tiramisù with homemade ladyfingers.

Welcome to the vat of creamy, coffee-filled delight that is tiramisu.

Layers of espresso-cream cheese-mascarpone filling, espresso-soaked homemade ladyfingers (which are really little sponge cakes), and a dusting of chocolate? Yes. Please.

Even though most people associate tiramisu with eating out, I think it was put on this Earth for at-home entertaining. It’s the perfect make-ahead dessert for a dinner party – especially a big group. And, your oven’s off-duty, meaning you’ve got room for lasagna! Which is another perfect recipe for feeding a crowd.

This particular recipe had a host of issues, but I hope it doesn’t stop you from trying it entirely; because it does have some great ideas, and I’ve adjusted the recipe to give you a better result. I actually intended to give you a video for this recipe, but since I couldn’t stand behind the original recipe as I’d made it in the video, I nixed it. Gotta keep it real!

Most tiramisu recipes I’ve seen use a espresso/coffee mixture to dip the ladyfingers in, more of a watery texture than this recipe, which offers a syrup. For some reason, this syrup would start to crystallize when it would cool for me, and I could taste the slight crunch of that sugar when I ate it. I’m no chemist, but it may have gotten funky on me because I added all of the ingredients to the pot before making the simple syrup, so try following the recipe and first making the syrup and then adding the espresso and liqueur. I also may have allowed it get too thick, so be careful for that.

As a whole, I found this recipe to be rather sweet, so I decreased the sugar in the filling by 1/4 cup, and I also adjusted the espresso syrup to have less sugar and more of the other good stuff  - because we could all use a little more Kahlua in our lives, couldn’t we?

{Daniel and I have developed quite the taking to Kahlua-spiked iced coffee on the weekends – don’t judge}

This is my last time participating in Project Pastry Queen, and I had an absolute blast cooking with everyone through this fabulous cookbook. Many a show-stopping dessert was discovered, and some favorites for life!

Here are a few of my must-make recipes from this book/project:

• Espresso Crème Brûlée
• Southern Comfort Apple Pie
• PB+J Cookies with Honey-Roasted Peanuts
• Crème Brûlée French Toast
• Lemon Meringue Tarts
• Praline-Topped Pumpkin Cheesecake

Perhaps most importantly, this group inspired my thought to start The Food Matters Project. So, yeah – I guess you could say I got a lot out of this one.

Tiramisù with Homemade Ladyfingers

Ladyfingers:

• 1/2 cup powdered sugar for dusting the ladyfingers, plus extra for dusting the baking sheets
• 7 large eggs, separated
• 3/4 cup plus 4 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour

Espresso Syrup:

• 3/4 cup water
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons instant espresso powder
• 1/2 cup coffee liqueur, such as Kahlua
• 1/4 cup dark rum (or omit the rum and add more Kahlua in its place)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla

Mascarpone-Cream Cheese Filling:

• 3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 1 (16-ounce) tub mascarpone cheese, at room temperature
• 2 tablespoons boiling water
• 2 tablespoons instant espresso powder
• Cocoa powder and grated bittersweet chocolate, for dusting (if using the grated chocolate, make sure it’s cold – it makes the grating easier since the chocolate isn’t melting so quickly)

To make the ladyfingers: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Coat two 12 x 17-inch baking sheets with cooking spray then line with parchment paper. Use a fine-mesh sieve to dust the paper with a light coating of powdered sugar. Using a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the egg whites on high speed until stiff peaks form. Add the 4 tablespoons granulated sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating after each addition. Transfer egg whites to a large bowl; rinse and dry the mixer bowl (unless, of course, you have two bowls for your mixer – and you can simply pull out the clean one). In the clean bowl, beat the egg yolks, the 3/4 cup granulated sugar, and the vanilla in a large bowl on high speed about 5 mintues, until the yolks become thick and pale yellow. Fold the egg white mixture gently into the egg yolk mixture. Use a sieve to gently sift the flour over the batter. Gently fold in the flour just until incorporated. Spoon the batter into a gallon-sized ziploc bag, or a very large pastry bag if you have one. Cut the corner from the bag and pipe the batter onto the prepared baking sheets, making each ladyfinger about 4 inches long and 2 inches wide. (Don’t worry if they’re not perfect, they will be hidden by layers of luscious cream cheese and mascarpone cheese. Mine came out rather flat, so I double-layered them in assembly and was able to use them all.) Bake about 10 minutes, until lightly browned. Sift the 1/2 cup powdered sugar over the ladyfingers just as they come out of the oven. Cool for 5 minutes and use a spatula to transfer them from the baking sheet to the cooling racks.

To make the soaking syrup: Simmer the water and sugar in a heavy saucepan set over medium heat 5 – 10 minutes, until slightly thickened. Remove the mixture from the heat and stir in the espresso powder, coffee liqueur, rum, and vanilla. Set aside to cool.

To make the filling: Using a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the cream cheese and sugar in a large bowl on high speed. Add the mascarpone and beat on medium speed just until incorporated. Combine the boiling water and espresso powder in a small bowl. Stir 1/4 cup of the cooled soaking syrup and 1 tablespoon of the espresso liquid into the filling. Spoon half of the cream cheese mixture into another medium bowl. Stir the remaining 1 tablespoon of espresso liquid into the second bowl of cream cheese mixture. You will have 1 bowl of light brown cream cheese filling and 1 bowl of dark brown cream cheese filling (from the addition of extra espresso liquid).

To assemble the tiramisu: Coat a 9- x 13-inch baking pan with cooking spray. Dip both sides of 1 ladyfinger in the cooled soaking syrup and place in the bottom of the pan. Repeat with more ladyfingers and syrup to line the whole pan. (If your ladyfingers came out on the flatter side, you’ll have enough to create 2 layers.) Spoon the light-colored cream cheese mixture over the ladyfingers and smooth gently with a spatula. Cover with a second layer of dipped ladyfingers (or a second double-layer). Spoon on the dark-colored cream cheese mixture and smooth the top as before. Use a fine-mesh sieve to dust the top with a light dusting of dark cocoa; add grated bittersweet chocolate as well, if you’d like. Cover the tiramisu and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight. Serve cold from the refrigerator. Cut in squares and serve with a spatula.