Tiramisu

The 5th grade teachers planned a little pot-luck lunch this past Friday, and the theme started as Italian so I thought a tiramisu would be a good dessert to bring.  This Italian theme changed to salads (pasta salad, fruit salad, etc.) but I had my heart set on tiramisu, so I stuck with it.  I began searching for a classic tiramisu recipe.  I found a site devoted entirely to tiramisu, heavenlytiramisu.com, which had a plethora of information about the ingredients in tiramisu and many different kinds of recipes.  After searching through this site, epicurious and foodnetwork, I chose David Rosengarten’s recipe for Basic Tiramisu.

When you use 2/3 of a carton of eggs in one recipe, you know you’re in for something special…and a little decadent.  Did I mention that there is also a cup of heavy cream, and a pound of marscapone in this recipe?  I know it seems excessive, but if you’re going to do it, do it right.  This recipe came together fairly quickly, but I did have to use quite a few bowls and make a good sticky mess on the counter.  I used frangelico instead of the brandy called for in this recipe.  One thing I would change is to make more layers of soaked lady fingers in between the layers of cream.  I would also use more shaved chocolate in between each layer.  Other recipes I read recommended letting the tiramisu set overnight in the fridge, so that is what I did.  I set aside a little bowl for myself at lunch and planned to eat it that night after dinner.  It was still pretty tasty, but the ladyfingers had started to disintegrate a little.  So, I would not recommend more than 18 hours of sitting time.  I think most people enjoyed the tiramisu at our teacher pot-luck, so I will consider this a success.

Ingredients

  • EGGS, 8, with yolks and whites separated
  • SUGAR, 1/3 cup
  • MASCARPONE, 1 pound
  • HEAVY CREAM, 1 cup
  • ESPRESSO COFFEE, 2 cups cooled
  • BRANDY, 2/3 cup
  • LADY FINGERS, 30
  • BITTERSWEET CHOCOLATE, 2 ounces grated
  • COCOA POWDER, Dutch process, sifted, for garnish

Directions

  1. Mix the sugar into the egg yolks, blending well.
  2. Add a little Mascarpone at a time to the egg yolk mixture, and mix until smooth. Set aside.
  3. In a separate bowl, beat the whipping cream until stiff peaks form. Set this aside as well.
  4. In another bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
  5. Fold the whipped cream into the egg yolk mixture, then fold in the beaten egg whites.
  6. Spread about 1/3 of the cream mixture of a 4-6 quart glass baking dish or serving bowl.
  7. Place expresso coffee in a large mixing bowl, and combine with the brandy.
  8. Dip a lady finger into the expresso, lay it in baking dish on cream mixture.
  9. Top with grated chocolate.
  10. Continue in this manner, laying lady fingers side by side to cover the bottom.
  11. Place another 1/3 of cream mixture on top of soaked lady fingers.
  12. Cover this with another layer of expresso-soaked lady fingers.
  13. Top with remaining cream mixture and grated chocolate.
  14. Dust final layer with grated chocolate and cocoa powder.
  15. Chill 2 hours to set.