Recipe
🍰 DESSERT
Tembleque
A wobbling coconut pudding set with cornstarch and dusted with cinnamon, a light Puerto Rican holiday classic.
Puerto Rican · easy · serves 6
prep 10 min · cook 15 min
~528 cal · 3g protein · 50g carbs · 38g fat · 4g fiber · 32g sugars · 34g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Tembleque takes its name from the Spanish temblar, to tremble, for the way it wobbles when you set it down. It is a pure coconut pudding, a fixture of Puerto Rican Christmas and Three Kings Day tables, light and cooling after a heavy holiday meal.
It could hardly be simpler: , sugar, and a little salt, thickened with cornstarch and set until just firm enough to unmould. There is no dairy and no egg, only the clean, sweet flavour of coconut, sometimes brightened with a strip of lime or cinnamon steeped in the milk.
Poured into moulds, chilled, and turned out onto a plate, it is dusted with ground cinnamon in patterns before serving. Naturally vegan and gently sweet, it is the elegant, jiggly counterpoint to Puerto Rico's richer festive fare.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 6
4 cups
2/3 cup cornstarch
3/4 cup sugar
1 pinch salt
1 cinnamon stick
1 a strip of orange or lime peel
1 tsp vanilla extract
to finish ground cinnamon and toasted coconut, to dust
Instructions
1
Whisk the cornstarch into 1 cup of the cold coconut milk until completely smooth.
2
Bring the remaining coconut milk to a simmer with the sugar, salt, cinnamon stick and citrus peel, then take it off the heat and let it steep for five minutes before fishing the spices out.
✎ Chef’s note
The coconut fat will separate and the milk will look curdled while it heats. That is normal and it comes back together. Steeping a cinnamon stick and a strip of peel is what keeps tembleque from tasting flatly of coconut.
3
Pour in the cornstarch mixture and cook, stirring constantly but gently, until it thickens to a heavy pudding, about 8 minutes, then stir in the vanilla.
✎ Chef’s note
Stir without stopping as it thickens, since cornstarch lumps the instant you look away, but do not beat it. Whisking hard works air into the mixture and you get bubbles all through the turned-out pudding.
4
Rinse the moulds with cold water, shake them out but do not dry them, then fill and chill until set and wobbling, at least 3 hours.
✎ Chef’s note
The film of water left in the mould is what lets the pudding drop out cleanly.
5
Unmould and finish with ground cinnamon and toasted coconut.
✎ Chef’s note
The name is from temblar, to shake, and describes exactly what it should do on the plate. It is eaten year round but belongs above all to Christmas.
Puerto Rican holiday tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
San Juan. San Juan pounds green plantain with garlic and pork crackling into mofongo, packed into a bowl and filled with stew or seafood. Puerto Rican cooking is built on sofrito and adobo, in arroz con gandules, slow-roasted pernil, and fried alcapurria snacks.
🗺️
Puerto Rico. Puerto Rican cooking is built on sofrito and the starchy magic of mofongo (mashed fried plantain), plus slow-roast pork and rice with pigeon peas. Spanish, African, and Taíno roots define its bold, comforting plate.
🌍
North America. Almost every regional cooking here records who arrived and on what terms. Enslaved West Africans brought rice, okra, black-eyed peas and the techniques behind Lowcountry and Creole food; Chinese railway labour and later Italian, Jewish, Mexican and Vietnamese arrivals built the way the cities eat; and Indigenous foodways sit underneath all of it.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Puerto Rico
MofongoFried green plantains mashed with garlic and crackling pork, mounded and filled with garlicky shrimp or stew.
MallorcaA soft, buttery coiled sweet bread, pressed warm and snowed with powdered sugar, the pride of Puerto Rican panaderías at breakfast.
Arroz con GandulesRice cooked with pigeon peas, sofrito, and pork in one pot, forming a prized crust, Puerto Rico's national dish.
Browse all Puerto Rico recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Whisk.
Storing it: Keep chilled and covered, and enjoy within 2 to 3 days.
Make it a Puerto Rico meal
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CoquitoDrink
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Frequently asked questions
What is Tembleque?
A wobbling coconut pudding set with cornstarch and dusted with cinnamon, a light Puerto Rican holiday classic.
Where does Tembleque come from?
Tembleque is a Puerto Rican dish from San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Can Tembleque be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Tembleque recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Tembleque safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Tembleque take to make?
About 25 minutes total (10 minutes prep, 15 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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