Help!! No silken tofu...will soft be OK?

[Hoosier Hokie]

I'm going to make the Key Lime Cheesecake from the April issue of CL and need silken tofu for it. But all I could find was soft at the store yesterday. I've never used tofu before and don't know what the differences are. I don't have time to run out to the health food store (who would probably have it, I'm sure) because I need to chill the cheesecake 8 hours and need it for tonight. So, all I have is the soft tofu and I'm wondering if anyone knows whether or not it will work out ok. Please let me know.

Thanks!!

HH

[MKSquared]

I bet you probably bought silken without knowing it. :) Silken tofu looks kind of like cooked egg whites - it's smooth, white, and very very often sold in aseptic brick-like packages. Non-silken tofu looks more like well-cooked scrambled eggs, with texture, and with a little bit of color.

[lorilei]

Mmmm. As Mary Kate's description suggests, if what you have is regular soft tofu, you're going to have consistency issues if you use it in the cheesecake. Silken tofu "whips up" like pudding -- so it would blend into the cake. The soft tofu won't do that quite as well.

It's POSSIBLE to use it -- and it will taste alright. But I'm not sure you'll be happy with the consistency of the final product.

[Hoosier Hokie]

Originally posted by MKSquared
I bet you probably bought silken without knowing it. :) Silken tofu looks kind of like cooked egg whites - it's smooth, white, and very very often sold in aseptic brick-like packages. Non-silken tofu looks more like well-cooked scrambled eggs, with texture, and with a little bit of color.

Thanks, I think I did get silken. It was definitely white and when I put it in my food processor, it turned to a nice pudding-like texture. When all mixted together, the ingredients looked like any other cheesecake I've ever made. Hopefully the cheesecake will turn out - only time will tell, as it's in the oven as I'm typing.

Thanks again!

HH

[stacy7272]

Hmmm - I was always under the impression that "silken" tofu referred to the tofu that is tightly packed in the cardboard packages and nonsilken was the stuff loosly packed in the plastic containers in water. I may be wrong - I don't use the stuff often.