Today is my birthday. Yay! Another year and I’m still here! I’m here with my wonderful husband! I’m still here raising and loving my babies! Cooking and cleaning the cozy home we have. I’m still here to text my best friends silly GIF’s and comfort them when they are sad. God is not finished with me just yet! Heaven is the goal, but while I’m here I’ll be thankful!
I am still here, and that is reason enough to celebrate!
So lets celebrate with Tiramisu! I love this classic Italian dessert! Its rich and creamy, and coffee…oh sweet coffee! If you have never had it I recommend going to get some right now! If you have had it but never made it, you should! Today I’ve done everything from scratch, but you don’t have to. You can purchase Lady Fingers at the store. This will make it drastically easier since making the Lady Fingers is the hardest part. Truthfully its not really hard, but it does take some practice. Everything has to be folded together just right. You get lumpy flour clumps if you under mix, or runny batter that wont hold its shape if you over mix. It takes finesse, which with practice can be achieved!
I’ll go ahead and say right here: I had to make two batches to get it right. I over mixed the first time, and I ran out of parchment paper so half of them stuck really badly to the tray, and well what didn’t stick were flat as pancakes. Still tasty, still usable but flat.
Lady Fingers
Spongy Italian cookies, also known as Savoiardi. Used in Tiramisu, Trifles, Charlottes, great with ice cream and fruit too.
If you decide to go for it and make your own Lady Fingers, remember not to under or over mix. If you under mix it will be lumpy with flour clumps. If you over mix it will be too runny and not hold its shape when piped.
If you don’t feel up to piping the Lady Fingers or you don’t have the needed equipment to do that, you can just spread the mixture onto two trays lined with parchment paper and then cut them after they have baked.
Ingredients
Lady Fingers:
- 6 Large Eggs, Separated and at room temp
- 1/2 C Sugar, Divided
- 1/2 t Vanilla
- 1 C Flour
- Pinch of Salt
- Powdered Sugar for Dusting
Directions
- Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Using a ruler draw lines on your parchment paper that are three inches in length with about 1/2 and inch separating each three inch space, place this ink side down onto a baking tray.
- Whip yolks, 1/4 C sugar, and vanilla until pale yellow.
- Whip egg whites until stiff, slowly adding sugar once the eggs begin to froth.
- Using a rubber spatula, carefully fold egg yolk mixture into egg whites. I counted 7 folds, there were still streaks of yellow in the white.
- Sift flour and salt over mixed whites and yolks. Fold in the flour careful to not under or over mix. I counted 23 (ish) folds. Again if it is under mixed it will have lumps of flour. If it is over mixed it will be very runny and not hold shape.
- Fill a piping bag with a large round tip, and slowly pipe the filling onto the parchment paper starting at the top line and stopping at the bottom line (three inch lengths).
- Dust generously with powdered sugar and bake for 14 minutes. Watching carefully.
- With out burning yourself, carefully remove the sheet with the Lady Fingers from the baking tray immediately, and let cool.
- Have a taste they are great! Stop here and use them just like cookies, or join me after I’ve washed my dishes and we will make the filling and assemble the Tiramisu!
Tiramisu
Tiramisu roughly translated means cheer me up, and what's not to cheer you about this classic Italian dessert! It is a layered cake consisting of; Lady Fingers or Savoiardi cookies, which is a spongy type of cookie; a creamy custard type of filling made of Mascarpone Cheese, eggs, and sugar; coffee and rum, and topped with coco powder.
I made mine three layers, for a few reasons. First, because I wanted it extra decedent for my birthday! Second, because I had plenty of Lady Fingers, and Mascarpone Cheese.
I used a 9X8 glass pyrex dish. It would be gorgeous layered in individual servings for each guest, but I didn’t have room for all those plate in my fridge since I made it a full day ahead.
Ingredients
- 6 Egg Yolks
- Approximately 36 Lady Fingers
- 16 Ounces Mascarpone Cheese (Room temperature makes mixing easier)
- 4 T Sugar
- 4 Ounces of STRONG Black Coffee
- 3 T Rum (Optional)
- Unsweetened Coco Powder for Dusting
Directions
- Brew your coffee and let cool.
- Whisk yolks and sugar together until pale yellow and fluffy.
- Fold Mascarpone cheese into yolk mixture, if it is room temp this will be easy. If it is not at room temp use your mixer and beat it in. It will be thick enough to hold its shape, but easy to spread.
- Mix the coffee and rum in a shallow dish.
- Quickly dip each lady finger and place it in your dish in a row. Or if you chose to bake the Lady Finger batter as spongy sheet cakes cut them to size and place one in the bottom of you dish. Then using a pastry brush, dab the coffee mixture on. (*If you do this make sure you have more coffee, it takes more to moisten the sheet cake than it does the individual fingers.)
- Spread 1/3 of the cheese mixture onto the Lady Fingers, and repeat for as many layers as you want. Finishing with cheese mixture. (*If you are feeling fancy pipe the top layer with a star tip!)
- Refrigerate for at least 4 hours, over night is best.
- Dust with coco powder right before serving.
- Enjoy this!
If you have extra Lady Fingers they are great with coffee 🙂
Tonight Ford is making me firecracker shrimp, and then we will indulge with this classically decedent dessert.
Ash
happymountainhomemaker 