The Daily Morsel

Tiramisu

Here’s an American twist on the classic Italian layered custard dessert.  Cream cheese is used instead of mascarpone.  Of course if you wish, you can use equal amounts of mascarpone in place of the cream cheese.  You could also use Frangelico instead of Kahlua if you wish.

Prep Time: 30 minutes + 8 hours refrigeration

Serves: 10-12

Ingredients

40 ladyfingers, about 400g (2 packages)

About 1 cup of espresso or really strong coffee

6 egg yolks

1 2/3 cups of sugar

2 packages cream cheese (about 450g), or mascarpone

1 tablespoon Kahlua (optional), or Frangelico

2 cups of heavy whipping cream (1 pint)

Sweetened chocolate powder for garnish

Chocolate shavings for garnish, optional

Equipment

A stand mixer, or at least a handheld mixer; a 13×19 glass baking dish

Process

Layout the lady fingers in the baking dish and pour the espresso over the fingers.  Let soak.

Cut the cream cheese into small pieces.  Set aside.

Whip the heavy whipping cream with the whisk attachment in the mixer until it turns to whipped cream.  Move to another bowl if necessary and reserve.

Clean the mixing bowl and whisk and return to the mixer.  Mix the egg yolks and the sugar together until smooth.  With the mixer running, add the pieces of cream cheese a bit at a time and mix until smooth and all the cream cheese is added.

With the mixer still running add in the 1 tablespoon of Kahlua if using.

With a large spatula fold the whipped cream into the egg/sugar mixture.  Fold the whipped cream in completely.

Remove enough of the ladyfingers from the dish (and set them aside) so you only have a single layer of soaked lady fingers covering the bottom of the dish.  Cover this single layer with half of the cream mixture.  Lay the rest of the soaked lady fingers in a single layer on top of the cream.  Use the remaining cream to top the second layer of ladyfingers.

Refrigerate for at least 8 hours.  Overnight works well.

Just before serving sprinkle an even layer of sweetened powdered cocoa all over the top of the tiramisu using a fine sieve.

If you wish, use a sharp peeler to make chocolate shavings to sprinkle over the top.

Tags: cream, cream cheese, custard, dessert, eggs, Italian, lady fingers, layered custard, mascarpone, tiramisu

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 5th, 2011 at 6:00 am and is filed under Desserts, Recipes, Snacks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.