Gluten Free Vegan Tiramisu
This recipe for gluten free vegan tiramisu is also kosher for Passover. I’d like to start by saying the challenge with this recipe was a big deal, particularly as I had to change a lot of things at once, while considering all ingredients they should be kosher for Passover.
This recipe is developed at the early stages of my vegan baking journey, and it took quite some trial and error to get me to a result I’m happy with. And right before you head over the kitchen to weight your ingredients, I’d like to make some very important points on this recipe:
- Please read the entire recipe head to toe, including the provided comments.
- If you are using a vanilla sponge cake recipe that you trust with your heart, that is also gluten free, and never fails you- please use it. It is always better to be on the safe side than not meeting a certain expectation. As I’ve explained above, I had to consider plethora of technical limitations, yet the final result was very impressive.
- Any substitute you make in this recipe will explicitly impact the final results (unless the recipe says its ok to do so)- the ingredients used here are the already considered substitutes, therefore there’s not enough wiggle room for more adjustments.
- Speaking of substitutes:
- My original tiramisu recipe is right here
- If you’re not vegan and looking for another recipe for a gluten free sponge cake, you can find it here. To make that recipe dairy free, simply replace the milk with dairy free milk.
- The non-vegan pastry cream recipe can be found here, and in order to make it dairy free, you can use dairy free milk instead of the milk, and coconut oil instead of the butter.
- The coffee syrup and liquor are not optional- they are great flavor enhancer and I recommend generously sprinkling the sponge cake with this syrup.
- This tiramisu should be allowed to rest refrigerated overnight before it is consumed, to make all the flavors and texture come together. From my experience it was very noticeable.
So I hope you will enjoy this recipe a lot, because I took this challenge very seriously (:
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Gluten Free Vegan Tiramisu:
Equipment:
- For assembly: Deep Round Serving Dish sized 16cm (d) x 5.5 (h)
- For baking the cake: Round cake pan, 15cm (d) x 7.5cm (h), sides and bottom linked with parchment paper.
Recipe:
Cake Batter:
| Ingredient | Amount (g / units) |
| Almond Meal | 30g |
| White Rice Flour | 100g |
| Cornstarch | 30g |
| Baking Powder | 10g |
| Xanthan Gum | 1/4 tsp |
| Orange Zest (do not omit) | Zest of half an Orange |
| Water or Plant Based Milk (or a combination) | 200g |
| Canola Oil (or any other neutral flavor vegetable oil) | 40g |
| White Granulated Sugar | 50g |
| Vanilla Sugar | 10g |
| Salt | 1/8 to 1/4 tsp |
* You may use any store-bought gluten free flour blend that is meant for baking cakes, and is based on white rice flour and contains xanthan gum. In that case, you may skip the white rice flour, cornstarch and xanthan gum, and add 130g of the store-bought gluten free flour blend instead.
For the meringue:
| Ingredient | Amount (g / units) |
| Aquafaba | 90g |
| Xanthan Gum* | 1/8g |
| White Granulated Sugar | 30g |
* Greatly helps with stabilizing the meringue.
Vegan Pastry Cream:
| Ingredient | Amount (g / units) |
| Plant Based Milk (1) (Soy Milk is recommended) | 150g |
| White Granulated Sugar | 45g |
| Vanilla Pudding Mix | 8g |
| Turmeric (Optional, for color only, the flavor is not discernible) | A very small pinch, the edge of your fingernail |
| Plant Based Milk (2) (Soy Milk is recommended) | 20g |
| Cornstarch | 15g |
| Coconut Oil (Deodorized) * | 15g |
| Vanilla Extract | 1 tsp |
* If you don’t have deodorized coconut oil, it’s ok to use the plain one (it’s a small amount so the flavor will not overpower), or vegan butter.
Vegan Tiramisu Cream:
| Ingredient | Amount (g / units) |
| Vegan Pastry Cream | 250g |
| Vegan Whipping Cream * | 250g |
* If your vegan whipping cream doesn’t contain sugar, and if you’re interested in doing so, you may add about 20g of white granulated sugar during the whipping process.
For the Coffee Syrup:
| Ingredient | Amount (g / units) |
| Espresso Powder | 4g |
| White Granulated Sugar | 25g |
| Boiling Water | 120g |
| Dark Rum or Coffee Liquor (do not omit) | 10-15g |
Preparation and assembly instructions:
For the cake batter:
- Preheat your oven to 160C (fan mode off), setting a baking rack at the lowest level inside the oven.
- In a separate medium sized bowl, whisk together all of the dry ingredients: almond meal, white rice flour, cornstarch, baking powder and xanthan gum, and set to the side.
- In a separate large bowl, whisk together the sugar, vanilla sugar, and salt, along with the orange zest to release the aromatic oil out. Add in the plant base milk and/or water and oil, and thoroughly whisk to combine.
- Add in the dry ingredients’ mixture to the wet ingredients, and thoroughly whisk to a uniform batter without any lumps.
- In a separate bowl, weigh the aquafaba and add the 1/8 tsp of the xanthan gum. Start beating on the lowest speed, gradually increasing to medium speed, until a very fluffy foam starts to form. Note that at this stage the foam will look like a very thick cloud of soap foam, which is ok – this is the time to gradually add the sugar, continuing beating on medium-high speed to get a very stable meringue peaks.
- Fold the meringue in 3 parts to the cake mixture, until it is no longer visible in the batter.
- Pour the batter to the prepared cake pan, and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out dry.
- Allow the cake to cool down in the pan on top of a cooling rack for 15 minutes, before unmolding it, and then allow it to cool down completely.
- Once the cake has cooled down, it should be sliced to 2 equal thickness layers of 1-1.5cm each.
For the vegan pastry cream:
- In a sperate small bowl (or a plastic cup) mix together plant-based milk (2) and cornstarch and set to the side.
- Into a saucepan, add the sugar, pudding mix and turmeric, and thoroughly whisk them together.
- Gradually add plant-based milk (1) into the saucepan while whisking- this will ensure no lumps (if you add all the liquid at once you’ll get lumps which can be rid of).
- Over low-medium heat, cook the mixture until the sugar dissolves and the mixture comes to a simmer.
- Add in the cornstarch-milk mixture that was kept at the side, and constantly stirring whisk the mixture until it reaches full boil.
- Turn off the heat and add in the coconut oil and vanilla extract, and whisk them together. At first it may look like the mixture separates but that’s ok because it will come back together.
- Transfer the cream to a clean bowl and apply a piece of plastic wrap directly on top of the cream to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate overnight.
For the coffee syrup:
- Mix together the espresso powder, sugar and boiling water. Once the syrup has cooled down, add in the liquor (so the alcohol will not fade).
For the vegan tiramisu cream:
- Using a rubber spatula, soften the vegan pastry cream- it will be very firm, and its important to restore its smooth texture by exerting some force with the spatula.
- Separately, whip the vegan whipping cream (and optional sugar) to very stiff peaks.
- Gradually fold the whipped cream to the pastry cream, until you get a fully combined tiramisu cream.
Assembly:
- In a serving dish, place 1 layer of the sponge cake and soak it with the coffee syrup (generously!!!)
- Evenly spread about 250g of the vegan tiramisu cream on top.
- Repeat steps 1-2 with the rest of the cake, syrup and cream.
- Generously dust the top with high quality Dutch processed cocoa powder.
- Refrigerate overnight before serving, to allow the flavors and textures to come together.
