Yummy, sounds elegant and difficult to make, but it really isn't. My friend, Lorraine, and I have been on a Tiramisu kick lately. She went to Venice, and came home with an Italian bag of something to make tiramisu. She has now made two, and so have I. My recipe follows:
1. Buy ladyfingers -- buy the hard ones shown here not the soft ones. The hard ones hold up much better in the recipe.
2. Brew coffee. Make about four cups. Make it strong and let it brew.
3. Buy marscapone cheese. About an 8-0z tub will do it. If you can't find it, double up on the heavy whipping cream.
4. Buy 16 oz whipping cream (buy two if you cannot find marscapone cheese).
5. Cocoa powder
6. Vanilla
7. Sugar
8. Semi-sweet chocolate shavings for garnish
1. Cool the coffee. Do NOT use it hot or warm. It must be cool. You can put in fridge to speed up the process.
2. Whip your heavy cream into whipping cream. Put a cold metal dish in the freezer and your beaters too.
3. Add sugar (about 3-4 tablespoons per 16 oz) and add vanilla. I eyeball it, but about 2 teaspoons
4. Whip it all together in the cold bowl with the cold beaters until you have whipped cream. Do not whip too long or you will have butter!
5. If you have marscapone cheese, take 1/3 of the whipping cream and mix it with the marscapone cheese.
6. Hold the other 2/3 whipping cream for the additional layer.
In front of you, you should have cooled coffee, ladyfingers, whipped cream, and whipped cream with marscapone cheese. If you want, you can give it all a kick with some coffee liquer or chocolate liquer or dark rum. I would mix it into the marscapone mixture if you choose these option.
In a 9x13 Pyrex glass dish or brownie pan, put a layer of ladyfingers. You need to dip them gently and quickly on both sides into the coffee mixture.
Take the marscapone cheese mixture and layer it on top of the coffee-dipped ladyfingers, and spread it out evenly.
Place another layer of coffee-dipped ladyfingers on top of the cheese mixture.
The final layer is the whipped cream. I made my whipped cream chocolate flavor, but plain is just as delicious. Smooth it out on top of the ladyfingers.
Dust lightly with cocoa powder. Refrigerate for about four hours or overnight.
We devoured mine before I had a chance to take a picture of it, but courtesy of someone on the web, this is what it should look like. Cut it into wedges, sprinkle some shaved chocolate on top and serve. Your guests will think you spent a week with an Italian chef. This is a very easy to make, no bake dessert. There are many variations on it, but they all taste heavenly. Close your eyes, contemplate the beauty of the world and enjoy this wonderful dessert.
My husband loves this, and I'm going to try it. Thanks. The thing I've always found funny about tiramisu is that I've never heard of it in the Italian culture in which I grew up. We had sfogliatelli, canolli, rum baba, and all manner of cookies and pastries, but never ever did I hear any of my old Italian aunts and grand aunts mention this dessert. I'm not sure if it's because it's Venetian and we aren't from Venice (my family is from Naples in the South and Milan in the North) or if it's a new invention. But whatever -- I know it's beloved now.
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness, Brenda - this looks wonderful! I will definitely try this sometime over the holiday season. The picture looks like chocolate ladyfingers, or do they get that dark from the coffee? Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDelete@Teri, I have no memory of it either. I grew up in South Philadelphia as you know with a gazillion Italians, Italian bakeries, and I never had one of my Italian family members make it or talk about it.
ReplyDeleteStrange. very strange indeed. I am going to do some research on it. My family came from Sicily, but my grandmother learned to cook from the Northern Italians she worked with. Maybe it is only unique to certain area.
@JoAnn -- they get dark after you dip them in the coffee. Don't overdip or they fall apart.
Enjoy ladies. Let me know if you get rave reviews. I am sure you will!
It really is an easy dessert to make. People think you slaved over it!
Sounds delicious - love that yours got devoured before you could take a pic. Tells me your family knows that it's so good they don't want to wait for it!
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