Try this serendipitous vegan chocolate orange pudding recipe at home

Just four ingredients and no time at all are needed for this rich and silky plant-based pudding, writes Emily Goddard

A mere four ingredients had created something that was not quite a mousse – astonishingly glossy, not at all aerated and spectacularly thick (Emily Goddard)

Give me a block of firm tofu and I’ll create countless dishes. Present the silken sort, however, and I’m stumped. I rarely know what to do with the soft, smooth bean curd but found some abandoned at the back of the cupboard that needed using up.

There are plenty of mentions of silken tofu in recipes for vegan chocolate mousse. I’m no stranger to mousse with aquafaba and have made it several times with delectable results. Surely this would be equally triumphant. It wasn’t, if you measure success on the initial vision. What I made was not a mousse, it was better.

A mere four ingredients had created something that was not quite a mousse – astonishingly glossy, not at all aerated and spectacularly thick. The mixture was vastly improved after a few hours in the fridge and set so well that it would make the perfect vegan cheesecake, sitting atop buttery, crushed biscuits.

Makes: 4 servings

Time: 5 mins prep, plus four hours setting

Ingredients

300g silken tofu (we used Clearspring’s Organic Japanese Tofu - Silken & Smooth)

170g vegan chocolate (40g milk style, the rest dark)

2tbsp maple syrup

1tsp orange extract

Method

1. Smash the chocolate into little pieces and pop in the microwave, stopping to stir frequently, until you have an irresistible bowl of molten cocoa lava.

2. Drain the silken tofu, decant into a stick blender beaker, and add the maple and orange extract. Blend until velvety smooth.

3. Pour the melted chocolate into the tofu mix and blend to combine. It should be glossy and silky.

4. Transfer into individual ramekins and chill in the fridge for at least four hours before serving.

Tip: Pour the mixture over crushed digestives combined with melted vegan butter and chill for a chocolate orange cheesecake.