Earlier this week, my roommate and I made the arduous, block-long journey to join our friend at her apartment for an evening of food, wine, and some much-needed catching up. Seeing as our friend was cooking us dinner, I thought the least I could do was provide something sweet. And, since we’d be eating Italian, I thought I’d try my hand at tiramisu (and, perhaps, give a nod to my east coast roots?).
I’ve never made tiramisu, and when I tried to find a recipe online, I was overwhelmed with options. In the end, I went with David Lebovitz‘s recipe — I loved the idea of making individual servings. Plus, everything he makes (and photographs) looks just so damn good! I made a few substitutions, chief of which was the omission of eggs. I was a bit nervous about using raw eggs (especially since the eggs I had on hand were just your average grocery store carton). I’d feel pretty bad about getting my friends sick, plus, I probably wouldn’t get an invitation back, which would be unfortunate. So, in order to lighten up the mascarpone, I beat in a healthy dollop of whipped cream (a suggestion Lebovitz makes in the comments section below his recipe). Next time around, I’d like to try my hand at making it with the eggs — I imagine the flavor might be much richer? At any rate, the whipped cream worked (and tasted) just fine. Lebovitz also uses both rum (dark) and cognac; I only had spiced rum at my disposal. So again, next time, more booze.
I served my tiramisu in 6oz ramekins — this recipe made about 3 generous servings, which could’ve easily been stretched into 4 servings.
girls night tiramisu
(adapted from David Lebovitz. also, pairs well with two bottles of red wine)
ingredients:
1 cup of strong black coffee or espresso, cooled
3 or 4 tablespoons of rum (less/more to taste)
8 oz mascarpone cheese
about 6ish oz whipped cream
about 6ish ladyfingers
1 bar of dark chocolate
In a bowl large enough for dipping, combine rum and coffee. Set aside.
In a separate bowl, add 8 oz of mascarpone. Gently fold in enough whipped cream to lighten the mascarpone (I used a bit less than half of a 15 oz tub).
Break a ladyfinger in half and dip into the boozy coffee long enough that the coffee soaks through (but the biscuit does not smoosh apart).
[Now, about those ladyfingers. When I looked online for a recipe, this step seemed to be the trickiest--not to mention that everybody seems to have a different opinion about the best way to soak the ladyfingers. The basic idea is that you want your biscuit wet enough that the rum/coffee flavor is well introduced into the dessert, but not too wet that you have mushy clumps. Most recipes said to dip the ladyfingers for about 5-10 seconds. The ladyfingers I purchased were dried, and seemed to need a bit longer. Breaking them in half really helped getting them soaked through.]
Put a dollop of the mascarpone mixture into the ramekin. Next, layer with the coffee-soaked ladyfinger halves. Top with a generous amount of shaved chocolate. Repeat layers as space allows, then cover and refrigerate. The longer the dessert has to chill, the better the flavors come together. I made my dessert in the morning, so by 8ish that evening, it was good to go.
Since I had half a tub of whipped cream and a bunch of ladyfingers leftover (and since somebody special had just finished his Sanskrit midterm), I thought I’d make another dish of tiramisu the next day. Although this one was even less authentic–no mascarpone at all–it still tasted pretty good and was super quick and easy to pull together. I added a little splash of vanilla extract to the whipped cream just to make it a bit more nuanced. Otherwise, the recipe and method was exactly the same (except I made just one large serving, putting it in a 1 cup pyrex bowl).
Moral of the story? This dessert is pretty damn versatile and can be easily adapted. Also, I think it’s time we planned another dinner, ladies.
