Tiramisu

You must be asking why I would post a Tiramisu recipe when this is only my 3rd recipe posts. Well, it just happened that this is the one of the first baking project I have tried and succeeded. I can now make a tiramisu without looking at any recipe.

Actually this recipe involve getting the "cake" part off the shelf, which could otherwise by made from scratch at home. So, by not making the cake, which we substitute by buying off the shelf ladyfinders, there is no baking involve. As a result, this is not an exact science and the variations of the quantity of the ingredient will not screw up your final products.

Ingredients:
6 eggs separated into yolks and white
3/4 - 1 cup of sugar
8 to 12 oz of mascarpone cheese
1/2 teaspoon of creme of tartar
1 cup heavy cream
1 1/4oz gelatine unflavored envelope
1 package (3 oz) of ladyfingers
1 cup espresso
4 teaspoon of Kahlur or other coffee liquer. Can be substitute with Rum or Brandy.
1 Tablespoon of cocoa powder

Tools:
Scraper
Springform round cake pan (cheese cake pan)
Mixing bowls
Electric mixer
Double Boiler (optioner)
Brush
Icing Knife
Lazy Susan (Optional)

My tiramisu is going to be 4-layers, two layers of ladyfingers, and two layers of cream.

Making the cream:

• Break 6 eggs and separate the egg yorks and white.
• Mix in half of the sugar, and stir.
• When the sugar is dissolved, add the mascarpone cheese. 8 oz is enough but if this is the your first time, use 12 oz or even 16 oz so you won't have to waste the remaining from your 16oz jar.
• Keep mixing with a spatula until everything is blended and smooth. You can use electric mixer too but do go slow.
• Melt 1 package of gelatine powder in half a cup of hot water. It might be easier if you simmer the water in a small pot. As soon as the powder is dissolved, get it out from the fire, and let it cool to room temperature.
• Slowly add the gelatine liquid into the mascapone mix one teaspoon at a time and continue mixing.
  
• After that, mix in 4 teaspoons of coffee liquer.
• Now you have half of the the cream ready. Cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap and keep in the refrigerator.
• Since we have the egg white, we don't want to throw that away. Let's whisk it up using an electic mixer, and add 1/4 of the sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon of creme of tartar.
• Set the egg white aside.
• Now, start whisking the cup of heavy cream and add the remaining sugar into it. Whisk until you get a peak. Do not over mix or it will break down into something unuseable.
  
• Take out the mascarpone mixture from the fridge, and fold in the egg white, and whipped cream.
• This is the cream part of your tiramisu.
• To finish making the cake, all we have to do now is to put all the pieces together

1. Lay the ladysfinger on an 8 or 10" springform cake pan.
2. Add 2 teaspoon of coffee liquer into the espresso.
3. Brush the espresso on top of the ladyfingers until it is somewhat wet. Do not soak the ladyfingers. I sometime forget to brush the ladyfingers and the final product still come out good. But soggy ladyfingers make bad tiramisu.
4. Pour in 1/3 of your mascarpone cream ontop of the ladyfingers, add more if you need to until the height is about the same as the ladyfingers, about 1/3 of an inch. Use an icing knife to create a smooth surface.
5. Lay down the remaining ladyfingers on top of the cream and repeat the same steps as before. If you run out of ladyfingers to cover the whole pan, just cover it loosely. Or if you have more to spare, fill in those wholes.
6. Pour in the remaining mascarpone cream on top of the lady fingers until you reach the top of the cake pan. Don't worry if you don't have enough at this point to go to tall.
7. Use your icing knife to level off the surface. If you have a lazy susan, it would be a great help spinning the cake while holding the knife still.
8. Put a parchment paper or just any clean sheet of paper on top of the cake pan. If you didn't fill in to the top of the cake pan, you can use plastic wrap too. Just make sure it is not touching the cream.
9. Place the cake into the refrigerator for 8 hours. 6 will do if you are in a hurry.
10. Take out the cake, and sprinkler the cocoa power over the cake with a small sifter. The amount of cocoa power to put on the cake depends on your preference. You can create all kind of other chocolate related stuff to put on it. What I like to do is to pipe fine lines of melted semi-sweet chocholate on the cake and make it like a bird nest. The chocolate will solidify very quick, and the bitter taste of the chocholate goes very well with the the sweet tiramisu.