Tiramisu.. next step up..

[Fisher's Mom]

Oh yes, definitely a glass dish. The sides with the lovely layers of ladyfingers and creamy filling are really impressive looking.

[wysiwyg]

beginner chef,
If you live near a Trader's Joe, you can get mascarpone and lady fingers. The original Italian recipe calls for liquor with the coffee (ruhm generally) to dip the ladyfingers and in the mascarpone mix (Marsala). The ingredients for 5/6 people are:
3 large eggs separated (whites optional instead of heavy cream)
1/3 cup of sugar
1/4 teaspoon of salt
8 oz of mascarpone
2 cups of strong brewed coffee, room temperature
Dark rhum and Marsala wine
1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream (optional instead of egg's whites)
8 oz (about 20 to 30) ladyfingers
Cocoa
Grated semi-sweet chocolate (optional)

Preparation
Make coffe, mix with 3 tbspoons of rhum and let it chill
Beat egg yolks, add sugar and salt and keep mixing until pale yellow (about 5 min.)
Add mascarpone gradually keeping the mix homogeneus
Add 2 tbspoons of Marsala wine.

In a separate bowl, either beat the cream or the egg whites until holding stiff peaks.
With egg whites, you will have a lighter dish, with cream something tastier.

With rubeer spatula, fold 1/3 of the whipped cream/whites into the mascarpone mix.
Gently fold the rest mixing gantly until no white streaks remain, set mix aside.

Lay one thin layer of mascarpone mix in a rectangular glass or ceramic baking dish.
Sprinkle cocoa and grated chocolate
Pour coffe in a flat bowl and dip ladyfingers one at a time, rolling them in the coffee for not more than 2/3 secs. This is so they don't oversoak and crumble when in the dish.
Cover mascarpone mix in baking dish with one layer of soaked ladyfingers.
Cover with another layer of mascarpone, add cocoa and grated chocolate.
Add a second layer of soaked ladyfingers and a final layer of mascarpone mix.
Chill in fridge for min. 6 hours, dust a final layer of cocoa/chocolate, cut into pieces and serve. Eat and feel the calories getting into your body.

[JulesMichy]

Why do you spell rum "rhum"?

[wysiwyg]

JulesMichy,
Thank you for catching it. My bad, it is French spelling. Not that I am French, but I was born abroad and lived there and sometimes I spell things incorrectly.

[Yakuta]

Beginnerchef as others stated I also like to use a glass dish or when I am making it for a lot of people I like to use foil pans with the plastic lids on them (they are available at Walmart and most other stores). The plastic lids are high enough to keep the beautiful cocoa undisturbed and you can keep any refrigerator smells out of it.

And yes I have made it with the white cake mix fingers and the key is to not soak them in the coffee but apply it with a brush so you get the same outcome.

Our family is a completely alcohol free one so this recipe works for us. I also don't like to use raw eggs in my cream (as the original recipe calls for). In general this works well if you go by taste and feel of the cream.

All the best.

[wysiwyg]

Yakuta,
The recipe I provided can be modified to cook the eggs in case someone doesn't want to use raw eggs. You need to prepare the eggs mix (without the alcohol) in a double boiler.
I prefer to add the upper layer of cocoa just before serving to avoid the chocolate stained look on the cream.

[Fisher's Mom]

Originally Posted by wysiwyg

Yakuta,
The recipe I provided can be modified to cook the eggs in case someone doesn't want to use raw eggs. You need to prepare the eggs mix (without the alcohol) in a double boiler.
I prefer to add the upper layer of cocoa just before serving to avoid the chocolate stained look on the cream.

Yours is exactly the recipe I used, wysiwyg, and it came out wonderfully! I opted for the double boiler method for the egg yolks and the heavy cream rather than egg whites. The only mistake I made was to get the ladyfingers a little too soaked in the coffee mixture. You can't tell at the time but after 24 hours in the fridge, I noticed when I served it, there was some of the coffee in the bottom of the dish. Next time, I'll probably brush them rather than dip them in the coffee.

[wysiwyg]

Hi Fisher's Mom,
I had many of these made with oversoaked ladyfingers LOL. I can't remember who told me just to dip/roll them for not more than 2 secs in the coffee, to keep the integrity.
I also like the heavy cream version (with a tad of salt) since is very tasty.
The egg's whites is lighter, but requires (I think) a bit more sugar and liquor. A friend of mine makes this dish with Frangelico on the coffee and Cointreau or Triple Sec on the mascarpone mix.
That sounds like a real tasting extravaganza LOL

[Fisher's Mom]

Originally Posted by wysiwyg

A friend of mine makes this dish with Frangelico on the coffee and Cointreau or Triple Sec on the mascarpone mix.
That sounds like a real tasting extravaganza LOL

Oh, oh, oh! That sounds completely divine. I will be doing that this week!

[Yakuta]

Thanks wyswig and fischer's mom for the egg cooking method. I do admit however that I am a bit lazy to go through all this effort for very little to no enhancement in the flavor of the end product.

I like to do all the mixing in my kitchenaid. The fewer the dishes to tackle cleaning the better for me.