What can I substitute for instant pudding in Amish friendship bread?

I have wondered the purpose of the pudding mix....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amish_friendship_bread https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_cake

I have a substitute mixture to replace instant pudding called for in other recipes, including cakes- though I'm not familiar with a friendship bread that uses it. This will make more than the equivalent to one package of it, so I'm not sure if it will fit your need or not. Mix 1 cup sugar, 3/4 cup cornstarch, 3/4 cup dry milk powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Split and grind 2 vanilla beans, and whisk that into the sugar mixture. I make my own vanilla sugar, so use that in place of the plain sugar and vanilla. You can also omit the vanilla beans, and simply add in a teaspoon of vanilla extract at the time of use. 1/2 cup of this mixture is the equivalent roughly of one package of pudding. It's not instant, as if you wanted to make regular pudding with it, you would need to add that to 2 cups of milk and cook until it thickened. It does still work well for baking purposes. When my kids were younger, and more inclined to eat or make pudding, this is the mixture we used. You can add in cocoa to make it chocolate flavor, or any other flavoring extract can be used. The mixture will last on the shelf for many months, in a sealed container.

Here's a pudding-free recipe.

http://www.momswhothink.com/bread-recipes/amish-friendship-bread.html

Shocked at what?

There must be multiple recipes! When I made it, there was no pudding. If you search, you will find other ways to make it without instant pudding... I'm shocked!