Tiramisu
So I love chocolate. Really, I LOVE chocloate. So it sorta surprised me one day when I realized that one of my favorite desserts does not infact contain a large amount of chocolate: Tiramisu! I think this is a testimony to how good Tiramisu is: it doesn't need a crazy amount of chocolate to make it appealing to me!
So there are a bunch of different recipes out there for Tiramisu. Most of them call for a type of cheese called "mascarpone," but it's difficult to find mascarpone in your usual grocery store. Since mascarpone is a combination of cream cheese, heavy whipping cream, and creme fresh, you can make a pretty good imitation Tiramisu with cream cheese and heavy whipping cream instead of mascarpone.
Because I have more important things to do than go to a specialty store to find this cheese (Read: I'm too lazy and cheap), this recipe will show you a how to make a descent tiramisu without mascarpone. The below recipe is a mish-mash of a few different recipes on the web so that you can make Tiramisu without mascarpone. Most of the inspiration came from this recipe . If mascarpone is readily availble to you, however, there are a lot of recipes out there that will help you figure out the exact measurements you need for tiramisu.
Tiramisu
Prep Whipped Topping:
In a chilled bowl combine 3/4 cup of heavy cream and 1/4 cup sugar. Whip with a hand mixer until soft peaks form. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
So how do you know when you have "soft peaks"? As far as I know it's a feel thing, something that you really learn from doing it a few times. But here are some pictures of what you can expect as you're mixing. These two pictures are not considered soft peaks: the whipped topping is still too liquidy and as of yet the mixer has not whipped enough air into the topping.
This picture, however, shows the peaks on my mixer when I decided that I had attained "soft peaks." A mixture like this has some wiggle room so you need not be too concerned about over mixing too much. Just keep an eye on it and I think you'll know when to stop.
Note the peaks I chose to stop at are slightly more voluminous but still has a bit of a bend to them. They don't drip very much but given time, the whipped topping will probably drop off. "Hard" or "Stiff" peaks will stand up like mountains and will not droop at the top.
Prep Cream Cheese Filling:
In a large bowl combine the cream cheese, 1/4 cup heavy cream, vanilla and the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar. Whip with a hand mixer until light until fluffy. This will take a few minutes of mixing.
Other Preparations
Combine the strong coffee with the rum. If you do not want to use rum, simply use coffee only for the next step.
Many recipes suggest dipping the lady fingers into the coffee. I prefer just layering them and then pouring coffee on top. It's up to you. This is how I did it:
Start Layering:
Put a layer of lady fingers flat on the bottom of your dish (I used a 1.5 Quart Pyrex Loaf Pan). Then pour a few tablespoons of coffee over the ladyfingers. Put as much coffee over the lady fingers so that the lady fingers absorb the coffee.
Then spread a layer of Cream Cheese filling.
Repeat lady fingers, coffee, and cream cheese filling layers for about 3 layers (basically I kept going until I ran out of the cream cheese filling.)
Finally top with whipped topping and put in the refrigerator for about an hour. Once set, use a sieve to sprinkle the cocoa powder on top of the whipped topping and serve! (Don't have a sieve?? Worry not, neither do I. I just sorta dump some cocoa powder on top and then tip the dish back and forth until it rolls around and covers it all. Since it's had time to set, it is solid enough to simply turn to one side and dump out the excess.)
There you have it!! It's actually a pretty simple recipe and the result is a creamy, savory dessert bound to please friends and family! I brought some to work when I was done and let my coworkers try it. They really liked it, even my one friend who does not like the taste of coffee really enjoyed this dessert. I think it has a very good balance of coffee flavor but also a great deal of sweetness from the lady fingers and the filling. I hope you enjoy it!
Psst!! Like my plates? Me too! They're a Lenox design called Chirp and you can find them at Bed, Bath, and Beyond!
