This creamy pudding is one of Puerto Rico’s specialties, made by cooking coconut milk with cornstarch and sugar, then topping the concoction with cinnamon. The end result is a slightly firm pudding with a smooth custard-like texture, and it is typically served cold.
The name tembleque means wiggly, referring to a slight wiggle when the pudding is shaken. This rich dessert can also be flavored with vanilla, nutmeg, or rum, if desired. It is especially popular at birthday parties and similar festive occasions.
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This Turkish oven-baked rice pudding is made with water, milk, sugar, rice, and rice flour. It is a simple, light dessert that is said to have origins in the Ottoman cuisine. Although it has been traditionally flavored with rose water, the modern versions often incorporate vanilla as a flavoring.
After cooking, fırın sütlaç is browned in a salamander broiler, and it is usually topped with either ground cinnamon or chopped hazelnuts before serving.
MOST ICONIC Fırın sütlaç
View morePhirni is a dessert made with ground rice that's cooked in milk and flavored with almonds, saffron, and cardamom. A favorite in North India, it is most often prepared for special occasions or festivals such as Diwali and Karwa Chauth. Traditionally served in small clay bowls known as shikoras, phirni is always eaten well-chilled and garnished with nuts, rose petals, and often with silver paper or chandi warq to make it even more luxurious.
MOST ICONIC Phirni
View moreThis traditional Thai rice pudding is a favorite way to finish any Thai meal. The dish is prepared with glutinous rice that is first steamed, then doused in sweetened coconut milk. Lastly, the rice is served sided with slices of fresh mango. This simple dessert is incredibly popular, and it can be found at virtually any eatery in Thailand.
MOST ICONIC Khao niao mamuang
View moreSaffron rice pudding known as sholeh zard is an ancient Iranian dessert that was once served only on special occasions. The rice is cooked in water and then enriched with saffron and sugar, while common additions include slivered nuts and spices such as cardamom and cinnamon.
Sholeh zard is typically served in individual-sized portions and comes garnished with ground cinnamon, slivered almonds, or pistachios.
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Dating back to the Ottoman times, kazandibi is a Turkish dish that can be translated to burnt bottom pudding, referring to the burnt bottom of the pan that it is cooked in. The dessert consists of butter, milk, rice flour, sugar, starch, and flavorings such as vanilla, rosewater, or ground mastic gum.
In Türkiye, kazandibi is usually served as thin ribbons which are then rolled, although it can also be served in thick squares. The caramelized top of kazandibi gives it an earthy flavor, which contrasts quite nicely with the sweet and milky flavors on the interior.
MOST ICONIC Kazandibi
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Although there are many recipes, the Egyptian umm Ali dessert is usually made by dividing bread or puff pastry into pieces, then mixing it with sugar, milk, and coconut flakes. The mixture is typically sprinkled with raisins, pistachios, almonds and cinnamon, then baked in the oven until the top develops a golden brown color.
This dessert can be served hot or chilled. When translated, the name of the dish means Ali's mother, referring to the 13th-century legend saying that Sultan Ezz El Din Aybak's wife prepared the dessert as a sign of celebration and it was then shared amongst the people.
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The name of this traditional Turkish fig pudding translates as sleeping figs. It comes from the tradition of soaking figs in warm milk and then letting them rest overnight so the dish can be enjoyed the next morning for breakfast. İncir uyutması are usually served drizzled with molasses and sprinkled with chopped walnuts.
Today, the sleeping figs are also often enjoyed as a dessert, though a version called teleme has been a typical goat herders' snack for centuries before, particularly in northeastern Anatolia.
Simplicity at its finest, this softly set pudding takes almost no effort to make, yet is nothing short of amazing! Even though panna cotta (lit. cooked cream) wasn't mentioned in Italian cookbooks until the 1960s, today it is considered a traditional Piedmontese dessert, and the original recipe calls for only whole cream, sugar, vanilla, and gelatin.
When made to perfection and properly chilled, panna cotta is silky smooth, deliciously creamy, and has a gentle wobble to it. For a slightly lighter version of this scrumptious dessert, use half-and-half instead of heavy cream, or simply dilute heavy cream with milk.
MOST ICONIC Panna cotta
View moreKheer or payasam is an ancient Indian dessert, a creamy rice pudding that is made in several versions across the country. It is a common dish at numerous Indian ceremonies, festivals, and celebrations, although it can be consumed any time of year.
Kheer is made by boiling rice, wheat, or tapioca with milk and sugar, and it can be additionally flavored with dried fruits, nuts, cardamom, and saffron. It is believed that the dessert originated 2000 years ago in the Lord Jagannath Temple in Orissa.
MOST ICONIC Kheer
View moreTasteAtlas food rankings are based on the ratings of the TasteAtlas audience, with a series of mechanisms that recognize real users and that ignore bot, nationalist or local patriotic ratings, and give additional value to the ratings of users that the system recognizes as knowledgeable. For the “Top 100 Puddings in the World” list until March 15, 2025, 6,923 ratings were recorded, of which 3,821 were recognized by the system as legitimate. TasteAtlas Rankings should not be seen as the final global conclusion about food. Their purpose is to promote excellent local foods, instill pride in traditional dishes, and arouse curiosity about dishes you haven’t tried.