Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Vegan Tiramisu

For weeks I obsessed about vegan tiramisu. I'd tried vegan recipes in the past and came up with nothing good. This last time I was determined. Now there is a recipe floating around online for vegan tiramisu already and I gave that a shot first but here is what happened:
- the sponge cake came out kind of bitter and crumbly, even though it cooled a long time, cutting it caused it to break up.
- the "mascarpone" came out really runny.

So I tweaked that recipe and combined it with some other recipes and here is my successful version of vegan tiramisu. First make all the components of the recipe as follows.

Sponge Cake:
(Based on recipe I found online by Candace Naomi Sakuda)
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons canola oil
1 1/3 cups water

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix until smooth and free of lumps. Pour batter into a greased 9 inch pan. Bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool complete and then slice it into lady finger shaped strips. Put the strips on a cookie sheet and bake in the oven at 400 degrees for 18 minutes.

"Mascarpone"
8 oz Soy Cream Cheese (I used toffuti's vegan cream cheese)
1/4 cup soy sour cream (I used toffuti's vegan sour cream)
1/4 cup vegan cream (you can try silk coffee creamer but I used Alpro Soya Heavy Cream which you can buy here)
2 tablespoons Amaretto
1/3 cup powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon agar (this is a vegan gelatine, I found some at a Korean grocery near my house but if you do not have that kind of thing near you you may have to buy some online)

Bring heavy cream to a boil in a small sauce pan and then dissolve the agar into it and allow it to cool to room temperature. Combine the cream/agar mix with all the other ingredients above and beat well. Put the mix in the fridge to set for several hours.

Coffee/Liquor Dip
1 cup expresso
3 tablespoons amaretto
3 tablespoons sugar

Combine these ingredients and put in the fridge to cool.

Topping
1 high quality dark chocolate bar, grated (store in the refrigerator)

To assemble the dessert dip the "lady fingers" you made into the coffee dip and lay them in a large deep dish. Pour the "mascarpone" over top of the cake. Sprinkel the "mascarpone" with the grated chocolate and then chill the entire dish in the refrigerator for an hour or until you are ready to serve.


19 comments:

Archikins said...

Hello, thanks for the recipe.. I tried it out yesterday and followed your recipe for the most part except for the ladys fingers. Should say it was decent for a first attempt, though i have never eaten the regular tiramisu. Say, did your ladysfingers turn out "melt in your mouth" quality?

Insomniac Chef said...

Hmm, this was a few months ago that I made this so I am tyring to remember the ladyfingers I came up with... The thing about the ladyfinders I made is that they get re-baked after they bake the 1st time so they will be firm enough to hold their shape after soaking in the liquor. Maybe your ladyfinder texture could have been improved with longer soak time in the liquor which would have softened them? I can't remember how long I let each slice of cake soak up liquid but I know I made sure each piece was very well coated and saturated. You could try skipping the rebaking step to keep them softer but it may cause them to fall apart when you soak them in the liquor.

Archikins said...

Ok, I'll try reducing the 2nd baking time next time and see how that turns out. I used Ferns Rice Baking Mix and used Ener-g as an egg substitute. May be my proportions were not right too.

Anyway, thanks so much for your recipe :-) ...I'll watch your spot for more!

strontium-90 said...

I have tried so many vegan tiramisu recipes over the years and, although many of them were tasty, none came as close to the real thing as this one. When Tofutti was proudly and defiantly insistant on using transfats in their products, I tried making the soy cream cheese (not good) and sour cream (not bad) from scratch, or using soy yogurt, and other variations, and came up with tasty desserts - but nothing I could reasonably call "tiramisu."

I wasn't completely satisfied with the spongecake recipe - that part has turned out will in the past with other generic "vegan spongecake" recipes. (They *are* supposed to melt in your mouth.) This recipe turned out a little dry, even with a good soaking. Still, they tasted fine and softened a little more after chilling the entire ensemble in the fridge. I'll have to experiment a little more with the texture.

Thank you so much for this recipe! As far as I'm concerned, this is THE one for vegans to follow. It even got raving thumbs-up from the dairy-doin' crowd.

LRPageant said...

This was awesome! I left the cake whole and sliced it vertically into two layers. After making double the amount of marscapone, I placed one of the layers sliced side up (and placing strips of waxed paper under the edges for a clean presentation later) and drizzled about half the liquor over it, allowing some soak time. About one-half the marscapone went on top of that and then half the grated chocolate. The other half of the cake went on top, then the rest of the liquor, marscapone, and chocolate. I removed the wax paper, chilled, and presented. I cook for a discerning extended family, and it was praised as the best vegan dessert they had ever eaten. My only challenge was with the agar, which I had never used before. After I added it to the boiling soy creamer and mixed it in, when it cooled to room temperature it congealed into a rubbery mass. I broke it up and added it into the other marscapone ingredients and beat it well, but it still had a tapioca quality to it (maybe a new recipe!) My guests claimed they couldn't tell. Maybe I cooked it too long. Will definitely try it again and let you know. Thank you for a superb recipe!

Unknown said...

Just gave a review of your recipe here:

Hell Food

It's a positive review, it really made our holiday!

Insomniac Chef said...

About the agar, I recommend agar powder over agar flakes pretty much for everything. I have never had results I was pleased with when using the flakes but the powder dissolves much more effectively.

Amanda said...

This recipe looks amazing, I can't wait to try! Can you please tell me what you think would be the best sugar substitute...or is the sugar the best choice? Grazie!

postethotic said...

Hmm... I'm having the same problem with the agar mentioned by Irpageant. I did use agar powder...

Unknown said...

Hey! I love your blog... this recipe looks amazing. My husband (saw the post about getting hitched-- congrats) loves tiramisu, I've only had it once though, so I'm not entirely sure how it's suppose to turn out-- but I'm very excited to try this. Mind if I post pictures with your recipe? (with crediting of course)

Anyways. Thanks!
<3

Denise Mak said...

Does anyone have suggestions for a good amaretto substitute as I am underage?

hanagatakai said...

Does anyone have any good recipes for Soy Cream Cheese and soy sour cream??

Unknown said...

Holy crap! I cannot wait to try this! Since becoming vegan a few years back, one of the things I've missed most is my beloved tiramisu. A friend of mine is an accomplished cook/baker and she recently made tiramisu cupcakes. I hope to be able to share the result of this recipe with her.

Thanks for posting!

Unknown said...

Thanks so much for your recipe. Few months ago that i made lady fingers. This does sound delicious!

Thanks
Sam
My site

Katrina van Raay said...

For the mascarpone- I think it's supposed to be 1 teaspoon of agar (instead of tablespoon). I had problems with the cream/agar mix balling up into a solid mass, but with 1 teaspoon the consistency was perfect and the mascarpone turned out with a really nice consistency.

Laura P said...

THANK YOU! I had pretty much given up on vegan Tiramisu but this was delish!

Anonymous said...

Hello,

Thanks a lot for the recipe. My husband is lactose intolerant so I followed pretty much what you said except for mascarpone where I add egg yolk in soy silk creamer, kept stirring continuously to avoid burns and took it off gas when it was almost a solid mass.

Also, I didn't add rum as I wanted everyone to try it.

Turned out TERRIFIC.

Garbanzo_bean_head said...

Thank you so much for sharing this AMAZING recipe! I followed it to the letter (well, with the 1tsp correction for the agar) and it came out FABULOUS!

I served to a non-vegan friend and he was over the moon about how delicious it was.

Please accept my utmost gratitude for so generously sharing this marvel.

PegasusAngel said...

I made this recently (doubling the mascarpone mix, but only using 2 teaspoons of agar). I should also have made more of the coffee mix, but it was fine and my non-vegan friends were very impressed it tasted just like Tiramisu!!
Thanks for the recipe :)