Am I alone in not liking the taste of coconut? lol

Have you ever had the mozzarella sticks at Pura Vita?

I defo will not try it because I am terrefied af of frying stuff hahaha buuut I enjoyed watching the drama xxx

Mustard seeds are a common ingredient in Pakistani recipes. They're readily available at Desi stores (Pakistan/Indian/Bangladeshi)

This looks amazing, I wanna try making it. But is it really nut-free if it has coconut oil? Just asking for nut allergy people

I love your videos 💙💙💙

Maybe an air fryer would be good too and less stressful for you! Thank you for finding this recipe

I'm terrified of hot oil, too. This looks fantastic, thanks for sharing!

i wonder if you could swap the pectin with agar agar! i think agar agar makes it more firm. i sometimes make "hard" cheese with it (and melts when heated)

Maybe freezing them overnight after they are breaded might help with the leakage?

Sorry this recipe was so stressful! 😂 the things you do for us Merle 🙏🏽

5:32 The voice reminds me so much of BMO from Adventure time. Especially the phrase "that's vile stuff" 😂

I would love to see you try this recipe again! I am NOT a chef and this recipe looks hard, but I was thinking three things might make this easier?? Number one, I like your instinct to freeze the sticks! I think that would help to solidify them. Number two, cut your sticks in half and make them a little smaller. They may have been just a tad too heavy. Number three, use a shallower pan when you’re deep frying or fill the oil higher so that your sticks are easier to fish out! Admittedly I don’t have experience deep frying vegan cheese but I do have experience deep frying! I always use a pancake batter vs a bread crumb. Obvi the traditional mozzarella stick has more of a bread crumb, but the pancake batter deep fry has never steered me wrong!

Mustard seeds you can buy at an Indian grocery store!

Merle, you gave me Claire Saffitz vibes in this. I was stressed along with you! Great job. They look great!

I think if you used tapioca starch instead of pectin the cheese wouldn't leek out when frying, maybe a mix of both. Great effort! The problem is the cheese when hot isn't firm enough so they fall apart or are too delicate. Or? maybe bake/ airfry and gently rotate. I think a failed recipe is a recipe you would never make again. I can fully relate and understand this stress. I also hate frying its so messy and is only worth it if it works out. I think when things dont work out it does make it a more entertaining video somehow hehehe You do great work 💟

I adore the chaos in your videos. It makes it so real and so relatable at the same time. Much love ❤

Thanks for watching everyone!! Couple tips: 1. don't shallow-fry 2. freeze them ahead of frying them 3. double bread (I did in this video, but I don't think I mentioned it) 4. add more salt! LMK if you're brave enough to try this one!!!

Definitely freeze first

But what does it taste like?

You are hilarious, Merle, thank you for sacrificing yourself with the hot oil to try out this recipe! They look delicious 😋

Love your content - some thoughts for this recipe: - cut into smaller sticks, would reduce the cheese to breading ratio, which would lead to less leakage and possibly improve the “stretchy cheesy” experience - try increasing the starch and pectin amounts slightly - toss the cheese sticks in the 1st round of flour before freezing, then do the rest (milk, breadcrumbs, flour, milk, breadcrumbs, fry) after completely freezing These are just thoughts, haven’t tested (yet) so take at face value! Last note - and no disrespect - it’s a slurry, not a flurry - this made me giggle, made me think of a McFlurry, which would definitely make this recipe non-vegan. 😊

If humans throughout history took that same approach that we should never try new things with food, we wouldn’t have the plethora of dishes that we have today.

It seems to me that the pan should be narrower and there should be more oil in it so the whole stick fry evenly.

i think you need to freeze them first and also deep fried them that way you don´t have to move them and they fried faster so they don´t have to be so much time on the oil.

They look delicious but it's a not from me...hot oil scares me too lol I do really like Wholly Veggie Mozzarella Sticks though! They come frozen and you just have to heat them up. Much less scary 😂

I don't oil-fry, never ever; will they air-fry?

Vegan mozzarella Mozzarella cheese is my favorite cheese

The "steak piece" sold me- i need to try this! 😋 btw i love your shirt! I had a tank with a print like that in the 90s- so nostalgic! You are very entertaining to watch Great video! ❤

The tongs on most saucepans should be silicone because the material of your tongs, apart from damaging the pots, are very strong for what you are doing.

Sub for coconut cream? I ❤ coconut, but don't want everything to taste of it. And it's high in saturated fat, which I don't need or want.

Re: the negative comment. I see where they're coming from. For me, it helped to shift my mindset to viewing typical "vegan food" as a genre of cuisine. I wouldn't complain that Thai food uses a certain set of common ingredients that i dont have on hand, ya know? And i wouldn't make a Thai dish if i had none of the ingredients or if those ingredients weren't stocked in grocery/international stores in my area. And now that ive been cooking vegetarian for 6 years (and have slowly been acquiring these ingredients over time when i see them at grocery stores), i have most if not all of these "vegan cuisine" ingredients as pantry staples :)

you should do a part 2 where you do your own spin on it, i think freezing the cheese, dredging them, and then freezing them again would help. and then maybe adding more salt or whatever other seasonings, and also i think maybe having more oil so they kind of float would help them to not fall apart, just some ideas though!

White veganism never cease to amaze me

He double breaded them and also fried in fryer so maybe that is why yours leaked, not enough breading and also with moving them around they fell apart

Wtfffff can’t believe you mentioned Friendly’s mozzarella sticks. I’ve never met a single other person who loved those things like I did as a kid 😂 also the quesadillas there 🤤

I think that leaks are due to flipping it in half way maybe if you deep fry they'll be better

You should ask mark to fix the liquidyness for you

I think double battering them will help everything stay together better. Flour mixture, wet, flour, wet, breadcrumbs.

From your outfit to the sticks, everything is awesome

Yummmm!

I can barely hear you on these videos but the music at the start is loud...

You could try dehydrating it for a bit. Just leave it uncovered in the fridge for a day or two and that should help it draw the moisture out. Refrigerating it in the fridge after battering will help with the leakage. You can also bread it again after it comes out of the fridge to fill in any gaps!

Oh my god Merle, please heed my words, i beg of you to try this recipe again, I have 2 suggestions for you which I promise if you try will result in a completely different outcome, both of which are lessons from prior mistakes I've made myself: - Make sure the chocolate/coconut oil has a chance to cool down to room temp before adding it to the tofu (this stops the chocolate from seizing) - Get silken tofu, I know i know iknow people have already said it, so you already know, but it's important. PLEASE try these 2 changes and give this recipe a shot, I really think you'll love it

Pectin is what is used in fruit jams and jellies 😊 If you ever have too much fruit in danger of going bad, you can turn it into homemade jam just by cooking it down on the stove with some sugar, a little pectin, and lemon juice (the acid is necessary to activate the pectin). Voila! I made peach jam the other day this way.

maybe they turn out better in an airfryer?

That comment was like "why bother cooking when you can just buy food at the store?" Like none of the ingredients in vegan meat/cheese substitutes are all that weird if you actually cook.

I wonder if you could airfry those instead of frying them. Just put the breaded cheese sticks on parchment, spray with a little oil and airfry (maybe 400 degrees for 10 minutes?) Maybe flip halfway. Also I think freezing the cheese sticks would have been the right call.

chew further from the mic plsss, misophonia going crazy with the mouth sounds 😢

Im here❤❤❤❤