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Tiramisu is recently become an extremely popular Italian dessert that is now served in virtually every Italian restaurant. Traditionally served in the afternoon as a "boost", tiramisu contains both caffeine and alcohol in a creamy cheese mixture served in layers. Tiramisu can be complex (featuring layering of different flavors and textures) or simplistic. This recipe does not use any eggs (cooked or raw) and provides the simplest blend of ingredients to form a fast and tasty basic tiramisu.
First, start by assembling the ingredients. We'll need one pound of mascarpone cheese, a cup of heavy whipping cream, 1/2 cup granulated sugar, 3 tablespoons rum (brandy also works well), ~20 lady's fingers (a light, oblong italian cookie with powdered sugar on one side), cocoa powder, a double shot of espresso, 1/2 cup of coffee, and shavings of unsweetened dark chocolate to top (1 oz. should do).
Chill whipping cream and bowl. Mix coffee and espresso and chill.
Beat whipping cream until stiff peaks.
Put the cheese, sugar, and brandy into a medium bowl and mix until smooth. Add more sugar or alcohol as desired. Fold in whipping cream to create cheese mixture.
Soak lady fingers in espresso for a couple seconds, rotating to coat all sides. Place lady fingers side by side on bottom of a 7x7 pan.
Put half the cheese mixture on lady fingers in pan. Smooth with a spatula or spoon. Sift cocoa powder liberally on surface of layer.
Apply second layer of lady fingers and remaining cheese. Sift cocoa powder and half of chocolate shavings.
Cover in plastic wrap and chill.
To serve, use the remaining chocolate shavings by sprinkling a bit onto eight plates. Cut tiramisu into eight rectangles and serve on plates (or simply spoon them out).
IMHO, there should not be any chocolate shavings on a Tiramisu and the liquer (try Amaretto) should be mixed into the coffe (only take espresso anyway - do not mix with regular coffee).
Originally the mascarpone is mixed with some egg yolk, but i too prefer not to eat raw egg and take whipped cream instead.
If you've never done a tiramisu before, try it. It is amazing how relatively quickly this ultra delicious desert is done.
Joined: 10 May 2005 Posts: 1654 Location: Austin, TX (USA)
Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2005 1:43 am Post subject:
No pictures yet. I'm bringing tiramisu to a potluck and wanted to post the recipe before doing so. Unfortunately, I am posting from the convention floor of Intel Developer Forum and my wife is following the recipe that I laid out here. Thus, no pictures. (I plan to make it again and post pictures to this article then; I figured I shouldn't gate the release of an article simply because I lack pictures, right?)
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This is the simplest tiramisu that I know how to make and enjoy the results (thus Basic Tiramisu). Cook's Illustrated has an exquisite recipe involving both egg white and egg yolks (cooked for safety) and no espresso (it over powers the layers of flavors they have). It's a few more steps and ingredients than the basic tiramisu presented here. I'll try to dig up a copy of the recipe and post it here.
May I ask whether you are actually coming up with these recipes and advice? I mean, there's no credit given anywhere for any information, nor any "about this site" content.
Would you mind telling us about your background and why you're creating this site? I'd hate to think you were passing off other people's work as your own.
Joined: 10 May 2005 Posts: 1654 Location: Austin, TX (USA)
Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2005 1:45 am Post subject:
I'm glad you asked! The recipes that are listed as "Recipe File" are the recipes that I use when I want to make a particular dish. "Recipe Test" are recipes that have been recommended to me or I have come across that I test and don't necessary stand behind. Some of the "Recipe File" recipes are my own recipes or have been passed down to me and "perfected". Others are not, but the source is credited (see Basic Pancakes or Lemon Bars for some examples).
I am a Computer Engineer (currently in the role of a hardware application engineer) who works for a large semiconductor manufacturer in Silicon Valley (San Francisco Bay Area, California). A few years ago, I used to host dinner parties once a week (and later twice a week) to watch "Family Guy" episodes and enjoy good food. Sometimes the dinners (that I would cook for twelve to twenty people at a time) would be excellent and sometimes they didn't come out at all (such as burnt beef stew). Over the last several years I've been cooking in my free time and writing "cheat sheets" on post it notes for quick reference during the cooking process. These "cheat sheets" became the recipe summaries that I have at the end of each recipe article.
This website was started because I needed a repository for cooking info that I wanted to refer to as well as some of my favorite recipes. I used to keep all this information on my Palm through the Memo Pad application. Unfortunately, I was synchronizing Memo Pad with my laptop (on Outlook) and discovered that after three months our Exchange server deletes old Outlook Notes. So, exactly three months after synchronizing all my recipes, they all got deleted and on the next synch, were consequently removed from my Palm. I've been reinventing some recipes and looking of other since and decided to put them online.
Be careful what kind of ladyfingers you use. I made tiramisu once with some ladyfingers that had a sugary glaze. The espresso just wouldn't soak into them, and they floated! It was a disaster. I've actually had much better results using poundcake sliced thin.
Absolutely fantastic. I'm gob smacked...
I'm also thinking that the potential of this site is being severely limited by its format.
Have you considered opening it up a bit (not completely as its your dream) and making a WIKI of it?
Good idea, as a professional chef I can see your "cheat sheet" being a real help remembering how a recipe goes together. One suggestion, though. To be really accurate, most of the measurements should be in weight, not volume. (One can take this to extremes, see the recent "Fox Trot" comic strip, where Jason calculates that a 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder weighs 0.0256 grams.)
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