Strawberry Cheesecake Pudding

Yes, I’m posting multiple dessert recipes this week – two today! First up is this Strawberry Cheesecake Pudding. Second is the Strawberry Crunch Crumble I topped it with.

Similar to the Golden Oreo Banana Pudding recipe I shared earlier this week, the vanilla pudding in this Strawberry Cheesecake Pudding is made entirely from scratch. This one is sweeter than that pudding tho: because strawberries generally aren’t as sweet as bananas, and I chose not to macerate them. If you sweeten your berries – or you just have a particularly sweet batch – you might want to reduce the sugar.

Strawberry Cheesecake Pudding Ingredients

Feel free to jump to the full recipe, but here are useful notes about the ingredients you will need to make this Strawberry Cheesecake Pudding recipe:

• Golden Oreos, strawberries: The main stars! As mentioned above, I elected not to sweeten the strawberries at all. I felt that their slight tartness would be nice in contrast to the sweetness of the cookies and pudding. You do what your tastebuds would want.
• Egg yolks, salted butter: Important components for our pudding mixture. They both flavor and thicken. Butter also helps stabilize and slightly flavor the cream cheese mixture we’re adding.
• Whole milk, cream cheese: Milk is for the pudding, and you can sneak by with low-fat milk, you’ll just be standing in front of the stove whisking for even longer than expected. Cream cheese because it’s a cheesecake pudding, after all.
• Granulated sugar, powdered sugar: Granulated sugar for the pudding, powdered sugar for the cream cheese part of our Strawberry Cheesecake Pudding.
• All-purpose flour: Flour is my pudding thickener of choice. I know some folks use cornstarch but I don’t.
• Vanilla extract, vanilla bean paste: Vanilla bean paste for the beautiful specks. Regular vanilla extract will suffice for all three of these.

How to Make Strawberry Cheesecake Pudding

Full instructions are included in the recipe below, but here is a basic overview of what you’ll need to do, along with some important tidbits to help you make the most of this Strawberry Cheesecake Pudding recipe:

• Prepare for pudding. Fill a double boiler or medium-sized saucepan just under halfway with water. Heat the water over high heat until it’s at a rolling boil, then reduce the heat to medium-high. If you’re using a saucepan, place a large bowl over the saucepan to make a double boiler – the bowl should be big enough so that it sits on the rim of the saucepan. Do not let it touch the water below: if it does, remove some of the water from the pan.
• Make the pudding. Add the two tablespoons of butter along with all of the flour and granulated sugar to the bowl and whisk them together. The butter will melt, and you should have a mixture resembling cornmeal. Slowly whisk in the milk, one-half cup at a time, making sure it’s completely incorporated before you add more milk. Once all the milk has been added continue whisking the mixture for 10-12 minutes, until slightly thickened. It should coat the back of a spoon and the sides of the bowl – don’t move to the next step until this happens. You’ll have a runny Strawberry Cheesecake Pudding if you rush.
• Thicken the pudding. Now it’s time to temper the egg yolks: ladle a few tablespoons of the hot milk mixture into the bowl of beaten egg yolks, whisking the entire time. Repeat this step until you’ve added about half a cup of liquid to the yolks. Whisk the tempered egg yolks into the bowl of pudding mixture, and continue to whisk for another 12-15 minutes. You don’t need to whisk constantly, but at least every 5 minutes or so. Once the pudding has thickened – you should be able to pick up spoonfuls of it that will run off and drip from the spoon after a few seconds – remove the bowl or boiler from heat.
• Alternative Thickening Method: If the idea of tempering eggs scares you, let the milk mixture cool to room temperature after it’s thick enough to coat the spoon, then whisk in the eggs. Place the bowl back over the boiling water and bring it back up to temperature. Continue on with the recipe as written.
• Finish the pudding. Stir in the vanilla extract and vanilla bean paste, whisking vigorously to make sure it’s well distributed. Set the pudding aside to cool while you make the sweetened cream cheese. To a large bowl with a hand mixer, or the bowl of your stand mixer with the whisk attachment affixed, add the cream cheese, powdered sugar, and remaining butter. Beat on high speed until fluffy and completely combined. Fold the cream cheese mixture into the pudding and pop it into the fridge to cool off while you prep your serving dish.
• Build the Strawberry Cheesecake Pudding. Line the bottom of your serving dish with crushed golden Oreos and strawberry slices. Spoon in about a third of the pudding and top with more crushed Oreos and strawberries. Next, you guessed it: more pudding! Continue layering until the dish is full. Garnish as you see fit: I chose Strawberry Crunch Crumble and strawberry whipped cream. Refrigerate for at least 8 hours before serving. This will keep covered in the fridge for about 4 days. 

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