Video:5 Ways to Substitute Tofu in Desserts

Transcript:5 Ways to Substitute Tofu in Desserts

Hi! My name is Rocky Hunter and I am at Local Sprouts Cooperative Cafe in Portland, Maine. Today I am going talk a little bit about substituting tofu in your desserts.

Silken Tofu Is a Good Way to Substitute Tofu in Desserts

When using tofu in your baked goods instead of eggs or dairy, typically you will be working with silken tofu. It's the softest of all the tofu varieties and really lends itself to being blended in things smoothed out. It works really well for a lot of baking projects and holds a lot of the same principles where normally eggs or dairy would be used.

Substitute Silken Tofu in Chocolate Mousse

Today, I am going to be putting together a very basic chocolate mousse using tofu instead of dairy. As I said earlier, the tofu really lends itself to being blended. So what you will see is starting with chocolate, sweetener, adding just a little bit of vegetable oil and then blending the silken tofu right in. As you can see at the end of the process it's very smooth, very pourable, holds a lot of the same principles that a dairy chocolate mousse would have.

Substitute Tofu in Pie Fillings

Similar ideas can be applied to something to be used for pie filling, if we were to take that same kind of mixture where you are using chocolate, some kind of sweetener oil and silken tofu to kind of emulsify it all together may be throw in peanut butter and that's like a chocolate peanut butter pie right there. You could certainly add other elements like raspberry or fruit and that would be filling for a vegan pie crust.

Substitute Tofu in Frostings for Cake

The next time that you wanted to frost a vegan cake, tofu could actually be involved in the topping process -- adding the right amount of silken tofu and sweetener, with maybe a non-diary vegan butter product, you could emulate a lot of those same characteristics and flavors.

Substitute Tofu for Whipped Cream

For the baking buffs out there that have the right home appliances, playing with the amount of silken tofu that you include in a recipe could yield things like a whipped cream topping, something that's really light and fluffy, again that would something with like a stand mixer and kind of playing with how much silken tofu that you are adding to your baking projects.

Substitute Tofu in Cheesecakes

And last but not least is my personal favorite, the tofu cheesecake. Obviously most cheesecakes are going to have dairy products in them, aren't very vegan friendly, but using silken tofu and possibly a vegan brand cream cheese, you could emulate a lot of those same flavors just by mixing it in your food processor and pouring it into a pie crust and letting it solidify overnight. And the next day when you open up the fridge is a tasty vegan treat.

Those are some tips for substituting tofu in your desserts.