Pick Me Up - II

*Updated with new pics*

Dear Foodies,

All decked up :-)

I made some Tiramisu y'day and I must tell you it was on of the best I have ever eaten. I definitely had no clue how it would turn out and had my fingers crossed all through the night !!

Tiramisu is an Italian dessert and the world literally means "pick me up", probably because of the caffeine and chocolate which are known to give you instant energy. Learn more about this mouthful of heaven here.Layered to kill !!

Tiramisu, made well, is the yummiest dessert you will ever dig into. Couple of months back, we friends had gone to a Italian restaurant and were so full after the meal that we thought just one serving of dessert would be enough for the 9 of us. The lady taking care of our order asked us if we were sure about it and we firmly told her, we were !! 10 secs after she served us the Tiramisu the plate was empty !! When she looked back at our table she was shocked at our speed and very well expected our request for a second bowl :-). This time too she lingered around to see if we still maintained the speed and we did not disappoint her..hehe. It was a fork fight at the plate, if your fork got entangled with another, you loose your share, simple rule !! After this incident we've been to 2 other Italian places and their Tiramisu has always visited our table.

On one of Giada's Everyday Italian show on Food TV that I watched during my stay at my brothers place, she made some chocolate tiramisu and the recipe looked simple enough to recreate at home. I looked for more recipes online and found one with no egg too. Last Friday, we went to a grocery store and in the spur of the moment I decided I wanted to make Tiramisu that nite cos it is one of P's fav desserts ! I could not remember all the ingredients but couldn't. The store I went to had no espresso powder or mascarpone cheese and just when I was going to drop the idea, I found that the back of the ladyfingers package had a recipe for Tiramisu and they had very thoughtfully given a substitution for mascarpone !! Lovely !! So I got all my ingredients and set out to make 'one of the best desserts I have ever made' in P's words :-)

Topped with Strawberry relish and Chocolate Fudge

Now I am going to share my recipe with you and I am sure anyone who has tasted Tiramisu before will look very apprehensively at it. You are definitely going to think "What ! Thats it and its going to be the best you ever made !! How do you personally define 'best' ??" But I promise, it was the best I ate....I skipped sooo many ingredients that most recipes ask for and was definitely not sure how this would turn out, but it must have been the love that went into the dish ! Cos the first bite banished all those fears and we were all transported to heaven !! All of us enjoyed and savored every spoonful of it taking our own sweet time to swallow it and hoping the taste would linger in our mouths forever !! I am not exaggerating even a weee bit !!

Okay, enough of the talk .. now to the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 24 Ladyfingers (one pack for me)
• 1 cup - Coffee liqueur like kahlua
OR
• 11/2 cups : Water
• 2-3 Tbsp: Coffee powder (dint find instant espresso mix, so used the coffee powder at home)

• 11/2 cup: Milk/semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
• 2 tbsp : Heavy whipping cream
• 1 tsp : Vegetable Oil/butter

• 2 cups: Heavy whipping cream (keep refrigerated until ready to use)
  
• 2 Tbsp : Sugar
• 1/2 tsp: Vanilla essence
• 1 Tbsp : Coconut, very fine flakes(optional, adds great texture)

• 5 Tbsp : Mascarpone cheese (must be at room temp)
• 2 Tbsp : Sugar

To dust over the layers:

• 1 Tbsp : Cocoa powder
  
• 1/2 cup : Chocolate shavings

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Substitute for mascarpone cheese, mix together

• 4 oz : Cream cheese, at room temp
  
• 3 Tbsp : Sour cream, at room temp
  
• 2 Tbsp : Heavy whipping cream

Procedure:

1. In a microwave safe bowl and add 2 Tbsp of whipping cream and the 1 1/2 cups of roughly chopped chocolate to it. Microwave for 30secs, stir and heat for 30 more secs. Stir to get a smooth sauce, the residual heat from the bowl will help melt the chocolate and so don't heat longer than a minute. Allow it to cool.
2. Fold in the softened mascarpone cheese (or substitute) and coconut flakes into the melted chocolate sauce and set aside.
3. If you don't find mascarpone cheese, then add all the ingredients under the substitute list and mix well to get uniform consistency. First take the cream cheese and beat it till its a little smooth and then add the whipping cream and sour cream.
4. Take 2 cups of whipping cream in a bowl and beat until it starts to thicken a little. Add the sugar and vanilla essence now and continue to whip until you achieve soft peaks. Easy to get with a electric beater, it took 10-12 mins of continuous beating by hand. Refrigerate till ready to use.
   
5. If you are not using coffee liqueur, make some fresh espresso at home or use regular coffee. I got 11/2 cups of water to a near boil, turned off the heat and added the instant coffee powder to it.

Now its just arranging all this into layers. Choose a dish according to its width and depth, more depth accommodates more layers, and a wide dish makes room for more tiramisu !! I have a Pyrex 3 qt dish with no other options. I could get 2 layers in it.

1. Line the dish with a double layer of plastic wrap, it makes it easy to transfer the tiramisu in to a plate while serving.
2. Have the coffee/espresso in a wide plate like dish so that it makes dipping easy. Dip the ladyfingers in the coffee and arrange them in your dish. Don't over dip them as they crumble very fast absorbing a whole lot of liquid. Just one short dip on each side is more than enough.
3. Layer them at the bottom of the dish and add a few spoonfuls of the zabaglione (chocolate-mascarapone cheese mixture) and spread evenly.
creating the second layer here


melted chocolate and mascarpone mix


spreading a layer of chocolatey goodness


now time for the fluffy clouds, whipped cream




4. Dust some cocoa powder, chocolate shavings and some instant coffee powder on top.
5. Repeat steps 2-4 for as many layers as you want.
   
6. Cover the dish with a plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4-5 hrs, I left it in overnight though.

I was worried it would not set as I did not use eggs at all. And all the rum and marsala was not added, it was an experiment at each step !! The result was outstanding, simply superb !! (*I have made it over 6 times now, and it has won the crwods every single time*)The layers came out really well. The chocolate taste was really rich and creamy. The ladyfingers absorbed all the coffee flavor and little of the chocolates richness too and were really soft but firm enough to support the layers. This is a easy breezy recipe but the outcome is the most decadent dessert and will flatter anyone you make it for. But remember, the secret ingredient is LOVE....lots of it :-)

For topping I made some more chocolate sauce and strawberry relish. This post is already too long to accommodate another recipe. It will come in my next post adn will be my entry to Maheshwari's AFAM event. This one is surely being sent to Meeta for her Sweet Love-MM, P, my roomie for the last 2yrs moved y'day and this one is for her, 100% Love you and miss you :-(