Chinese Strawberry Almond Tofu Dessert

Chinese Strawberry Almond Tofu Dessert

The Spruce / Liv Wan

Prep: 20 mins
Cook: 75 mins
Fridge Time: 2 hrs
Total: 3 hrs 35 mins
Servings: 4 to 6 servings

Chinese almond tofu (杏仁豆腐), otherwise known as Annin tofu, is a popular dessert throughout the Far East. Annin tofu is a soft jellied dessert made of amongst other things agar and sugar and we always serve it with icy cold syrup and diced fruit. The almond tofu itself is diced into a small diamond shape.

The name tofu refers to the texture of the jelly and because almond tofu is usually made in square shapes with a white color but it’s not actually tofu, only in shape and texture.

I made this dish in a non-traditional way for making Almond tofu dessert. The traditional way is to use milk instead of soy milk and cut the almond tofu into small diamond shapes surrounded by syrup and diced fruit such as watermelon, strawberries, mango, kiwi, pineapple, lychee, and melon. I made the strawberry sauce and placed it in the bottom of the dish and there are some fresh diced strawberries in the sauce as well. I garnished this dessert with elderflowers, strawberries, and blackberries. You can change the fruit on top to anything you like.

Even though my recipe isn’t the traditional way of preparing this dessert it is very tasty and all of the ingredients are very easy to get hold of. Elderflower might be a little challenge to obtain but it’s entirely optional.

I highly recommend preparing this dessert well ahead of when you want to serve it as this dessert takes time to set. You can also make this in large quantities.

Ingredients

  • For the Strawberry Sauce:
  • 100 grams fresh strawberries (or frozen strawberries)
  • 100 grams caster sugar
  • 70 milliliters water
  • 2 teaspoons corn flour
  • 1 tablespoon water
  • For the Almond Tofu:
  • 1 liter soy milk
  • 4 pieces gelatin
  • 150 grams caster sugar
  • 200 grams almonds (peeled)
  • 100 grams water
  • Dash of almond extract
  • Garnish: fresh strawberries, blackberries and elderflower

Steps to Make It

Make the Strawberry Sauce

  1. Gather the ingredients.

  2. Use a food processor or smoothie machine to purify fresh strawberries then put into a small saucepan along with the water and sugar. Bring this to the boil.

  3. Mix the corn flour with 1 tablespoon of water in a separate bowl and gradually stir into the saucepan from step one to ensure an even texture. Bring the sauce to the boil again after adding corn flour water. Once it has boiled pour the sauce into a bowl and allow it to cool down.

 

Make the Almond Tofu:

  1. Gather the ingredients.

  2. Use a food processor to blend the almonds almost to a powder texture.

  3. Put the ground almond, soy milk, water, sugar, and almond extract into a saucepan and bring this to the boil. Once boiling allow it to simmer for 1 hour but stir occasionally while simmering to make sure it doesn’t burn on the bottom of the pan.

  4. After 1 hour, pass the mixture through a sieve as we don’t want any lumps of almond. After passing through allow the mixture to cool down a little. Soften the gelatin and stir this into the cooled mixture. Cooling the mixture down before adding the gelatin is essential otherwise the gelatin would be destroyed at a high temperature.

  5. Once you have added gelatin allow the mixture to cool down until the dish is warm but not hot. At this moment you can prepare the glasses for pouring the mixture into.

  6. In the glass or dish that you choose to use, place small diced fresh strawberries at the bottom and cover this with strawberry sauce. This should fill about one-fifth of the glass/dish. Being gentle cover the strawberry sauce with tofu mixture until about 4/5's of the glass is filled. Repeat this method and leave the almond tofu in a fridge until it has set (this should take about a couple hour but we left it overnight.)

  7. Once the dessert has set, place fresh strawberries, blackberries, and elderflower on top and it’s ready to serve.

  8. Enjoy!

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
453 Calories
13g Fat
80g Carbs
10g Protein
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 4 to 6
Amount per serving
Calories 453
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 13g 16%
Saturated Fat 1g 5%
Cholesterol 0mg 0%
Sodium 28mg 1%
Total Carbohydrate 80g 29%
Dietary Fiber 4g 15%
Protein 10g
Calcium 113mg 9%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

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