Almond Tofu is a light, refreshing dessert that is popular in Hawaii (and at many Chinese restaurants :). It's easy to make, really onolicious, and goes well with fresh or canned fruits.
Soft, cool, and jiggly. Meet Almond Tofu!
What Is Almond Tofu?
Our family calls it Almond Tofu, but this dessert/snack goes by a few other names you might have heard of:
- Almond Float
- Annin Tofu
- Almond Jelly
They're all the same thing.
Almond Tofu has the texture of soft tofu meets jello...it is very delicious. The main ingredient is soymilk. The texture comes from gelatin powder. The flavor comes from the soymilk and almond extract.
Almond tofu is served chilled, most often as small ½-inch jelly cubes topped with fruits.
Canned fruits are "traditional" (because people like to spoon in the syrup from the canned fruits), but fresh fruits are also great with this dessert.
Almond Tofu / Almond Float from Aloha Tofu Factory (Oahu)
Where Can You Try Almond Tofu?
The dessert menu of many Chinese restaurants (almond tofu is a popular Chinese fruit dessert). We eat at Fook Yuen (Oahu) often. It's our family's go-to Chinese restaurant. When it comes to dessert they usually offer two choices: hot red bean soup or almond tofu. I always get...both ^_^
If you visit Aloha Tofu Factory on Oahu (full post about the factory here), you may purchase small containers of almond tofu with canned fruits on top for $2.50. Very good car snack on hot afternoons.
FYI: Aloha Tofu Factory is also where we purchase fresh soy milk for this dessert and the deep-fried tofu for tofu poke!
How To Make Almond Tofu
How To Make Almond TofuThis dessert is SUPER easy to make. I eat a lot of sweets, but have little patience for baking and/or working with flour (which is why I'm a proud supporter and frequent customer of great neighborhood bakeries).
The desserts I love to make are gelatin and agar-agar-based.
All you need to make Almond Tofu is 5-minutes at the stove and a few hours for it to chill in the fridge. I often make it in the afternoon and then we eat it for dessert later that night. These are the ingredients:
- 1 envelope unflavored gelatin (I use the Knox one, easy to find at most supermarkets)
- ½ cup water
- 1-½ cup soy milk, unsweetened (Try to get fresh soy milk from an Asian market, it makes a big difference. Or you can make soy milk at home.)
- ¼ cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons almond extract (I like the almond extract from Nielsen-Massey)
Here's the step-by step:
First thing you do is mix together the 1 envelope gelatin and ½ cup water in a small bowl (top left of the photo). Set aside.
Get a small saucepan, and pour in 1-½ cup soymilk (make sure it's unsweetened soymilk). Add ¼ cup sugar. Use a whisk to dissolve the sugar as you heat up the soymilk. Keep heating the soymilk till it's right before boiling point.
Add the dissolved gelatin to the soymilk-sugar mixture and whisk until completed mixed. Turn off the stove.
Remove the saucepan from the stove and stir in the almond extract. Then let cool for five minutes. Have a heatproof container ready to pour the mixture (there's no need to grease the container).
Pour the mixture into the container. Then put it in the fridge to chill (it takes about two hours for almond tofu to set).
Note: see those small bubbles on the side of the container? Give the container a small lift and tap on all sides to make the bubbles go away.
Almond Tofu Tips
Almond Tofu TipsMany recipes on this blog are flexible, but for Almond Tofu, you'll want to stick to these specific measurements. Only adjustment I'd be ok with is increasing or decreasing the amount of soymilk depending on if you want the final almond tofu more or less firm.
More firm is easier for cutting into cubes (and nicer presentation if you're serving a larger group). Less firm is nice if you want to pour the hot mixture into individual bowls and serve the chilled almond tofu straight from those bowls.
Agar Agar Versus Gelatin
You may opt to replace the gelatin with agar agar powder. For this specific recipe, replace the 1 envelope of gelatin with 4 grams of agar agar powder.
P.S. We use agar agar in many jelly-esque desserts including:
Almond Tofu Recipe
Recipe below! Go make and enjoy ^_^
Almond Tofu
Almond Tofu (also known as Almond Float) is an easy to make, refreshing dessert. Simple and elegant, this is good any time of the day ^_^
Ingredients
- 1 envelope unflavored gelatin
- ½ cup water
- 1-½ cup soy milk, unsweetened
- ¼ cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons almond extract
Instructions
- Dissolve gelatin in ½ cup water.
- In a small saucepan, heat soy milk and sugar to just before boiling.
- Add the dissolved gelatin to the mixture and stir until completely mixed.
- Remove the saucepan from heat and stir in the almond extract. Let cool for 5 minutes.
- Pour into a heatproof dish. Refrigerate to set (this takes about two hours).
- Cut into cubes and served with fresh fruit (strawberries, longan, etc) or canned fruits (lychee is always a good bet for this dessert).
Notes
- Adapted from Aloha Tofu Factory.
- You may opt to replace the gelatin with agar agar powder. For this specific recipe, replace the 1 envelope of gelatin with 4 grams of agar agar powder.
This turned out well for me. I only had Kirkland vanilla soy milk on hand, as Chinese markets were closed today for Lunar New Year. Consistency was on point and taste was well-balanced. Served with diced fresh mango rather than the traditional canned fruit cocktail w/ syrup. Very refreshing!
Can almond milk be used instead of soy milk?
At what point do you add the almond extract?
Aloha Valerie! Add the almond extract right after you remove the saucepan from heat (Step 4). I've updated the recipe, thank you so much for catching that 🙂
- Kathy