Tembleque

For the village in Spain, see Tembleque, Spain.

For the large one-piece skirt, see Pollera.

Tembleque

File:Tembleque - coconut pudding.jpg
Type	Pudding
Course	Dessert
Place of origin	Puerto Rico
Region or state	Puerto Rico
Main ingredients	Coconut milk, heavy cream, cornstarch, sugar, and cinnamon
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Tembleque is a coconut dessert pudding from Puerto Rico similar to blancmange and related to Spanish manjar blanco and Filipino maja blanca. It is one of the best-known desserts in Puerto Rican cuisine.

Ingredients

Tembleque is made by simmering and constantly stirring coconut milk, heavy cream (optional), salt, cornstarch, and sugar until thick. It is then poured into a mold and set to chill. When chilled it should be smooth and stiff with the texture similar to pudding. It is garnished with ground cinnamon. Orange blossom water is a common ingredient that some consider traditional.

Tembleque can also be topped with a fruit relish or chocolate shavings.

Cultural importance

It is a holiday dish, served on New Year's Day throughout the island of Puerto Rico. While the recipe may have originated in Puerto Rico, there are variants on the dish such as manjar blanco in Latin America, manjar branco in Brazil, and maja blanca in the Philippines. According to the Encyclopedia of Puerto Rico, published by the Foundation for the Humanities, each time a Puerto Rican migrant to the United States comes closer and closer to forgetting their roots, foods like tembleque bring them back and remind them of who they are, of their island, and of their grandmother.

Etymology

In Spanish, the word tembleque is an adjective used to describe something that shakes, or a noun to describe the shakes themselves. The dessert, due to its Jell-O-like gel texture, trembles, shivers, and shakes if it has been prepared correctly.

See also

• Coconut bar
• Khanom thuai
• Bebinca
• Haupia
• Maja blanca
• Manjar branco