If you love coconut milk desserts, you have to try this easy-to-make Puerto Rican treatcalled Tembleque! Traditionally served for the Christmas and New Year’s celebrations, this coconut milk dessert is super easy to make low carb. It’s perfect for coconut lovers after all the heavy desserts of the winter holidays! 
More Low Carb Treats
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Coconut Milk in Our Diet
Are you new to the virtues of coconut milk? It’s not only delicious, creamy, and versatile in recipes, but it’s also so good for you. Consider Organic Facts article on the Benefits of Coconut Milk to get started learning about its potential benefits.
Because coconut milk is so incredibly good for the body, I try to incorporate it as often as possible into our diet. The easiest way to do this is usually in the form of a morning smoothie or our favorite Indian dishes like coconut vegetable curry.
However, sometimes you just gotta have a coconut milk dessert, right?!
Coconut Milk Dessert: Tembleque
In the Caribbean Island of Puerto Rico, the celebration of the New Year is full of fun and frivolity much like it is anywhere else. Here’s a little snippet about it from our book Homestead Holidays:
…Once the countdown to midnight begins from twelve seconds out, it’s time to eat twelve grapes (one for every second) to ensure good luck for the coming year.
“Before midnight is anywhere near arriving, each home will have been scrubbed clean. In fact, families don’t just stop with the house – the car, the year, the street, your neighbor’s cat, anything and everything gets cleaned.
“The belief is that whatever state your life is in once the New Year arrives, is how it wills tay the whole year.
“After all that work and eating those twelve lucky grapes, there must be fireworks! Plus, tasty food to be eaten with family and friends – special pastries, roasted pigs, rice dishes, delicious drinks, and Tembleque, a scrumptious coconut milk pudding!”
Making tembleque is a super easy way to celebrate the holidays, including the New Year. It’s a delicious traditional recipe but it has a lot of corn starch for those of us trying to reduce carbs in various ways.
So, I created a low carb version of this my favorite coconut milk dessert: Low Carb Tembleque!
Coconut Milk Dessert: Low-Carb Tembleque Recipe
Although the traditional recipe for tembleque isn’t low-carb because of the inclusion of corn starch, it’s super simple to make it keto friendly with a few swaps. The texture is a cross between coconut gelatin and pudding.
Coconut Milk Dessert: Low Carb Tembleque
Ingredients
- 1/2 Cup Keto Sugar Allulose, Erythritol, Whatever
- 3 tsp. Organic Gelatin
- 2 Cans Coconut Milk, Full Fat
- 1 Cinnamon Stick
- 1/2 Cup Coconut Butter
- 1/2 Cup Toasted Unsweetened Coconut Flakes. Optional or Shavings
- 1 tsp. Vanilla
- Powdered Cinnamon & 1/4 Cup Toasted Coconut Flakes, to Garnish
Instructions
- Mix 1/2 cup keto sugar and 3 tsp. of organic gelatin in a small bowl.
- In a sauce pot over low-medium heat, mix 2 cans of full fat coconut milk, 1 cinnamon stick, 1/2 cup of coconut butter. Mix in 1/2 cup of toasted coconut flakes, if using.* Simmer for 10 minutes.
- Whisk in keto sugar and gelatin mix and keep whisking for a few minutes to dissolve the gelatin. Do NOT boil, but keep simmering.
- Simmer for and whisk frequently until it begins to thicken a bit, 5-10 minutes.
- Remove from the heat and mix in 1 tsp. of vanilla. Fill glass dishes*. Allow to cool to room temperature and then chill in the fridge for 4 hours or overnight.
- Run a butter knife around the inside of the glass dish to loosen the pudding. Put a plate over the bowl and invert both to plate the pudding. You may need to jiggle the bowl a bit to get the pudding out.
- Sprinkle with powdered cinnamon and 1/4 cup of toasted coconut flakes to taste. Slice and serve.
Notes
- I recommend adding coconut to the pudding only if you're setting it in half pint jars or other containers simply because you may not like the look of it plated. If you don't care about that and simply love coconut, add it in!
- Spread the coconut flakes or shavings evenly onto a baking sheet.
- Broil on low for 3 minutes and stir the flakes. Even them out again.
- Continue to toast in 3 minute increments, stirring each time until toasted.
- To eat it as a dessert, let it set up in a round bowl, pudding mold, or something you can invert and tap the pudding out onto a plate. If you use a mold, it will have a lovely design.
- To eat it for breakfast, pour the pudding into half pint jars or ramekins. Top with berries.
Tembeque Notes
Adding coconut flakes or shavings to your tembleque is a delicous option but it will break up the set of the pudding just a little. The pudding will still set, but it will be a little choppy.
- I recommend adding coconut to the pudding only if you’re setting it in half pint jars or other containers simply because you may not like the look of it plated. If you don’t care about that and simply love coconut, add it in!
There are multiple glass containers you can use for this coconut pudding.
- To eat it as a dessert, let it set up in a round bowl, pudding mold, or something you can invert and tap the pudding onto a plate. If you use a mold, it will have a lovely design.
- To eat it for breakfast, pour the pudding into half pint jars or ramekins. Top with berries.
The powdered cinnamon and flaked coconut are the traditional topping and they’re so delicious!
You can top the low carb tembleque with coconut milk whipped cream any time you eat it.
To Toast Coconut:
- Spread the coconut flakes or shavings evenly onto a baking sheet.
- Broil on low for 3 minutes and stir the flakes. Even them out again.
- Continue to toast in 3 minute increments, stirring each time until toasted.
Do NOT walk away from the coconut or it will burn. Ask me how I know.
More Coconut Milk Desserts
Coconut Milk Desserts
Paleo Mixed Berry Coconut Creamsicles - Low Carb Popsicles
Coconut Milk Eggnog (Keto + Paleo-Friendly)
Kobbari Pongali ~ Sweet Coconut Pongal ~ Sankranthi Special Recipes
Eaten as part of the Pongal celebration, which is the Hindu harvest festival in January - another great holiday to celebrate!
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What do you mean by “coconut BUTTER”?
Coconut cream?
Certainly not coco butter…..? The discs used for making lotions and such?
I loved “giggle” the bowl!
I think you meant JIGGLE the bowl. LOL
Ha, thank you for catching the typo – although, I kind of like giggle. I do a little giggling with glee when I think about eating tembleque.
Coconut butter is basically whole coconut puree and, yes, that’s what the recipe calls for. It helps the final pudding have a little more weight to it without using starch. It also improves the flavor by making it more rich.
Two good brands of coconut butter are MaraNatha, which participates in the Non-GMO Project, and Artisana. Artisana is organic, as well as being part of the Non-GMO Project. It’s also raw, which is always better.
You can omit the coconut butter and simply use the gelatin, however.