Tiramisu cake

Wake me up when September ends...title of one of my favorite Green Day songs seem to suit my hiatus from this blog. Actually, October has passed as well, oh well, who's counting? My memory is short, so I won't offer any reason for my prolonged absence, only my apology.

I haven't stopped baking, but now that I'm starting to make handmade cold-processed soaps I have to make time for my new hobby. In fact, the first batch of my soap will mature and be ready for use in about 3 days! You'll hear more on that later.

For now, I hope you are satisfied with my Tiramisu recipe. I'm pretty sure I promised the recipe many entries ago, but never got around to it.

Debi's Famous Tiramisu

Ladyfingers: ( can be store-bought too)

This recipe makes approximately 24 big ladyfingers or 45 small (2 1/2" to 3" long) ladyfingers.

3 eggs, separated

6 tablespoons (75gm) sugar

3/4 cup(95gms) cake flour, sifted (or 3/4 cup all purpose flour + 2 tbsp corn starch)

6 tablespoons (50gms) powdered sugar,

1. Preheat your oven to 350 F (175 C) degrees, then lightly brush 2 baking sheets with oil or softened butter and line with parchment paper.
2. Beat the egg whites using a hand held electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Gradually add sugar and continue beating until the egg whites become stiff again, glossy and smooth.
3. In a small bowl, beat the egg yolks lightly with a fork and fold them into the meringue, using a wooden spoon. Sift the flour over this mixture and fold gently until just mixed. It is important to fold very gently and not overdo the folding. Otherwise the batter would deflate and lose volume resulting in ladyfingers which are flat and not spongy.
4. Fit a pastry bag with a plain tip (or just snip the end off; you could also use a Ziploc bag) and fill with the batter. Pipe the batter into 5" long and 3/4" wide strips leaving about 1" space in between the strips.
5. Sprinkle half the powdered sugar over the ladyfingers and wait for 5 minutes. The sugar will pearl or look wet and glisten. Now sprinkle the remaining sugar. This helps to give the ladyfingers their characteristic crispness.
6. Hold the parchment paper in place with your thumb and lift one side of the baking sheet and gently tap it on the work surface to remove excess sprinkled sugar.
7. Bake the ladyfingers for 10 minutes, then rotate the sheets and bake for another 5 minutes or so until the puff up, turn lightly golden brown and are still soft.
8. Allow them to cool slightly on the sheets for about 5 minutes and then remove the ladyfingers from the baking sheet with a metal spatula while still hot, and cool on a rack.

Store them in an airtight container till required. They should keep for 2 to 3 weeks.

Zabaglione

6 egg yolks

1/3 cup of sugar (or slightly less)

1/3 cup of Sweet Marsala wine

1.  Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together until thick and pale.
2.  Over simmering water in a double boiler slowly add 1/3 cup Marsala to the yolk/sugar mixture. Keep on stirring until it thickens like custard (about 7-8 minutes). Set aside to cool and whisk it occasionally as it cools so it is thick and creamy.

Tiramisu Cream

Zabaglione from above.

333 ml of heavy whipping cream

8 oz (1 case from Trader Joes) Mascarpone cheese

1. Stir (but do not beat) the mascarpone until well blended and smooth.
2. whip the heavy cream until thick – just past the soft peak stage.
3. Fold the mascarpone into the zabaglione cream.
4. Fold in the whipped cream.

Dipping Mixture

1 ½ cup of espresso coffee

2 tablespoon of sugar

¾ cup of Sweet Marsala wine

2 tablespoon of Kahlua liquor (coffee liquor)

2 tablespoon of dark rum

Mix together everything.

Assembly

Dip the ladyfingers inot the cooled dipping mixture until they are moist but not too sodden and line the bottom of the dish with them. (homemade ladyfingers are softer and more absorbent, so don’t leave it in the mixture for too long.

Layer half of the Tiramisu Cream over the top of the ladyfingers.

Repeat another layer of dipped ladyfingers and Tiramisu Cream. Chill over night. Before serving, sprinkle unsweetened cocoa powder on top.