Silken Tofu is often touted as an extremely versatile ingredient which can be used to replace so many ingredients. Eggs, Cheeses, cream, meats....It can be hard or soft, and has a chameleon like nature, soaking up whatever flavors you choose to give it.
Sounds amazing right.
Except, if you're a pocket conscious baker like me, the price of silken tofu can be a slight put down. Unlike its firm Chinese style counterpart, Silken Tofu doesn't exactly come cheap.
And yet, it is placed on such a high pedestal by so many food bloggers that I simply had to give this a try. As soy milk comes cheap, I decided to try making my own. It was after quite a bit of googling that I found that instead of Nigari or Magnesium Chloride, the traditional Japanese coagulant which I have NO IDEA where I can find, the oh-so-cheap epsom salts can do the job.
Since I already had a packet of epsom salts on hand, I immediately started fantasizing. Vegan Rasmalai! Vegan Rasgulla! ooooh!
Okay so I didn't really make those. At least not yet. But my silken tofu did come out beautifully. Not that I can tell, never having bought silken tofu from the stores before. But the chocolate cake I baked with my homemade silken tofu was simply brilliant.
So here's what you need to make your very own silken tofu.
Yield: about 1/4th cup when pureed.
- 400 ml of plain soy milk.
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 teaspoon epsom salt
- A Sieve or a Colander
- Cheese Cloth
How you do it.
1. Bring soy milk to a boil. This will take about 5 minutes.
2. While the milk is heating and is about to boil, heat the water and add epsom salt to it. This is the coagulant mixture.
4. Once the soy milk begins to Curdle, turn off the heat. Let the curdling take place, leave the milk undisturbed for about thirty minutes.
5. Place the Sieve on a bowl, and place the cheesecloth on the sieve. Pour the curd and the whey into the cheesecloth. Wrap the ends of the cheese cloth over the curds.
6. Place some weight on top of the cheesecloth. I used another vessel with flour inside it for the weight. Most websites recommend leaving the curds under the weight for about an hour, but I left mine for two hours.
7. Your Silken Tofu is now ready to be used :)
8. If you want to store it, store it in a vessel with water in a refrigerator and change the water everyday.
Ofcourse, my tofu didn't take any particular shape. If you want your tofu in blocks, use a tofu box.
In Part II- the best, silkiest chocolate cake I have ever baked!!
