No Calorie Friday: Tiramisu

In all recent trips to Whole Foods, I seem to constantly get pulled toward their dessert display.

They have a really good dessert display.

In the midst of all of the delicious and tempting looking dessert, the one that most often finds its way into my shopping basket is tiramisu.

Now after several suspicious appearance of the tiramisu, I decided that it was time to make my own version.

After doing some research into the dessert, it appears that there are two ways to make it: an easy version using store bought lady fingers, or a more time consuming version with home made cake.

I actually began by trying to make it with lady fingers and cream cheese (instead of marscapone cheese as the recipe calls for.  Unfortunately, that version was a failure.  The cream cheese was not thick enough and the cake essential drown in the cheese.

The second attempt was much better.  I was able to locate marscapone cheese in my local Trader Joes store and I made my own cake.  It is a dessert that probably takes practice to make in order to get a flavor that is satisfactory so I can see myself playing around with the recipe in the future.  I consider that better than salivating in Whole Foods.

The Cake
Ingredients

1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 eggs, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. In a small sauce pan bring milk to a boil and set aside.

2. Combine flour, baking powder and salt; set aside. 

3. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs until thick. Gradually add sugar, blending well. 

4. On low speed, mix in the milk, dry ingredients, and vanilla.

5.  Pour into a cake pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 25-30 minutes or until the cake springs back when lightly touched.

Tiramisu Filling
Ingredients

16 oz marscapone cheese
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

1 tablespoon rum
1/2 cup of freshly brewed espresso or strong-brewed coffee

Cocoa powder and shaved chocolate to top 

1. In a large mixing bowls, mix together the marscapone cheese, sugar, and vanilla and set aside.

2.  Combine the rum and coffee and set aside.

To assemble:

1. When the cake is cool enough to handle, use a bread knife and cut into 3 even layers.

2.  Using the same pan that the cake was baked in, put one layer of cake.  Take 1/3 of the coffee and pour it over the cake.  Top with 1/3 of the cheese mixture.  Repeat for the next two layers.

3.  Sprinkle the top layer with cocoa powder and shaved chocolate.

4.  Chill in the refrigerator for several hours before serving.


Enjoy!


~R