious or the (possibly literally) faint of heart, seeing as Healthline reports that just half a cup of heavy whipping cream has 400 calories, which is exactly 400 more than water has. Still, when it comes to giving yourself the occasional treat of truly delicious chocolate pudding, this trick is pretty hard to beat.