Douhua

Douhua goes by many names and spellings depending on who you ask and where they’re from, but regardless of what one calls it, it’s a dish — often dessert, but also eaten for breakfast or other meals — that’s been around for at least 2,000 years. In English, it’s sometimes called tofu pudding, and is tasty in both its sweet and savory forms.

Douhua has both sweet and savory versions, which themselves can vary quite a bit from region to region within China, Taiwan, and other East and Southeast Asian countries.

Depending on what variety of douhua you have, sweet dessert douhua can often be topped with brown sugar, simple syrup, ginger juice or ginger syrup, sesame paste, and other garnishes. Savory douhua varies a lot by region, but can include garlic, chili, scallions, seaweed, radish, soy sauce, eggs, pickled vegetables, and sometimes even meats.

Douhua is made by adding a coagulant to soy milk, often GDL, or glucono delta-lactone, which is an acid that’s less potent than citric acid and is often used as a curing agent. Agar agar and gypsum are also sometimes used. The soy milk can be either store-bought or homemade from soaked soybeans — just be sure to use high quality soy milk with a high enough protein content to get the desired texture.

One nice thing about douhua as a dessert is that, as a tofu dish, it’s generally much healthier than most desserts, all while being delicious!

You can get pre-made douhua or the ingredients to make your own at all Uwajimaya stores.