Happy Birthday Love Part 2! December 4th, 2010

On Saturday evening, we were invited for a dinner party in my boyfriend's honor. His parents prepared a feast of appetizers, moose roast, cheese platter, and fruits. For dessert, I have made my favorite tiramisu. The recipe came from a very nice Italian lady who used to be a pastry chef. She now runs a boarding house for international students in Vancouver. She was kind enough to share her recipe. The resulting cake is the most delicious tiramisu that I've ever had. It is perfectly creamy and light. I swear if I was ever allowed I'd eat a whole cake. It is also the perfect birthday cake for a guy (aka my adorable boyfriend) who hates cream and frosting. I made one 8 inch cake for the dinner party and a 9x5 rectangular cake for the two of us for later. Traditional tiramisu is not served with anymore decor than a generous dusting of cocoa powder on top. However, I needed a way to unmold the 8 inch cake nicely as I didn't have any plastic cake collars. I my solution was to decorate the outer layer of the cake with rolled wafers. It was effective for a beautiful reveal. Downside, the wafers were soft by serving time due to the moisture of the tiramisu. I think I will go back to garnishing tiramisus with Savordi next time. Less dramatic but equally delicious!

Tiramisu
Adapted a nice Italian lady's recipe

Recipe makes one 8 inch round cake and one 9x5 rectangular cake or one 11 inch cake in springform pan. The 8 inch round cake is perfect for 10 people. The 9x5 retangular cake is perfect for 4.

2 cups espresso or very concentrated coffee, cooled
1/3-2/3 cup marsala, brandy, rum or cognac (any strong liqueur will do)
6 egg yolks
550g mascarpone cheese, room temp
1 teaspoon powdered unflavoured gelatin (optional)
1 tablespoon water (optional)
2 cup heavy cream
8 tablespoons sugar
About 320g Savolardi (Italian lady fingers)
About 4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
Cream filled wafers, Caprice or Pirouette (optional)

Note: I have adjusted the amount of mascarpone cheese and heavy cream as only 450g or 275g mascarpone cream packages are available at my local grocery stores. The heavy cream comes in the volume of 250 mL or 500 mL containers. It changes the ingredient ratios a little bit but I find this to be preferable to having left over ingredients. The tiramisu is still very good. The original recipe calls for 500g mascarpone cheese and 400 mL heavy cream.

1. Make the espresso preferably with high fragrance coffee beans. If making concentrated coffee, use 1 cup water with 2-3 tablespoons of instant coffee. I use the Nescafé Taster's Choice Colombian for the instant route. The concentration can be adjusted to taste. I like mine super strong. Set the coffee aside to allow it to cool. Add your preferred liqueur to the cooled coffee. (Tiramisu is traditionally made with fine marsala. However, I find brandy more to my liking.) The suggested liqueur to coffee ratio is 1:3 but this can also be adjusted to taste.
2. Place a bowl over a pot of simmering water. Heat the egg yolks and 4 tablespoons sugar in the bowl. Whisk until the yolks turn light yellow. This eliminates the raw egg smell of the yolks. Add 4 tablespoons coffee liqueur mixture to the yolks. Continue whisking until the mixture thickens. Allow to cool.

Note: the original recipe calls for 2 times as much coffee liqueur mixture which I find to water down the resulting cream filling too much.

3. Cream the mascarpone cheese using a rubber spatula. Do not use an electric mixer as the heat from the mixer would cause oil separation in the cheese. Add the yolk mixture in slowly. Mix until all the yolk mixture is combined thoroughly. The 1st half of the cream filling is finished.
4. The 2nd part of the cream filling is whipped cream. I find making stabilizing whipped cream to help firming the tiramisu without compromising the creaminess texture that the tiramisu is suppose to have. However, normal whipped cream would also be suitable. To make stabilizing whipped cream, combine the gelatin and water. Allow the gelatin to bloom for 10 minutes. Combine 3 tablespoons of the cream and 4 tablespoons sugar to the gelatin and melt over a pot of simmering water. Stir until smooth. Beat the rest of the cream until soft peak with an electric mixer. Add the gelatin cream mixture in a slow stream to the whipped cream while mixing. Avoid the mixer and the side of the bowl when adding the mixture. Beat the cream to medium peak. To make regular whipped cream, beat the whipped cream to soft peak. Add in the 4 tablespoons sugar. Beat until medium peak forms.

Note: The original recipe calls for 10g of gelatin to be melted in 180 mL of water. The gelatin mixture is to be added to the egg instead of cream. I find the resulting tiramisu to have significantly compromised the creamy texture of the cream layer. To cut the tiramisu in clean slices, the additional of gelatin is required. The recipe also says to only beat the cream to soft peak. However, I find during the next step, the cream softens with the additional mixing.  Overly beaten (stiff peak) whipped cream will also decrease the creamy texture of your tiramisu.

5. Stir in 1/4 of the whipped cream to the egg mascarpone mixture. Continuing to stir in 1/4 of the whipped cream until all cream is combined.

6.  I have an 9 inch springform pan and an 8 inch round cake mold. I often use my springform pan for tiramisu as it's not a very tall cake. It's only 2 layers of Savolardi and 3 layers of cream filling. You can use a springform pan as the cake mold or place a cake mold on a cake board. In my case, I chose to place my 8 inch mold in my springform pan. You most likely won't be able to unmold the tiramisu from the 9x5 inch loaf pan. I suggest going at it with a spoon when it's ready!
7. Line the container with cake collar to ease the unmolding, though this is not strictly necessary. Smear a thin layer (about 1/4 inch) of the cream filling on the bottom of the pan. This is the first cream layer of your tiramisu. Line the side with the wafers now if you wish. The wafers would need to be trimmed down to about 4 inches. The thin layer of cream filling would help the wafers to stand up.
8. Put the coffee liqueur mixture in a shallow bowl. The Savolardi has a sugar coated side and a plain side. Dip the plain side in the coffee liqueur mixture. Don't soak the cookie just dip for a few seconds. Hold the Savolardi vertically to allow the excess coffee to drain out of the cookies. Prepare one at a time. Arrange a layer of the dipped Savolardi on top of the cream layer, sugar coated side up. Cut the Savolardi to size to fill the small gaps. Apply another layer of cream filling, a thicker layer this time, about the thickness of a Savolardi. Another layer of dipped Savolardi and another thicker cream filling. Smooth the top.
9. Refrigerate the tiramisu overnight (or for a very minimum 4 hours) to firm up the cake. Remove the mold carefully and dust the surface with a thin layer of cocoa powder before serving.