No-bake Desserts | 20something cupcakes

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!

At first, the idea of a cranberry tart did nothing for me. But once I read this recipe, I realized how genius it was.

For one, you don’t even need an oven for this tart. It’s about the easiest thing I’ve ever seen/eaten/made/done. For two, it’s completely adaptable. Fresh cranberries in the fall and winter, fresh raspberries or strawberries in the spring and summer…

The crust is made out of chocolate sandwich cookies (read: Oreos, though I did buy the Newman’s Own version after reading how the Pastry Queen herself recommends them due to lack of hydrogenated oils – that’s right! These are healthy cookies!) crushed up and mixed with melted butter; but – you could do a graham cracker crust, or gingersnap…heck, you could toss in whatever cookies you have on hand and I bet it would work.

The filling is a simple combination of cream, butter, and light corn syrup – heated and poured over chopped white chocolate, and then whisked into a creamy wonderland. Instead, you could go with dark chocolate. Or milk. You get the idea.

You can make this tart anyway you want! And you don’t even have to bake it!

It’s brilliant. A hidden gem.

So if the idea of cranberries doesn’t get you going, problem solved. Though I must say – the cranberries are delicious. I think they make this tart the perfect dessert for the holiday season. Garnish with a mint leaf and there you have it – Christmas in a tart pan. The creamy sweetness of the filling goes so perfectly with the tart cranberries. Everyone will be super-impressed. Like, beyond. Just look at how sexy this baby is. No one needs to know it took you less than ten minutes.

Oh, and sidenote – I cooked with fresh cranberries for the first time today. Does anyone know what happens when you eat a raw, fresh cranberry? I tried to dare Daniel but he refused. Wimp.

Head on over to Josie’s fabulous blog for the full recipe!

*The original recipe calls for 8 individual foil tart pans, which I couldn’t find, so I halved it and made it in one 9-inch tart pan. The recipe also says to refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight, and if you’re making a big tart like I did, you definitely want to go overnight. After 3 hours my tart was still…not ready for its close-up, as you can see from the photos.