Vanilla beans vs extract
Slice the pod in half, long ways, carefully.  Run your knife blade down the length,scraping the tiny seeds (very tiny) from the inside of the pod.  What you collect will be sticky and not look like much, but it is very potent.  Place what you collected into your pudding mixture while cooking.  One pod should be plenty.  You can also toss in the whole pod at this point, but then remember to take it out before the pudding sets up.  Alternately, toss the scraped pods in a jar of sugar to create vanilla sugar for other uses.