Tiramisu

Two of my roommates have been on a rigorous diet for the past few weeks in order to lose weight for their Judo tournament. Or rather, they had to lose weight to get to a specific weight for their weigh-in, so they could be in a lower weight class. (How many more times can I use a form of the word "weight"? Any bets?) Their weigh-in (that's one more!) was on Thursday night. If you recall, Thursday is my night to cook; so they asked me to make something fatty and delicious for dinner.

I admit, I panicked at this. I've been trying to cook healthier lately – healthy, and more inclined to vegetarianism, as one of my roommates is a vegetarian. So we all came to the conclusion that I could make something unremarkable (my words, not theirs) for dinner, and something spectacular for dessert. I told them they could have any dessert they wanted in the world. They chose tiramisu. (If you're curious, we had Spinach Lasagna Rolls for dinner.)

After Googling for a bit, I found a tiramisu recipe that doesn't use store-bought ladyfingers. I don't like using store-bought things like that if I can help it, because it feels a little bit like cheating. I knew this would make it one of the more complicated recipes I've made, but I was excited for the challenge.







EMILY'S FAMOUS TIRAMISU
slightly adapted from HBIC @ allrecipes.com

Ingredients

Ladyfingers:
5 eggs, separated
3/4 cup white sugar, divided
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar for dusting

Syrup
1 cup white sugar
1 cup boiling water
1/4 cup rum*

Filling
1 (8 ounce) container coffee-flavored mascarpone cheese**
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup rum
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups heavy cream

Topping
2 (1 ounce) squares semisweet chocolate, grated
confectioners' sugar, for dusting
cocoa powder, for dusting


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. In a medium bowl, whip egg yolks and 1/4 cup of sugar with an electric mixer until thick and pale. In a separate bowl, whip egg whites (with clean beaters) to soft peaks. Gradually sprinkle in the remaining 1/2 cup sugar while whipping to medium stiff peaks. Fold the egg yolk mixture into the egg whites. Gently fold in the flour and 1 teaspoon vanilla. The batter should be thick and pale yellow.

3. Trace two 9 inch circles onto the parchment paper using a cake pan as a guide. Flip parchment over so that the ink is on the other side, but you can still see the circles. Spread or pipe batter to completely fill inside the lines of the circles. Batter should be about 1/2 inch tall.

4. Load the remaining batter into a pastry bag fitted with a half inch tip or hole. Draw parallel lines onto another piece of parchment that are 3 inches apart. Pipe the batter back and forth just between the lines in a compressed S motion, until you run out of batter. This is the part that wraps around the outside of the cake. (It helps to have it in one piece, but you can pipe individual fingers using the guidelines drawn on the paper, if you prefer.) There may be extra.***

5. Bake in preheated oven 10 to 15 minutes, until firm but not browned. Remove from the oven and dust each round with 1-2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar. Set aside to cool.

6. To make the syrup, stir together 1 cup sugar, boiling water, and 1/4 cup rum until sugar is dissolved. Set aside.

7. To make the filling, combine mascarpone, 2 cups confectioners' sugar, rum and 1 teaspoon vanilla in a large bowl. Whisk together until completely smooth, scraping the bottom of the bowl to remove any lumps. Gradually whisk in the heavy cream. Whip with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Stop whipping when the mixture shows the first sign of graininess.

8. To assemble, line the sides of a 9-inch springform pan with parchment or waxed paper. Place one of the ladyfinger rounds in the bottom of the pan. Brush generously, but do not soak completely, with syrup. Place the 3-inch high ladyfinger strips around the inside edge of the pan, so that the sides are completely covered.**** Brush generously with syrup.

9. Spread half of the filling mixture over the first ladyfinger round in the pan. Sprinkle with a bit of cocoa powder, grated chocolate, and/or powdered sugar. Place the remaining ladyfinger round on top of the filling. Soak the second ladyfinger round with syrup until it cannot take any more. Spread the remaining filling over that and smooth the top. Sprinkle with grated chocolate and cocoa powder. Refrigerate at least 4 hours.

10. To serve, remove the sides of the pan and carefully remove the parchment or waxed paper from the outside of the cake. Dust with confectioners' sugar just before serving.*****


* We borrowed the required amount from a friend over twenty-one, in case you were wondering.

** We bought the coffee-flavored stuff meant for tiramisu because it was on sale, and cheaper than the regular mascarpone. If you can't find the coffee-flavored variety (our Safeway had it), the original recipe calls for the regular kind of mascarpone, adding 1/2 cup "strongly brewed coffee" to the SYRUP.

*** I didn't do this step. The batter didn't make enough for ladyfingers to go all the way around the tiramisu, and anyway, tiramisu doesn't normally have this lining. I didn't want to waste the batter, though, so I quickly glopped the extra batter onto a parchment-lined baking tray, and cooked up some extra ladyfingers, just for the eating. As I was in a bit of a rush, I didn't measure them out nicely, and my roommate dubbed them ladypalms. I thought of them as ladyfists.

**** Again, I didn't do this step, because I didn't make the extra ladyfingers.

***** I dusted it with powdered sugar right away, and it didn't do any harm.