Tofu Pudding: A Soft, Sweet, and Silky Smooth Recipe

Tofu pudding could be the next great dessert to take the vegan-world by storm. It's soft, smooth, and silky, and it's deliciously rich to the taste.

It's not exactly new, though, because our tofu dessert recipe has been inspired by ancient eastern cooking techniques that have been turning soft, silken tofu into silky smooth tofu pudding recipes for centuries. We're glad it's finally here, but one delicate bite, and you'll be wondering why it didn't reach the rest of the world sooner!

Prepare the tofu press and ready your taste buds. Keep reading for our silken tofu pudding recipe.

Tofu pudding preparation tips and FAQs

That's all it takes to complete silken tofu dessert recipes. Now you can enjoy delicious, dairy-free puddings with decadently sweet strawberry sauce.

Tofu desserts take a little practice to get just right, though, so here are a few extra prep tips alongside answers to commonly asked questions to help you to improve your recipe.

What exactly is a silken tofu desert?

Let's take a look at what 'tofu pudding' actually is. We're confident you might have some questions.

While tofu has become a staple component of vegan diets in the western world, it's yet to be used on the same scale that it is in everyday diets in eastern nations such as China and Japan. There, tofu has a long history, dating back hundreds and possibly thousands of years. It's not just a substitute for meat or dairy products (although it is really good at that,) it's an ingredient with proud culinary traditions behind it.

Tofu is often made from bean curd, and the method is very similar to the process of making cheese. Because it is so similar, it's no surprise that soft tofu has a creamy texture and smooth taste to it. However, unlike cheese, tofu is entirely dairy-free.

Tofu has found a remarkable place in desserts and this classic recipe turns tofu into a blancmange pudding. Blancmange is a wobbly, jelly-like dessert, but traditionally a blancmange recipe will call for milk or cream. However, dairy ingredients can be substituted with silken (the softest form of tofu) and soymilk.

Add some honey or sugar, and you have a hybrid tofu blancmange, which is often simply called a sweet tofu pudding. It's deviously decadent for a vegan dish yet guilt-free and low in calories. As you'll see, it's surprisingly easy to prepare when you have the right ingredients.

What tofu should I use for tofu pudding?

A blancmange pudding is traditionally silky smooth and marvellously creamy. Despite looking a lot like jello (and containing gelatin,), this is a dessert that looks wobbly but lacks that wobbly taste!

To recreate the smooth, creamy finish of a blancmange, the best tofu for the recipe is the softest tofu you can find in the store. Tofu is generally sold on a sliding scale in relation to its softness. Extra-firm tofu is the hardest tofu on the market, with silken or soft tofu being the most delicate.

It's the silken tofu that really does the best job in this sweet tofu recipe. It's already soft, silky, and smooth, and when blended in a food processor, takes on a creamy texture that you'd swear could only be made using actual cream. Of course, if you can't find any silken tofu, then the next softest would be firm tofu. Extra-firm tofu will likely be too substantial for this recipe, although a strong food processor could still blend it up quite well.

Do I need to press tofu?

All tofu, and particularly silken tofu, contains a large quantity of liquid. Silken tofu contains much more liquid than extra-firm tofu, which is what gives it that silky-soft texture. The liquid itself, though, isn't great for the taste of the blancmange pudding we want to create.

If tofu is too liquidy, it remains bland. It's difficult for liquidy tofu to take on the flavours of the ingredients we are preparing alongside it, and rather than having a sweet recipe, too many liquids results in a watery recipe. To counter this, we can press the excess liquid out of the tofu.

You can press tofu by merely placing paper towels over the top and pressing down firmly with a chopping board. But to squeeze out that excess liquid, you can use a tofu press. It makes the process a lot less messy and a lot more efficient.

What sauces can I pour over tofu pudding?

We love a delectable strawberry sauce, especially if it's blended from fresh strawberries. Of course, you can prepare other delightful sauces for your tofu puddings as well.

Other types of berries, such as blueberry, blackberry, or raspberry, are also incredibly easy to blend into a sauce and will complement your tofu puddings particularly well.

You don't have to stop there, though. Chocolate sauces (you can use darker chocolate to keep it vegan-friendly) are a lovely compliment. At the same time, vegan ice cream is always a winning addition to any sweet tofu pudding dessert.

Is tofu pudding low in calories?

In comparison to the creamy, dairy-heavy desserts that we traditionally consume, tofu pudding is a wonderfully low-calorie choice for dessert. Of course, there's going to be sugars present in the pudding. If you are watching your calories or sugar intake, then it's possible to remove the sugar entirely by removing the honey or simply substituting with natural zero-sugar sweeteners.

This makes for a not-so-sugary but silky and smooth tofu pudding. It's still delicious, however, with a surprisingly savoury edge to it. Overall, tofu is an excellent source of protein, particularly if you're enjoying a vegan diet. We'd almost go as far as to say that tofu pudding is somewhat healthy, although that depends on how many desserts you eat and how you top them off.

Of course, as part of a balanced diet and with plenty of exercise, there's no harm in enjoying a tofu pudding or three every now and then, is there?

Why not try our tofu pudding recipe?

Have we convinced you of the excellent qualities of a soft, sweet, and silky tofu pudding recipe yet? It's difficult to put into words how delicious this dessert really is and how unique a taste the silken tofu brings to the dining table when mixed with honey and sweet strawberries.

Step out of your comfort zone. Make something you've never tried before. Add some spark to your regular weekly menu at home! Who knows, this might just become your family's new favourite dessert.

Why not give our tofu pudding recipe a try at home? You can save this article for when you're next ready to prepare a sweet, silky dessert!