I'm fond of cook & serve sf chocolate pudding, & just recently found Bob's sf peppermint candies - the closest thing I've had to candy canes in years! (Except that they tasted so good I "forgot" the side affect of sugar alcohols - I won't be forgetting again for quite some time. )

Anyway, I portion out the pudding, refrigerate, then smash 1 peppermint to sprinkle on top. Pure heaven.

I decided to make it for a pot luck. Made the pudding on Friday, refrigerated it, and sprinkled it with smashed candies the next morning. Couple hours later I took it out of the insulated bag & was horrified to find out the crushed candies had partially melted and there was a lot of liquid in the pudding. A friend suggested that it might have been a chemical reaction between the different fake sugars and/or the coconut milk I use instead of dairy.

If I take it to a pot luck again I'll keep the crushed candy in a small bowl with a spoon. But any idea if my friend might be right? Or any other possible cause?

It is simply the candies absorbing the moisture from the pudding.

Very common for recipes to instruct adding topping just before serving.

Thank you!

Can't believe I've lived this long without knowing that. But then, I don't think I've ever made this sort of dessert for serving later.

My husband found at candy canes for me this year!
And I made a greek yogurt with cocoa, splenda and crushed on top a couple days ago. I stored it in fridge and are it next day and noticed it melted a bit, too.
I thought it still tasted grrat, but I preferred the one with cinnamon and splenda, a pb drizzle and dark chocolate broken up on top. I'll be making more on chocolate ones later today