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These vanilla pudding poppers are everything — crispy on the outside, light and airy inside, and filled with creamy vanilla pudding. They come together fast, cost almost nothing to make, and disappear from the platter even faster.

Why You’ll Love These

Gone in minutes — put these on a platter and watch them vanish before you can even grab a napkin
Endless filling options — vanilla pudding is the classic, but chocolate, lemon curd, or cheesecake filling all work beautifully
Ridiculously easy — canned biscuits, instant pudding, cinnamon sugar. That’s basically it.
That contrast is everything — barely crisp outside, airy inside, cold creamy pudding in the center. It shouldn’t work as well as it does.
Budget-friendly — the whole batch costs around four dollars to make

A Word About the Ingredients

The biscuits — again, flaky layers. I’ve made this mistake so I’ll spare you: the wrong biscuits just become little fried bread balls and while that’s fine, it’s not the same. You want the ones that separate when you pull them apart.

The pudding is instant. You’re making this the regular box-mix way, which means you stir it into cold milk and put it in the fridge for a few minutes. Make it first, before you do anything else, so it has time to set up properly. If you try to rush this step the pudding will be too loose and it’ll just kind of ooze out everywhere. I know because I’ve done this.

Cinnamon sugar — I just mix these myself. About two cups of sugar and probably two tablespoons of cinnamon, maybe more. Honestly I eyeball it. If you’re a person who measures cinnamon, god bless you, but I am not that person.

For the oil — six cups in a Dutch oven, or just use a fryer if you have one. You want the oil at 350°F. An actual thermometer is helpful here. I used to just drop a test piece in and watch what happened, and that works but you get inconsistent results. Get a thermometer. I got one at a garage sale, it’s fine.

The injector or pastry bag — you need one of these. There’s no workaround, I’ve tried. A pastry bag with a small round tip works great. An injector (like a flavor injector for meat) also works and is maybe a little easier to control. I have both now because I am, apparently, committed to this recipe.

Ingredients

1 can flaky layers biscuits
1 box instant vanilla pudding, 3.5 oz
2 cups sugar mixed with a couple tablespoons of cinnamon (I usually go heavy on the cinnamon)
6 cups oil for frying
Injector or pastry bag with a small tip
Powdered sugar or melted chocolate for topping, if you want

How to Make Them

Make the pudding first. Follow the box — usually it’s just whisking the mix into cold milk, then refrigerating. Set that in the fridge and leave it alone. This is the hardest part of the recipe because the rest goes fast.

Heat your oil. Get it to 350°F. While it heats, open your biscuits and cut each one into four pieces. They don’t need to be perfect — slightly uneven is fine. Just quarters.

When the oil is ready, drop a few pieces in. Don’t crowd them. I do maybe five or six at a time, depending on the pot. They need about a minute per side, maybe a little more — you’re looking for that golden brown color. Not pale, not dark. Golden.

Take them out and let them drain on a paper towel-lined plate. They’ll look a little small and unassuming right now, but don’t judge them yet.

While they’re draining, put your cinnamon sugar in a bowl and get your pudding out of the fridge. Load the injector or pastry bag.

Roll each fried biscuit piece in the cinnamon sugar while it’s still a little warm — the warmth helps the sugar stick. Then take your injector, push the tip gently into the side or top of the biscuit, and squeeze the pudding in. You’ll feel a little resistance when it’s full. Don’t overfill — they’ll burst and that’s messy, though I’ll admit kind of funny. If you want to top them with powdered sugar or a drizzle of chocolate, now’s the time.

Put them on a platter and stand back.

Variations Worth Knowing

Chocolate pudding with a chocolate drizzle on top is a “double chocolate situation” that’s hard to argue with. A simple cheesecake filling — just cream cheese, sugar, and a little vanilla whipped together — is another version worth trying and honestly I’m still thinking about it.

Lemon is good but a little startling. The cinnamon sugar and lemon pudding together is a lot of flavor going different directions. Fine if you like that sort of thing, but I’ll stick with vanilla.

About Leftovers (Spoiler: There Won’t Be Any)

These do not keep. I mean technically they keep — you can put them in the fridge — but the fried exterior gets soft and a little sad and it’s just not the same experience. This is a make-them-eat-them situation. Which honestly makes them easier in a way. Nothing to store, no decisions to make the next morning.

If for some reason you end up with a few left — which has never happened to me, but theoretically — I guess you could warm them briefly in the air fryer to crisp them back up and then eat them unfilled, just as little cinnamon sugar donut holes. They’re still good that way. Just different.

Make them for people you want to make happy. Make a double batch if those people have a serious sweet tooth. They will not be enough either way — fair warning.