A Daring Attempt to Make Tiramisu!

a perfect slice of tiramisu

homemade ladyfingers!

Another month and another Daring Baker’s Challenge.

You might remember last month’s challenge, when I made gluten free graham crackers and nainamo bars.

This month was more in my wheelhouse. Tiramisu. From scratch. Oh, I’ve made tiramisu a few times. Traditional with espresso and mascarpone. Not so traditional with strawberries and cointreau. But I’ve always purchased the ladyfingers and the mascarpone. This time, these clever bloggers were challenging me to make my own.

l to r: mascarpone, zabayon w/walnut wine, whipped cream, pastry cream, espresso, ladyfingers

And all this happened during the Week of Eating In, so cooking anyway, and could just divvy up the time for all the different steps involved in tiramisu over the course of a few days. During the week, we were hosting a party for 12, so I thought the heavens had aligned. I wouldn’t have to eat an entire tiramisu by myself. (Dennis likes tiramisu, but doesn’t LOVE it, and has far more self-control than I do.)

I recommend this dessert for those of you who are adventurous. It’s not hard, it’s just a matter of planning. A little time (about an hour) each day for three days.

The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.

Here's the way I planned my approach.

Tuesday: Mascarpone Cheese – Baking Obsession for Homemade Mascarpone Cheese

Wednesday: Savoiardi/ Ladyfinger Biscuits – Recipe from Cordon Bleu At Home,
And pastry cream and zabayon from the tiramisu recipe
Thursday: Tiramisu – Carminantonio's Tiramisu from The Washington Post

Friday: serve

(not as pretty as I had hoped, but.... tastes amazing)

I made the mascarpone with the freshest most delicious cream,and the pastry cream and zabayon with beautiful farm fresh eggs
and milk that had just arrived at the market, in the classic glass bottle.
I substituted my homemade walnut wine for the Marsala, adding a spicy Christmas-y kind of undertone to the zabayon.
I brewed decaf espresso. No kidding. I gave up caffiene 10 years ago, and one piece of tiramisu could make me climb the walls if it was fully-caffienated.
I loved making the ladyfingers. Simple and satisfying. Felt like a good skill to have. They’re made from the most basic baking ingredients with no more than a sieve, a bowl, a big rubber spatula for folding, and an electric mixer. While the recipe suggested ladyfingers 5" long and 3/4" wide, I found a 3" x 1" ladyfinger was prettier and more useful.

I substituted homemade blood orange liqueur whenever the recipes called for vanilla extract.

And I warmed 1/3 c homemade raspberry jam into which I stirred 3 Tbls. orange liqueur, cooled, then poured over the bottom layer of ladyfingers, making this tiramisu a distant cousin to the trifle I made over Christmas.

I formed the tiramisu using a 10" springform (no bottom pan) right on the platter on which I wanted to serve. I selected perfect small ladyfingers to make the outside layer.

I gave the finished tiramisu a full 24 hours to soak, macerate and develop.

So worth it. So worth it.
At the very least, make the mascarpone. It’s ridiculously easy, and you can stir the leftover into your grits the next day. Or stuff dates. Or do anything you would do with creme fraiche. Use very fresh cream.

By the way, the party was cancelled as there were storms, high winds, and the fear of more snow. I’m so sorry to have missed the chance to chat up the farmers and other members of the CSA, and hope we can reboot in about a month.

So, I have a huge tiramisu. It’s more than delicious, it tastes like the labor of love it is. If you are in the neighborhood, give me a call and come have a piece of tiramisu, and please please save me from eating the whole thing.

Here are some additional photos. The recipes are all linked.

the most demanding part of making mascarpone is waiting for 190• whipping egg whites for ladyfingers

sift flour over the eggwhites & yolks, folded together

gently fold until just combined
crackly topped ladyfingers

How Daring Am I? Nanaimo Bars

When January 1st rolled around, I decided I would join the Daring Bakers for 2010. The monthly recipe challenges seemed like a great idea. I'd get to try new recipes. Writing about the challenges would help feed the hungry blog monster. And I love the idea of cooking essentially the same thing at the sametime as a whole bunch of other cooks all around the world, and then seeing how each cook works their own personal magic.

Well, the first challenge for Daring Bakers nearly did me in. Nanaimo Bars.

The January Daring Bakers' Challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten Free Graham wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources on which she based her recipe are found here.

Graham Wafers -- 101 Cookbooks -- which Lauren adapted to be gluten free.

The adapted recipe is at Nanaimo Bars - City of Nanaimo.

To be frank, there was little that appealed to me about these layered bars. The bottom layer was essentially graham cracker crumb. And I had to make the graham crackers. Gluten free, too!

Here's something I haven't shared with many people. Graham crackers give me the WORST stomach aches. So, I never ever make anything with a graham cracker. I always substitute amaretto cookies. Or ginger snaps. But that Gluten Free twist? This challenge might clear up the graham question that has plagued me since I was a child.

So, I spent some time reading about celiac disease and gluten free cooking on Lauren's excellent blog, and decided to roll up my sleeves.

Off I went to the Thai grocer for glutinous rice flour and tapioca flour. Then to the Co-op for Sorgham flour. The rest of the ingredients I had in the pantry.

I intended to make half a recipe of the graham crackers. While the instructions said the graham crackers would last for two weeks, I wasn't that into the whole idea. (Seriously bad tummy problems.)

But the danged computer still doesn't work in the kitchen, so I was running back and forth to the front of the house, where the network connection is strong, reading instructions and back to the kitchen to cook. Really, it was just comical. Needless to say, I managed to get confused and added full amounts of half the ingredients, so I remedied the situation, finished the dough, and had a full recipe.

This would turn out to be a good thing.

I chilled the dough which was VERY soft, cut out the crackers and chilled them again, then made those cute little poked holes all over the cracker so it would look like the pictures. Into the oven - 12 minutes later this is what I had.

Disaster.

I shortened the time to ten minutes for the next two trays. Not much better. I stacked them up cleverly and took a photo. Then I threw them all into the food processor and blasted it into crumbs.

I have to admit. Those crumbs smelled divine. Brown sugary. Buttery.

The next day, I finished off the challenge. The original recipe called for a custard layer made with something called custard powder. I had no idea where to find that, so I considered a very stiff creme anglaise. Of course, this was two days before the posting date... of course I should have started this weeks ago, but I've always been a procrastinator.

Then I remembered my lemon curd stash. The freezer has four containers of Meyer lemon curd from one of the times I was unable to walk away from Meyer lemons.

Now, we're talking.

My little mind started whirring. Thinking of one of my favorite holiday cookies, I mentally combined pistachio, lemon, ginger and chocolate, and put a Mrs. Wheelbarrow spin on the Nanaimo bar.

Line a 8x8 baking pan with parchment paper.

For the base layer:
1-1/2 c graham cracker crumbs
1 stick butter, melted
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c chopped roasted, salted pistachio nuts (not red)
1/2 c crystallized ginger

Stir ingredients together and press firmly into the bottom of the baking pan.
Chill for 1 hour.

For the middle layer
1 c Meyer lemon curd (here's a link to Alton Brown's curd recipe)

Spread across the top of the base layer and chill for an hour.

For the top layer

Melt together 4 oz semi sweet chocolate & 2 oz unsalted butter. Stir well and cool for a few minutes so it's not too hot when you pour it on top of the lemon curd.

Now, chill this for at least 8 hours, overnight, if possible. Lift it out by the paper edges and

Cut with a knife that you clean after every cut.

These are sweet, gingery and tart with fresh lemon - really delicious. Cutting them was a challenge. Here's the prettiest plate I could manage. I needed one more day to chill them more, and the photo would do them justice.


Thank you to the Daring Bakers for opening my eyes to gluten free ingredients and to Lauren to introducing me to this tasty Nanaimo bar. And no tummy problems at all. I'm sold.