TIRAMISU

For our alternative to Christmas pudding this year I made a tiramisu.  To be clear, there was still a Christmas pudding but this was also on offer for those who don’t like it.  In the end most people had a bit of both!

I had my very first taste of this indulgent dessert in the 1980’s, whilst visiting a friend who was living in Germany.  She found a recipe for it in a German woman’s magazine and translated it into English.  I was there in the kitchen when she made it and after just one mouthful I was hooked and asked for a copy of the recipe.  I still have it, written by hand on a page from an exercise book.

I have eaten many a tiramisu since but always use this recipe when making it myself.  (Except of course when I made the lemon or strawberry versions which I have written about before.)

Some I find too solid and cake-like, some too floppy or runny.  This one seems to have just the right proportion of cake to cream cheese, definitely best made the day before you want to serve it so that the cake absorbs the lovely flavours and the whole thing sets so that you can serve it in slices instead of spoonfuls.

I have tinkered with the recipe a bit over the years and find that the size of the dish is important for it to turn out just right.  Mine is a Pyrex dish measuring 22 x 17 x 6cm and this particular one is probably meant to be a small lasagne dish (found in a charity shop).   I have tried making it in round trifle bowls and in individual glasses for a more sophisticated look, but for this recipe, the lasagne dish may not look the most glamorous but seems to work the best.  All eyes light up when it appears on the table!

There are zillions of tiramisu recipes out there and I’ve tried a few but always come back to this one.  And forget the low fat cheese.  Full fat gives the best results!

Ingredients *

175g (1 pack) sponge fingers, also known as Boudoir fingers

1 standard espresso cup of espresso coffee, cooled 

4 egg yolks

3 egg whites

250g mascarpone cheese

3 heaped tblsp caster sugar

2 tblsp Amaretto liqueur

cocoa powder

Method

Whisk the egg whites until stiff and set aside.

In a larger bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar using an electric whisk for several minutes until light and creamy.  Add the mascarpone and whisk in.  Fold in the egg whites gently until well combined.

In a spare dish, tray or plate, lay half of the sponge fingers in a single layer.  Mix together the coffee and Amaretto and pour half of it over the fingers so that it soaks in.

Put roughly one third of the egg mixture in an even layer in the bottom of your serving dish.  Transfer the soaked sponge fingers, arranging evenly in a single layer on top of the egg mixture and sift over cocoa powder generously.

Spread a second layer of egg mixture evenly over the top, making sure you leave a good half of it behind in the bowl for the final, top layer.

Soak the other half of the sponge fingers with the remaining coffee mixture and lay on top of the second layer of egg mixture, dusting with cocoa as before.

Spoon the remaining egg mixture over the top and level carefully.  Chill in the fridge for several hours, preferably overnight or for a whole day, and dust with more cocoa before serving.

Serves 6-8.  Small portions are best as the dessert is very rich.

* Lately I have found the quantity of cheese mixture insufficient to make three layers, usually ending up with not enough to put on the top layer.  So I have used all of the egg whites from the four eggs to increase the volume.  An alternative would be to make a smaller dessert in a smaller dish and by not using the whole packet of fingers.

Having just made a huge tiramisu for a party where I doubled the quantities of ingredients I ended up making more cheese mixture and  so using twelve eggs.  That covered the top layer fine.  

MOCHA AND AMARETTI MOUSSE

This recipe comes from the little book of chocolate recipes written by Joanne Harris and Fran Warde, called “The little book of Chocolat”.  It’s a lovely book, full of very well written and doable recipes, each one styled on a character in the novel “Chocolat”.

 

I have made chocolate mousse before, several times and with great success.  This one is different because it contains espresso coffee, thereby making it “mocha” and a layer of crushed amaretti biscuits.  As it was just after Easter, I adorned it with some micro chocolate eggs for decoration and, of course, added crunch and chocolate.

It was very easy to make and, as it needs to be well chilled before serving (a bit like me before dinner), I made it well in advance.  The wonderful thing is that not only was it excellent, the crushed biscuits still being crisp and crunchy after several hours in the fridge, but it was still excellent two days later. 
It makes six portions and there were five of us for dinner so one portion languished in the fridge for a full two days before we remembered it was there.  The biscuits were still crunchy, the little chocolate eggs had not sunk.  That tells me that it’s a very useful recipe indeed.  Maybe two days before serving is pushing it a bit but I would not hesitate to make this the day before a dinner party, knowing with confidence that it will still be delicious.

The serving glasses are my charity shop find from around Christmas which I am very pleased with.  The very small glass plates are from a stack of no less than twelve that I spotted on a table at a vide grenier (brocante) at Angles-sur-l’Anglin last month.  At five euros for the lot they are most definitely a bargain.  Especially as I have since remembered where I saw them for sale in a shop and for 1.50 euros each! 

Ingredients
100ml double cream
4 tblsp freshly made espresso coffee
200g dark chocolate, grated (using a food processor grating disc makes this part a lot easier and quicker than by hand)
4 eggs, separated
100g amaretti biscuits (*70g is probably enough for six servings)

Method
Gently warm the cream in a medium saucepan, remove from the heat and add the espresso and chocolate.  Stir until all the chocolate has melted and is well blended.
Whisk the egg yolks and add to the chocolate, stirring until blended in.
Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks.  Mix about half into the chocolate mixture then fold in the rest.
Put the amaretti biscuits into a plastic bag and bash with a rolling pin until crushed to small crumbs.
Fill six serving glasses about half way with the mousse and add a layer of amaretti crumbs.  Make sure you reserve some crumbs to decorate the top of each mousse.  Divide the rest of the mousse between the six glasses, filling carefully so as not to disturb the layer of crumbs.  Dust the tops with the remaining amaretti crumbs and add other decorations if you like.
Chill for at least two hours before serving.  Can be made well in advance.

Serves 6.

LEMON TIRAMISU

The first lemon tiramisu.

I spotted a lemon tiramisu in a blog and decided it was such a delicious sounding idea that I just had to make one.  I adapted a recipe which was given to me by a friend about thirty years ago.  She got it from a German magazine when she was living there and when tiramisu was all the rage at dinner parties!

It makes a tiramisu that is more like a trifle than a cake.  In other words you serve it by the spoonful into bowls rather than by the slice on a plate, which is the kind of tiramisu I prefer. 

My second tiramisu, served in a lasagne dish which is not as pretty as the big bowl but probably more suitable for people to serve themselves.

I made the second one to take to a friend’s lunchtime BBQ party, having tweaked the recipe slightly again.  It was placed on the table with all the other desserts and looked nice.  I sampled a small spoonful and thought it tasted lovely.  When I went back for a second helping there was hardly any left and another guest who was poised over it said “you should get the last of this while you can, it’s delicious”.  I was very chuffed!

As always, it’s even better if you make it the day before you want to eat it, chilling it in the fridge overnight so that it becomes slightly firmer.

This month’s Alphabakes Challenge, organised by Caroline of Caroline Makes and Ros of The more than occasional baker, is the letter “Z”, and this tiramisu has quite a lot of lemon zest in it.

This month’s Simply Eggcellent Challenge, created by Dom of Bellau Kitchen, is “anything goes”, as long as it has eggs in it, which this lemon tiramisu certainly does!

Ingredients

For the syrup

The juice of two lemons

The finely grated zest of one lemon

2 tblsp caster sugar

4 tblsp Limoncello

For the cheese filling

1 pack (175g) boudoir biscuits + possibly a few extra from another pack, depending on the size and shape of your dish

4 egg yolks

3 egg whites

3 heaped tblsp caster sugar

350g mascarpone cheese (annoyingly packs are now 250g or 500g so you have to buy two small ones or one large one)

the coarsely grated strips of rind of one lemon for decoration (optional)

Method

Begin by zesting and juicing the lemons.  I used a lemon zester to get the ribbon-like strips for decoration (you could use a vegetable peeler) and a fine grater to get the finely grated rind for the syrup.  Once you have the zest and peel, cut the lemons in half and squeeze the juice.

For the syrup, mix together the lemon juice, Limoncello, fine zest and 2 tblsp caster sugar in a small bowl – but one big enough to dip in your boudoir biscuits.  Set aside.

Next, separate the eggs, putting 4 yolks in a large bowl with the 3 tblsp caster sugar.  Put 3 of the whites into a medium bowl.  (You can freeze the one remining egg white or add it to your scrambled eggs for breakfast.)

Whip the egg whites until stiff.  A hand held electric whisk makes the job easier but an ordinary whisk will do.  Set aside.

In the other bowl, whip the egg yolks and sugar until pale and thick.  This will take a few minutes.  Add the mascarpone cheese and beat it in until the mixture is smooth.

Fold the egg whites into the egg and cheese mixture.

To assemble the tiramisu, dip the boudoir biscuits one at a time into the syrup and create a single layer in the bottom of your dish.  You don't need to soak the biscuits, a quick dip on one side is enough.  Break up biscuits as necessary to fill any gaps.  

Add half the cheese mixture and spread evenly over the biscuits.

Dip the remaining biscuits in the syrup as before, making another single layer on top of the cheese mixture and opening a second packet of biscuits if needed according to the shape of your dish.  If it looks like you might run out of syrup stir in an extra splash of lemon juice or Limoncello.

Brush any remaining syrup over the second layer of biscuits.

Spread the rest of the cheese mixture over the biscuits, making sure you go right to the edge of the dish, leaving no gaps. 

Chill in the fridge for at least four hours and preferably overnight.  (Making this an ideal dessert for making ahead as it improves with overnight chilling.)

Serve chilled and sprinkle the reserved strips of lemon rind over the dessert before serving.

Serves 8.

FOOD MEMORIES AND TASTE BUDS

It’s a phenomenon familiar to most of us I think.

You have some wine, a cake, dessert or a meal somewhere and you really enjoy it, can’t wait to buy a bottle to take home, beg the recipe, get the ingredients and relive the experience.  Only to find yourself thinking : “why on earth did I buy that wine, it’s awful, what was I thinking……..”

Jamie’s chocolate pots with orange and polenta biscuits.

A few years ago we were invited round for coffee to the house of some new friends in our French village and with it the lady of the house served up some little orange and polenta biscuits.  They tasted lovely and I thought it was such nice way to serve coffee so I asked her for the recipe, which she typed out and gave to me.  I have long since lost it and have never found a recipe that looked anything like the same.

However, I remember that she said the recipe came from a Jamie Oliver book.  After Christmas, Sainsbury’s were selling all of Jamie’s early cookbooks for £5, buy one, get one free.  That’s £2.50 each – what a bargain – and in one of them there was the recipe for the orange and polenta biscuits !! 

So I bought a packet of polenta.

To go with the little biscuits I decided to make the little chocolate pots that were on the next page.  That was the idea, you serve a chocolate dessert with the little orange and polenta biscuits on the side.

You heat the cream to almost boiling, then melt in the chocolate before adding the other ingredients, finally folding in the egg whites if a lighter mousse rather than a dense a cream is wanted. 

It worked beautifully.  The recipe said it serves four but after I had folded in my egg whites I ended up with eight servings, all small in size, but so rich that they were perfectly ample.

They looked super with the little biscuits served on the saucer but the biscuits themselves were a huge disappointment. 

In fact they were horrid.

I just can’t believe that something I remembered as being so wonderful could turn out so badly to the same recipe, but that’s life.  It’s not worth giving the recipe here but it’s a nice idea and I will have a look for another recipe.  Mind you, it might not be very soon because although chocolate and orange are, to quote Jamie, “best friends”, the effect on the waistline from desserts like this is fairly disastrous !! 

The chocolate pots were fabulous, very easy to make and well worth the effort.  The leftovers were just as good even two days later so it’s a perfect dessert to make for guests the day before, keeping them chilled in the fridge until needed.

Here’s the recipe for the little chocolate pots.

This is what I used

285ml single cream

200g good quality dark cooking chocolate

2 large egg yolks

3 tablespoons brandy

20g butter

This is what you do

First, break the chocolate into squares.

In a smallish pan, heat the cream gently until nearly boiling.  Remove from the heat.

Off the heat and after one minute, add the chocolate and stir gently until it has melted and the mixture is smooth.

Next, beat in the egg yolks and brandy and stir again until smooth.

Allow to cool a little more then stir in the butter until smooth again.  You should now have a lovely thick and glossy mixture.

You can use the mixture as it is or, to make a slightly lighter dessert, whisk the egg whites separately in a clean and grease-free bowl until the firm peak stage.  Fold gently into the chocolate mixture, a third at a time.

Pour into little cups, glasses or ramekins.  Small portions are the thing as this is very rich.

Chill for at least two hours before serving.  

This is a good dessert for entertaining as it can be made the day before and just kept in the fridge until needed . 

Serves 6-8.