When you cook for a living, unless you're a pastry chef, chances are you don't enjoy making desserts. It's an entire different spectrum of culinary, a separate field altogether.
I've had friends say “oh my god, you're a chef! You are so making my wedding cake for me!”. I cringe. It's like asking your dentist- who is really, really good at what he or she does - to perform your firstborn's c-section.
Apart from my lack of talent in the pastry department, I have this irrational fear of baking. Not sure if it's because it involves a certain amount of science behind it, some chemistry (I was beyond awful at chemistry, still don't know how I passed High School Chem. Oh, wait, I know: cheating.), some physics, some following instructions. You can't exactly eye-ball, guess, free-style, improvise when you're baking. Unless you want your muffin to taste like garbage.
My boss doesn't really know nor care that I have a baking-phobia situation going on for me, and if he knew, odds are he would make me responsible for all the dessert production in the kitchen, just to challenge or mess with me. But he is well aware they I have attempted to make Tiramisu a few times and failed miserably the first, say, 15 tries. So he put me in charge of making the damn Tiramisu at the restaurant until I got the thing right.
I eventually mastered the art, or rather science of making Tiramisu. A few tricks here and there certainly help. And it's really not that hard.
Tiramisu, as the name would suggest, is an Italian dessert and the literal translation is “pick me up”. It requires no cooking process, meaning raw eggs, so if you have an issue with that, perhaps this dessert is not for you. Also, if you don't like coffee, forget about it. One of the main ingredients is espresso (plus coffee), and it's kind of hard to skip that step. If you have an issue with liquor, you're also not going to enjoy this Italian delicacy. And I do use a lot of booze in my recipe. I'm a firm believer that everything tastes better when alcohol is involved. Sue me.
All restrictions aside, I'm a big fan of this dessert. And my point behind the last five or so paragraphs was that if a pastry-challenged idiot like me can master it, well, so can you.
This recipe is dedicated to my good friend, Carol, who can now do something fun and sexy with her fancy Kitchen Aid stand mixer! Enjoy, babes!
Don't be intimidated by the 17 step-long procedure. I just put enough detail to make any culinary-challenged person understand and master this. A good Tiramisu should be light, airy and fluffy. And not too sweet.
Without further ado:
Tiramisu
Serves 8-10
12 egg whites
8 egg yolks
1 cup of sugar, divided
1 Teaspoon Vanilla extract
2 lbs mascarpone cheese (2 standard containers)
8oz coffee (roughly, 500ml)
4 oz espresso (half of that, 250ml)
1 tablespoon Sambuca
2 Tbsp Kahlua
2 Tbsp Triple Sec (or Cointreau, or whatever orange liqueur you got)
2 Tbsp Frangelico
1 Teaspoon Amaretto
½ cup Cocoa Powder, to dust.
Ladyfingers, like, a whole box. I seriously don't know how many. Let's go with “a lot”.
Pinch salt
Procedure:
First thing you want to do is place the bowl you will be whipping the egg whites and yolks in the freezer for at least 15 minutes. You can start separating the whites from yolks in the meantime. It is kind of important that all materials you work with are COLD, because that will keep your whites from deflating and yolks from curdling.
Also, be careful when separating whites from yolks. You want to make sure whites are absolutely clear of yolks.
In the prep process, go ahead and brew your cup of regular coffee (if you even thought about making decaf, just stop reading and leave this blog now!) and espresso. If you absolutely cannot make espresso or run to the nearest Starbucks, it's not the end of the world. Just make sure you have strong coffee and enough of it, because you will be soaking the ladyfingers in the liquid.
Once the coffee is ready, go ahead and dump that and all the liqueur mentioned in a container easy enough to dip the ladyfingers into. You want to do that beforehand because it's nice to allow the coffee to cool down a bit. You don't want your ladyfingers too soggy. But I'll get to that in a minute.
So, you separated the one cup of sugar into two half-cups. One will go for the egg whites and one for the yolks.
Start by whipping the egg yolks first. In the meantime, go ahead and place your whites in the fridge so they remain cold.
Place all yolks in the whipping bowl and using the whip attachment of your mixer, let the games begin on the highest setting. Whip for about 1 minute and throw in that half cup of sugar. Add a pinch of salt. You want to whip the yolks until they are about the same color as the mascarpone cheese. Almost no hint of yellow.
Turn the machine off. Place ALL of the mascarpone cheese into the bowl and turning the machine back on the LOWEST possible setting, gently whip in the mascarpone with the yolk mixture, just until ingredients are combined. Do not overwhip. It will curdle if you do.
Place that yolk + mascarpone mix into a separate bowl (a large one, if you have).
Make sure you wash the bowl you just used. No traces of yolk should be left behind when you whip the whites.
Place all whites in the bowl. Start on high speed and after about a minute, place remaining sugar in the bowl. Whip for as long as you need until whites are at stiff peak. Meaning you could lift the bowl upside down and whites would stay in place. Trust me, it does happen.
Now's the tricky part: with a rubber spatula, place the whites in the bowl where the yolk + mascarpone mixture is and CAREFULLY, FOLD IN the whites. No mixing! Seriously, do not mix it all together! It will deflate and ruin the entire thing. Fold in very gently. I cannot stress that enough. If you don't thoroughly mix the whites with yolks, that's fine. Once you spread onto the ladyfingers, it will do the trick.
Onto the ladyfingers: you also don't want to soak them in too much liquid. That's why you will only dip one side (lengthwise) of the cookie onto the coffee mixture. Feel free to add more booze than the recipe calls for, by the way.
For the first layer, quickly dip one cookie at a time and place them lying down on a rectangular container that's at least 2 inches high. That's roughly 4 cm if you live outside the US.
After the first layer of ladyfingers are placed down, spread enough of the yolk + mascarpone + meringue (translated: whites and sugar whipped) to make a ½ inch layer. Repeat the ladyfinger dipping process and place another layer of cookies on top of the meringue mix. Then another meringue layer.
Some people do two ladyfinger layers. Some 3. It doesn't really matter as long as you end with a meringue + mascarpone layer on top.
Dust cocoa powder all over the top and place tiramisu in the fridge. Let it sit for at least 24 hours before serving.
Notes (I know, more?!):
Make sure all your equipment is dry. Also make sure your equipment and kitchen (if possible) are somewhat in the cool range of the thermometer.
Almond liqueur is optional but I like a little almond flavor with my coffee. Why not.
A lot of people don't like Sambuca, but mixed with the remaining ingredients, it goes. Don't skip.
If you can't find Mascarpone cheese, do not get creative and go for cream cheese. Just. Don't.
- When you dip the ladyfingers in the liquid, do it quickly, and one at a time. Ladyfingers that are too soggy make a yucky tiramisu. Dipping only one half-side helps.
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