Cook with Us #13: Healthy Vegan Tofu Tiramisu
La Paix Street. The sense of peace is a mere illusion. The ambient calmness is soon a distant memory. Eight o’clock. It is school drop off time. The constant murmur grows into an uncontrollable shouting contest. Kids and parents alike are active participants in this ritual. Smaller kids would shed some tears. The socioeconomic diversity is in full display by the means of transports used: cars, motorcycles or bicycles. The more modest pupils will come by foot. Ding-dong, ding-dong. It’s already eight thirty. One of the nuns of Notre Dame de la Paix Chapel sounds the bell. School is due to start in fifteen minutes. The Chapel is on the right-hand side as you walked through the main gate (really a welcome arch). Whilst within the compound of the school (or vice versa), it is bound by a brick wall. A hundred metre ahead is a second gate which marks the official access to the school yard.
My husband Joel attended this catholic school in the mid-eighties. He would travel with his elder brother, in the morning, by bus. At the start, his grand father would pick him up shortly after midday. Then he would spend the afternoons with the nuns at the chapel. And eventually, when both their timetable would match, he would finish school at the same time as his brother. Very rarely he would go to his friend’s place. One of these afternoon he went to his best mate Lim Ping house. He lived up the road, within walking distance from the school. The house was very old. It was in stark contrast to the newly painted brick wall of the chapel. They went through a rusting colorbond gate and onto an overused cobblestone area.
Joel remembered being struck by this dense smell. The odour was quite strong, similar to certain pungent of cheeses. He kept walking and against the fence were tens of monotone buckets. In them were soaked jute bags. Suddenly, there was a big bang behind them. Startled, they turned around only to find Lim Ping’s dad pushing his old bicycle. He nodded at them and walked into the house and returned with a few transparent plastic bags. He knelt near the buckets, uncovered one of them, took handful of bean sprouts and placed them into separate bags. Lied against the fence was a tiny colorbond shed from which smoke was coming from. It was the origin of the odour. Joel tried to glimpse inside as Lim Ping’s mum was stepping out. He noticed an old millstone. On top of two circular stones were tiny soy beans. And at one extremity a thick white puree was oozing down from the grinder. It was collected in a white cloth stuck in a bucket. Lim Ping’s dad soon replaced his mum inside the shed and shut it close. He won’t know what else happened in there.
Joel and his friend walked into the kitchen. There was a large wooden bench. On it was rectangular blocks of what looked like bean curds. Lim Ping’s mum was busy again. She had one end of a white thread tightly held between her teeth. And then with her right and left hand she would hold another part of the thread and make swift incisions in the curd. Two incisions on each side. The small blocks are then inserted into a transparent plastic bag with a quarter cup of a whitish liquid from a large bowl. On his way back to school, Joel learnt that Lim Ping’s parents were making tofu the traditional way. Each afternoon, after his normal day’s work, Lim Ping’s dad would ride into China town to sell his homemade Teokwon (Tofu) and home-grown bean sprouts.
Sometimes I wonder how my husband appear to have a story for a lifetime events that I want to express through my blogging. Joel is six years older than I am. He lived in Mauritius at a time when televisions and video games were a luxury. As a result, he got to experience first hand a lot of things, like how tofu was traditionally made. He also got to experience things that would be somehow different to someone growing up in Central Europe. I think when the ingredients/dish is right I will also like to incorporate my personal childhood or teenage memories. But for the time being, I would have to rely of his memories of past events and try to reproduce them as vividly as possible.
By now you would have guess that my entry for Cook With Us #13 has for primary ingredients Tofu. I can’t remember doing it before so a huge thanks to @chefsteve, @offoodandart and @pandamama from the @cookwithus team for hosting and organising this contest. I didn’t present an entry last week due to a busy schedule that prevented me from cooking with fire. So, let’s see how we go this week! I came across this recipe of a vegan tofu tiramisu from blogger Nadia (Healthy kitchen) which I’ve attempted for the first time for this contest. I’ve adapted and changed parts of the recipe to match the ingredients at hand. Hopefully she does not mind. Good luck to everyone!
Ingredients:
For the sponge layer:
- 150g gluten-free flour
- 100g ground almonds
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 6 tbsp coconut oil, melted
- 6 tbsp maple syrup
- 120ml milk of choice
- 150ml strong coffee
For the cream layer:
- 396g hard Tofu, drained
- 6 tbsp maple syrup
- 6 level tbsp almond butter
- 1/2 tsp instant coffee powder
- 3 tsp vanilla extract
- 1-2 tbsp coconut milk
- Pinch of salt
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Method:
Preheat your oven to 180°C.
To make the sponge:
- Mix the first 4 ingredients in a bowl, then pour in the oil, maple syrup and milk. Mix to combine.
- Pour the batter into a lined 8″ square cake tin and bake for 15 minutes. Leave to cool completely.
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To make the cream layer:
- First drain the tofu from as much liquid as possible.
- Blend all the cream layer ingredients in a food processor until smooth.
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To assemble:
- Use dessert ring to assemble the tiramisu. Use one of the rings to cut out 4 rings from the sponge cake, and then carefully slice each circle in half horizontally.
- Place one of the discs back into the dessert ring, then drizzle on top 2-3 tsp of the brewed coffee.
- Top with a few teaspoons of the cream mixture, and then repeat the above step so you end up with two layers of sponge and 2 layers of cream.
- Leave to chill in the fridge for 1-2 hours, then carefully remove the rings and top with a generous dusting of cocoa powder and cherries.
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I hope you enjoy it!
Bon appétit!
Yum. I'm a fan of both tiramisu and tofu so am.bookmarking This!!
Oh thank you. I’ll be honest to admit that I didn’t expect the tofu combination to taste so good. I took a stab in the dark and can say that’s it’s one dessert I’ll definitely make again in the future. Make sure you check the firm tofu otherwise the cream might not have the required consistency.
I had a vegan tiramisu in Athens last week. This looks much better though.
Oh thank you. I hope you enjoyed visiting Athens a wonderful city.
Looks awesome. Good luck!
@choogirl sent me here to drool 😋🤤😋🤤
Lol!
Oh she is so kind and supportive of us within teamaustralia. I hope you enjoy them.
This is sooo impressive. I never would have thought I could enjoy tiramisu again as a vegan. Thanks for this awesome recipe. Looks beautiful!
You are most welcomed. And thank you for going through the post.
Yum! This looks amazing. Your vegan recipes are always so good. (I'm sure your other ones are too, but they are not for me.)
Thank so much. I was actually planning on making more vegan dishes as we found out that we actually enjoy them a lot at home and they are not are difficult to make as I easily thought. And I now also have ingredients (like Agar Agar) that I need to use which is another good opportunity to find new vegan recipes to showcase. Hopefully you enjoy them. And don’t forget firm tofu if you try this one. I had to let go of my first batch as I’ve used soft tofu and it didn’t set quite as well.
Yay! That's good to hear. Most people think vegan is really hard, but it's really not. I'm not sure where you're buying your agar agar, but if you get it from an Asian supermarket, it's HEAPS cheaper than health food stores.
I’ve learnt it the hard way. I’ve paid it $20 at Coles and my mother in law bought it a while back for $3 something at the Asian shop!
I enjoy taking all sorts of classes and at one of the cooking classes, the chef talked about making tofu. She described it in detail and I thought it was really interesting. Thanks for sharing your husband's story as I find it amazing.
Your dish looks delicious. After reading the ingredients and following your process, I found it even more interesting! My husband and I try eating vegan for one month in the year so guess which month we go for. Yes, the shortest month, February, haha! This is something I'm curious about so I may just give it a try next Feb.
Thank you. Since the contest week we’ve been having at least one vegan dish each week. And so far we are enjoying it. You should definitely give the tofu tiramisu a try. Even the cake taste amazing on its own. So much so that I’ve baked just the cake and served it with blueberries yesterday. The combination of maple syrup and almond butter blend s smoothly with the tofu. If you are used to tofu you might recognise the taste otherwise it just roll on the tongue. I took some of the tiramisu to my friends on the weekend and they serve it hazelnut liquor and it add another level to the dessert. I’m definitely making it again ;)
Yes, I'm used to tofu but I love it so it's fine that I will recognize the taste.
Hazelnut liquor! What a great idea ... I'm drooling!
Looks delicious as always @foodforsoul! Tofu with tiramisu is new for me! Never heard or tasted it. Id like a bite feom one of your last pics! They look delicious!!! Good luck in the contest!🤗💪
Thank you. You should give it a try.
I've been looking forward to reading this entry since I saw your photo! I love your story about Joel's childhood experience with his friend's family making tofu. I love reading recipes and anything about food but when there is a story behind it, the recipe really comes to life. You can envision the people and their surroundings and how things smelled or sounded... I really appreciate you bringing this recipe to life!
Tofu is such a wonderful ingredient and to see it being made is magical. You really preserved the traditional flavors of tiramisu while making a vegan version. The texture of your dessert looks identical to the original version. Its a really soft dessert so adding tofu is perfect! Your photography is stunning too! Thank you for sharing your story and your dessert recipe!
He always seems to have all these stories about his time back in Mauritius. And he likes telling all about them. And I thought this one fit perfectly with the theme. I’ve been trying to create a whole storyline behind some of the recipes so as not to bore my readers and myself. Sometimes the history can be the recipe, an ingredient or something completely unrelated. But it’s not always easy to get the right story and sometimes time forbids me from going into too much details. But I think it’s s good exercise and the accompanying recipe/food just helps to cleanse and heals the soul. Thank you for taking the time to go through the history behind me choosing tofu for this week’s contest.
I have recorded a version of your story @foodforsoul - so interesting getting to know all of you. Love your recipe - sounds scrumptious
Oh that’s nice can’t wait to hear the story told vocally. Thank you for providing exposure to my post.
Well deserved recognition @foodforsoul
What a lovely entry, enjoyed the intro story, your vegan tiramisu looks & sounds divine!
Thank you lizelle it was quite an interesting discovery for me too. And it tastes amazing!
Excellent publication! If you want to know about nutrition, I invite you to read my blog :)
Thank you.
Gorgeous snaps! Love tofu in desserts. Definitely adding this one to the recipe book!
Thank you. I’ve been using the Samsung S9 for a change and must admit that I’m very impressed with the quality.
it definitely shows! They're beautiful! Love your sense of composition
I’ve been listening to your advice and is now taking the pics early in the morning. At the moment 9am appears to be the ideal time for a perfect natural light.
Lovely! They're looking really good!