Chocolate tofu pudding

I have made chocolate tofu many many times since I first tried it (here). But realized when I was looking for the recipe recently that actually my noted recipe was a bit inadequate. So here is an updated version, adapted to use one whole typical 349g Mori-Nu type silken tofu package.

175 g chocolate

75 g sugar

120 ml hot water

349 g pack of silken tofu (preferably the kind in a tetra pak, not floating in liquid)

1 tsp cinnamon

3/4 tsp vanilla powder

pinch cayenne

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler. Dissolve the sugar in the hot water. Put the tofu and spices in a blender cup. Scrape the melted chocolate into the blender, and pour in the sugar syrup (let it cool slightly first). Blend until smooth. Transfer to glasses, ramekins or other containers (I like to use jars for easy storage), and refrigerate for at least 30 min before eating - preferably at least 2 hours for ideal texture, although it'll taste good right away. Keeps fine in the fridge for a few days.

Green tofu spread

I made this spread / dip with the rest of my fresh tofu, recipe from the same page (adjusted a little).

8 oz fresh tofu (or silken)
1/2 cup frozen peas, defrosted
~2 tbsp lime juice
1/4 clove garlic
1 spring onion, roughly chopped
~3 tbsp chopped coriander
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried oregano
salt+pepper

Put all ingredients in a blender cup and blend until smooth. Taste, and add more salt and pepper if needed.


I put two spring onions in and thought it a bit much, although the onioniness wears off gradually, perhaps tomorrow it will be perfect. It is lovely and creamy and delicately green, kind of a minty green (might be nice with mint instead of coriander, incidentally).

Making tofu (or soymilk)

I eat loads of the stuff, and I reckon our fridge always contains at least five different kinds (right now: silken soft, silken firm, firm, extra firm, dry 5-spiced). But I'd never really even thought about making my own. I bought a bag of dried soybeans the other day (for miso attempt), and with lots left over it seemed like time to give tofu making a try. It is a bit more straightforward and much quicker than miso, thought it might be fun. Basically followed this recipe (and this one a little bit).

(makes approx 1 lb of fresh, silken-style tofu)

1 1/2 cups dried soybeans
4 1/2 cups water (and more later)
coagulant: 3 tbsp cider vinegar, 4 tbsp lemon juice, 2 tsp Epsom salts (magnesium sulphate) or 2 tsp nigari (I used vinegar)

Put the beans and water in a large pan or bowl, cover and leave to soak for 8 hours or overnight.

Grind the soaked beans together with their water until as fine as possible in a blender or food processor.

Boil five cups of water in a large pan. Add the ground beans. Reduce heat to medium and keep just below the boil for 8 minutes. A layer of foam will form on top.

Line a colander with cheesecloth  and put it over a bowl. Strain the mixture, reserving the liquid (soymilk). Squeeze the cloth bundle to extract as much milk as possible. Undo the bundle and set aside the contents - this is okara. Rinse out the cheesecloth.

Mix the coagulant with 1 cup of water in a small bowl.

Rinse out the pan, then add the strained soymilk and heat gently, stirring continuously, until it reaches 65-68C (150-155F) - I judged this as cool enough to put a finger in but too hot to be comfortable. Take off the heat.

Add half the coagulant mixture to the pan and stir like a whirlpool six times. Hold the spoon in the middle and wait until the swirling stops. Add the remaining coagulant and stir in a figure of eight six times. It should start to coagulate. Cover and leave for 15 min.

Line a colander with cheesecloth and put it over a bowl. Transfer the soymilk with a ladle into the colander. Fold the cloth on top, then put a plate and a weight (large tin or jar) on top. Let stand for 15 min to press out excess water. Put it in the fridge to chill and firm up slightly for one hour. Discard flowthrough. Fill a large bowl with cold water then transfer the cloth-wrapped package to it and remove the cloth. Let water run gently for 10 min or so.

Eat immediately (I had some for lunch as this salad) or store covered in cold water for up to three days.


This was good. Very soft and creamy, quite lovely. Worked really well in the salad. I kept about half for something else tbd. It didn't keep shape well when cut - more creamy than shapely or crumbly - so perhaps best for dips, puddings etc. Most comparable with silken tofu.

Notes: If I ever get into doing this frequently I might try drying and grinding the okara so it can be stored for later use. I baked cornbread with the (undried) okara produced from this batch (2 cups). I think the creamy rather than choppable consistency was probably due to guessing temperature before adding coagulant - was probably not hot enough. I might finally invest in a thermometer one day soon.

Beetroot and pistachio dip

This morning I was putting my box of dried fruit and nuts back on a high shelf and somehow managed to bust open a full bag of pistachios over my head. Pistachio rain for breakfast.

The plus side is that those plummeting pistachios combined with seeing this and eating some tasty pink stuff (made by D+K) during our woods picnic the other day inspired me to make a beetroot dip. Beetroot gets on well with most nuts, but I've never really explored its affinity with pistachios - those colours and textures have got to be amazing together, though, right?

1 large beetroot
2 small cloves garlic, peeled
2 tbsp olive oil
2/3 packet (~250 g) shelf-stable silken tofu
1-2 tsp lime (or lemon) juice
salt and pepper
~3 tbsp pistachios

Heat the oven to 350F. Wrap the beetroot in foil. Put (on a baking tray) in the oven for ~45 min, until just tender. Remove and let cool. Do this step in advance if you can.

Peel the beetroot and chop roughly. Put into blender with garlic, olive oil, tofu, lime juice, salt and pepper. Blend until fairly smooth and well combined. Tip out of blender into serving plate or tub.

Crush the pistachios using pestle and mortar (or roughly chop). Sprinkle over the beetroot mixture just before serving.


This is nice - colours and textures beautiful as predicted, and I like how using relatively few ingredients means you can taste each one clearly: sharp garlic, pungent olive oil, sweet beetroot, creaminess from the tofu and the crunch and richness of the pistachios are all detectable individually as well as working beautifully together.

Hedgehog cake (orange, carrot and pistachio cake with mocha-sunflower icing)

This is S's birthday cake. He mentioned carrot cake at some point, also mentioned cake in the shape of a hedgehog at some point, he likes nuts and coffee, and I'm still trying to find the perfect carrot-coffee-nut combination after he requested it a few years ago.

Cake recipe adapted from this one (my quantities are weird because I scaled it down to make two layers instead of three).

For the cake:
50g tahini
83ml sunflower oil
2 tbsp pomegranate molasses
zest of 2 oranges, and 67ml juice (juice of approx 1 orange)
150g soft light brown sugar
2 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 5 tbsp boiling water
133g carrot, grated finely
67g chopped pistachios
117g plain flour
1 2/3 tsp baking powder
1 1/3 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cardamom
1/3 tsp grated nutmeg

For the icing:
(this made too much - half or two thirds this quantity would have been sufficient)
16 oz firm silken tofu, drained
1 tbsp veg oil
1 tbsp very strong coffee
1/2 cup icing sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 cup smooth sunflower seed butter

To finish:
~1 cup slivered toasted almonds
3 raisins (1 big one for the nose and two smaller, equal-sized ones for the eyes)

Heat the oven to 360F / 180C. Grease two 8 inch round cake tins and line the bases. In a large bowl, whisk together tahini, pomegranate molasses, orange zest and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in linseed mixture, then stir in the grated carrot, pistachios and orange juice. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and spices with a fork. Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture and fold together until just combined. Divide the mixture between the prepared tins and bake for 25-30 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool in tins.

While the cake is baking, make the icing. Crumble the drained tofu into a blender jug, add the oil and coffee and blend until smooth. Add the icing sugar, cocoa, cinnamon, salt and vanilla and blend until smooth. Add the sunflower seed butter and blend until consistent. Transfer the icing into a bowl, cover and refrigerate for an hour, until thickened.

When the cakes are cool and the icing chilled, you can assemble the cake. For a normal cake, just layer it up and stop here.

I wanted to make a curved, bilaterally symmetrical hedgehog shape. I made 4 layers (plus a little bit more on top, using almost all of the two circular cakes. I took one of the circular base papers (cleaned of cake bits) and cut out a template for the bottom layer (approx egg shaped; long side length equal to diameter of circle), then cut this shape out of one of the cakes with a sharp knife (save the offcuts for the upper layers), cutting at an angle of ~45 degrees. I then trimmed about 1 cm around all the edges of the template and cut this shape out of the other cake (working at the edge). Stack them so you can see how it is looking. Trim another centimetre off the template and cut the shape out of a combination of offcuts. Repeat. Use remaining offcuts to create a rounded top. Hopefully the stacked shape will look OK, if not you can do some rearrangement / trimming.

Next, put the bottom layer on a plate. Cover it with icing then add the next layer, Repeat until all the layers are done, also using the icing to stick the pieces together where the layers comprise more than one piece. Once the pieces are all layered up, cover the outside with icing. Make sure to fill in all the cracks and to go right down to the plate; you can use the icing to correct minor irregularities in shape. Smooth it out when done. Starting about 1/4 of the way back from the pointed end, stick slivered almonds into the icing to make spines. Cover the entire back part of the cake with these. On the part without almonds, make striations with a fork to look a bit like fur. Finally, choose your raisins, squish them into shape, and press into position on the cake.


This looks really fun - the almonds and raisins are quite effective, as good as I might have hoped. The cake is delicious - bit of a faff with all the chopping and grating and zesting and juicing and so forth, but tasty enough to warrant it on a special occasion. They didn't rise much but they did hold together very well as I cut and layered them. Carrot cake should be dense anyway, so I don't think the lack of eggs mattered much.

The icing is very soft but does stay in position. I wondered if the seed (or nut) butter was a necessary addition or if it would have been just as good without. Same with the cocoa - I added it mainly for colour but it might have been brown enough without. It definitely doesn't taste of tofu at all. Does taste of sunflower butter though, and with that plus the cocoa once again I have managed to drown out the coffee flavour. Tastes fine in combination with the cake though: the flavours work together well. (note: I may have been eating the leftover icing out of the tub with a spoon like pudding, this was kind of good - it's fairly light)

Orange and orange blossom 'cream'

Saw this, here (I've been enjoying the ideas on that site), looked like an interesting variation on the chocolate tofu pudding I made before, had some silken tofu that needed eating and am slowly getting in the mood for cooking again as Autumn is slowly creeping into the air.

I didn't have lemons, but did have an orange, so tried out an orange version instead.

~12.3 oz extra-firm silken tofu (used soft silken)
2 tbsp fine or medium-ground cornmeal
pinch of salt
~1/3 cup honey
grated zest of 1 orange
3 tbsp orange juice
1/2 tsp orange blossom water

Drain and roughly slice the tofu, then drain for 10 minutes and dab dry as well as possible with kitchen paper.

Put all the ingredients in the blender and blend til smooth.

Pour into a bowl and chill for 2 hours to a day.


This was totally fine and tasty and filled the yogurt-shaped hole in my diet for a few days.  But it was nothing special, and the cornmeal was weird - I thought it might soak up the liquid and make everything thicker and firmer, but it remained grainy and I wasn't that into it.  Still, the orange / orange blossom / honey combo was good, and I think I managed to judge the quantity of orange blossom water correctly for once - I could taste it, but it wasn't overpoweringly perfume-y.

Lentil curry with beetroot raita

This was what I felt like making when I got home through the rain.  I wasn't going to bother with the raita but then S wasn't home yet and I was waiting for things to cook and I thought yeah, why not.

250g large brown lentils
60g fresh ginger or galangal (used galangal), peeled and roughly chopped
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp ground coriander
3 tsp garam masala
2 small red chillies
1 tsp ground turmeric
2 tbsp veg oil
1 medium onion, finely sliced
400g can chopped tinned tomatoes

For the raita:
200g soft silken tofu
4 tbsp beetroot, coarsely grated
coriander, chopped
juice of 1/4 lime

Bring the lentils to the boil in a pan of deep, unsalted water, then let them simmer for 20-25 minutes, until they are quite soft.

Put the galangal into the blender with the garlic, cumin seeds, ground coriander, garam masala, red chillies, ground turmeric and enough water to make a soft, but not runny, paste.

Peel and finely slice the onion.  Warm a tbsp or two of oil in a medium saucepan over a moderate heat.  Add the onion and let it colour, stirring occasionally.  Then add the paste and stir / cook til fragrant.  Then add the tinned tomatoes and a can of water, salt, and the drained, cooked lentils and leave to simmer for half an hour or so. The lentils should be soft but still retaining a little of their texture; the sauce thick.

To make the raita, blend the tofu until smooth and put in a small bowl with the other ingredients and gently fold the beetroot through the smooth tofu with a fork (don't over mix).


We ate it with brown rice, and it was good.  Homely and comforting and exciting all at once.  Glad to use some galangal at last.  And the tofu-beetroot raita turned out way better than I expected.

Little chocolate-berry birthday cakes (gluten-free and vegan)

Little chocolate cake with blackberry jam centre and chocolate icing

It was Alvin's birthday on Monday.  Coincidentally, I had asked him when it was about a week before the day.  We had an abortive attempt to organize something for his actual birthday (turned out he already had plans), but ended up putting plans on hold til the next workday... which was today.  All pretty vague, but I decided to make some gluten-free cakes (he eats GF).

Chocolate cake:

Dry:
1/2 cup GF oat flour
1/3 cup rice flour
1/3 cup glutinous rice flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp custard powder
2 tbsp ground chia seed
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Wet:
1/2 cup fake milk
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp apple cider vinegar

Heat oven to 350F.  Mix dry ingredients well together with a fork.  Mix wet ingredients in a separate bowl.  Add wet to dry and mix til combined.  Prepare a muffin tin and put the mixture into muffin cups (this makes 12).  Put in oven and bake 25-30min / til a skewer comes out clean.  Allow to cool completely before icing.


Chocolate icing:
(recipe from here)

(makes 2 cups - a half quantity is plenty for icing 12 little cakes).

1 pack (12.3oz box eg Mori-Nu) firm silken tofu
1 tbsp canola oil
1/3 tsp salt
1/4 cup icing sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla
6 oz chocolate, melted
1-3 tbsp fake milk, for thinning, if required

Put tofu, oil and salt in blender and puree til smooth.  Add sugar, cocoa and vanilla and blend til smooth.  Add melted chocolate and blend til smooth.  Refrigerate until needed (1 hour to a day).  If it is too thick to spread easily add some fake milk until you get a good consistency.



Decoration:
~1/4 cup blackberry jam
6 glace cherries

Once the cakes are cooled and the icing chilled, assemble as follows:  cut a small piece out of the middle of each cake and put in ~ 1tsp blackberry jam.  Replace the cut-out piece as a lid.  Take 1 - 1 1/2 tbsp of frosting and spread out on top, trying to keep it neat and cover the whole surface.  Cut glace cherries in half and put half a cherry on top in the middle of each cake.


When I took the cakes out of the oven I thought it was a bit of a disaster - they really sank, and seemed to be undercooked although they'd been in for about 45min.  The batter was too wet I think (this is what happens when I make it up as I go along) - I've edited the quantities above a little to try and address this, although I might also consider taking out the applesauce and using 3/4 cup fake milk to make a simpler recipe.  But the recipe is definitely a work in progress.  I made the oat flour in my spice grinder, and that worked well.  The icing was good - you can't go wrong with melted chocolate - could simplify it a bit I think: maybe just chocolate, tofu, vanilla and sugar would be worth trying.

Despite the initial mini-cake-disaster, once the cakes were filled and iced they looked pretty good (somewhat less so by the time I'd biked across town with them, but they more-or-less survived).  And they went down very well!  I took candles, and we had cake and candles and a spontaneous singing of 'Happy Birthday' at the garden.  I made some black bean brownies as back-up, and all of both kinds of cake disappeared, which is usually a good sign.  Non-vegan / GF people didn't guess the cakes were lacking (the tofu in the icing was a particular success), and at least one GF girl was happily surprised that she could eat cake!  There was a good turn-out today - even Seb came along - and it was a good day.

Chocolate Biscuit (Fridge) Cake and Prune Brownies (both vegan)

L: Prune brownie.  R: Chocolate biscuit cake

Chocolate Biscuit Cake

I had been thinking about making some chocolate biscuit cake since the Royal Wedding.  Two reasons:  1) the media said it was Prince William's choice for his wedding cake, apparently since it was a childhood favourite - this reminded me it was a childhood favourite of ours too.  2) I had a load of digestive biscuits (from Nick) left after our teaparty and it seemed like the best thing to do with them.

1 oz (30g) margarine
1 rounded dssp honey / golden syrup
2 floz (60 ml) fake milk
3 1/2 oz (100g) plain chocolate
4 oz (100g) digestive biscuits, broken up (put into plastic bag and bash, leaving some chunks)
couple of handfuls dried fruit / toasted, chopped nuts (used raisins, cranberries and flaked almonds)

1. Melt the margarine, honey, milk and chocolate in a bowl over water.
2. Add the biscuits, fruit and nuts, and mix well.
3. Spread into a small greased container to desired thickness and place in the fridge to set for three hours or longer.

This wasn't quite the recipe I used as a teenager - decided to make it a bit more decadent by using real chocolate instead of cocoa powder (partly as used up the cocoa powder in the brownies).  For some reason decided to add fake milk, which I think was a mistake - at first I was afraid it wouldn't set at all, then it did but was perhaps still a little bit melty.  Another time I prob wouldn't add it.  I used to make it with a layer of chocolate spread over the top - this would make it look prettier, perhaps worth a try another time.


Prune Brownies

I liked the sound of prune puree in brownies, so decided to try this recipe.

For the Brownies
¾ cup whole wheat flour
½ cup plain flour
2 tablespoons arrowroot (subbed cornflour, which was fine.  suspect could also just sub regular flour)
1 cup cocoa powder
½ cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
3 tablespoons canola oil (or another neutral oil?  or olive? or coconut?  plus more for oiling pan)
1 cup maple syrup
⅓ cup prune puree (recipe below) or use baby food prunes or apple and plums
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
½ cup walnuts (used mixture with pecans), toasted, cooled and coarsely chopped
(optional) ⅓ cup vegan chocolate chips and/or 1/3 cup chopped dried fruit (used handful cranberries)

For Prune Puree: (Makes 2/3 -1 cup)
6 ounces dried, pitted prunes
7 ounces boiling water, more if needed

Soak the prunes in water until very soft. Pour prunes and soaking liquid into a blender and blend until perfectly smooth. Use immediately or refrigerate up to 2 weeks in an airtight container.
Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350˚ F. Oil a 9 x 9-inch pan with oil.
Place a wire mesh strainer over a medium bowl. Add pastry flour, white flour, arrowroot, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt to the strainer and sift into the bowl. Stir with a wire whisk to distribute the ingredients.
In a separate bowl, whisk oil, maple syrup, prune puree, water and vanilla until very well blended. Pour into the dry ingredients and mix until smooth. Stir the walnuts and chocolate chips, if using into the batter. (The batter will be thick.)
Spread the batter into the prepared pan evenly. Bake for17 to 18 minutes (+5), until the top looks dry and set, and the sides of the brownies have pulled away from the sides slightly. A tester inserted into the center will be coated with very moist cake, but the cake will not feel gummy. The brownies will firm as they cool.
Place the pan on a wire rack and cool to room temperature. Refrigerate or freeze before cutting--cold brownies slice neatly. Store in the freezer, well wrapped up to a month. Apparently you can eat the brownies straight from the freezer.

Chocolate (Vegan) Ganache
8 ounces dark chocolate, finely chopped (between 62 to 72% cocoa)
¾ cup soymilk or almond milk ( or soy or coconut milk creamer)
Put the finely chopped chocolate into a medium-size heatproof bowl.
Pour the soymilk into a in a small saucepan and heat to just under a boil over medium heat a boil. Pour over the chocolate. Swirl the bowl to submerge the chocolate. Allow the chocolate to begin to melt about 1 minute, then stir gently with a wire whisk until smooth.
The ganache will be thick enough to spread on the brownie in 10 to 20 minutes at room temperature. Spread the ganache over chilled brownie for the shiniest glaze.

I didn't try the ganache.  Sounded like a bit much on top of the brownies (and would make them harder to transport).  Might be good icing for something else though.  The brownies were good - sticky and gooey and squidgy and a nice mix of dried fruit / chocolate flavour.

I ate them with this instead of ganache:


Prune tofu cream

1/3 cup prune puree
2/3 cup silken tofu
2-3 tbsp almond milk
1/2 tbsp maple syrup

Put all in a blender and whizz til smooth.  Add milk to reach desired, creamy texture.

Comes out pruney in taste and creamy in texture.

Banana pudding

Still dealing with the mass of bananas - have dehydrated a bunch quite successfully, and frozen pieces for smoothies.


2 mashed ripe bananas
1 cup silken tofu
~2 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp lemon juice

Put it all in a blender and whizz til smooth.  Chill and serve.


This kind of worked - didn't really set, and when it was sitting in the fridge got kind of a brown skin on the top where the banana was in the air.  Was still tasty though - just lots of ripe pureed banana...

Chocolate pudding, tofu salad, beetroot salad

I made this chocolate pudding.  I liked the look of it at least partly because it's a vegan pudding that doesn't even mention it's vegan.  And I'm really into pudding, of the gloopy American definition, at the moment.  And it is really quick and easy.  And with chocolate and spices and sweetness, how can one go wrong?

3/4 cup sugar
1 pound silken tofu
8 ounces high-quality dark chocolate, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon chili powder, or more to taste

In a small pot, combine sugar with 3/4 cup water; bring to a boil and cook until sugar is dissolved, stirring occasionally. Cool slightly.

Put all ingredients in a blender and blend until completely smooth, stopping machine to scrape down its sides if necessary. Divide among 4 to 6 ramekins or glasses and chill for at least 30 minutes.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings (I made about 1/4 of the recipe and it went into 3 small ramekins, which would be enough for a sweet.  I have trouble using good chocolate for anything other than eating out of the packet...

Note: I found a subtle powdery edge from the spices that slightly detracted from the silky texture, so tried it another time with only the vanilla.  The texture was definitely better but the other tastes are nice too.  Seb definitely preferred the spicy one, and I think I could go either way depending on my mood.



Delia's silken tofu with chilli and spring onion

I have been making variations on this Delia recipe (from Vegetarian Collection) for years.  It's quick and easy and super tasty - the texture contrasts are really good, and the tofu absorbs so much exciting flavour.


~3/4 box silken tofu
about 6 spring onions
~3 tbsp chopped coriander
toasted sesame seeds
~3 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
~2 tbsp soy sauce
~2 tbsp groundnut or other light flavoured oil
~1 tbsp sesame oil

Put tofu in a fairly large, shallow serving dish and chop into ~2-3cm cubes.  Chop spring onions: cut off the white part into ~4cm lengths, then slice these lengthways to make long thin pieces.  Chop the rest of the spring onions in little cross sections as normal.  Sprinkle the cross section spring onion, the coriander and the toasted sesame seeds over the tofu.  Other green stuff can be good here too - steamed broccoli and/or sugarsnap peas, bean (or alfalfa, clover etc) sprouts, cooked edamame (especially broccoli).  Put sweet chilli sauce and soy sauce across the top.  Put the oils in a small saucepan and heat til almost steaming.  Add the lengthways cut spring onions and fry til they are quite well-browned and crispy.  Pour the oils and crispy spring onion bits over the top of the tofu dish and serve immediately.  Keeps for lunch the next day OK too, although it looks significantly less pretty once you mix it all together.  The soy / sesame / chilli / tofu combination is just so good.

Also made this marinated beetroot salad.