Just made my 3rd ever tiramisu for some guests tomorrow. Non-hifi guests for a change, it's Swee's GTG I should make her cook, but oh well ... !

Anyway, I found a recipe in one of my French cookbooks. I made the mascarpone custard but made a few variations of my own. I used Kahlua instead of rum. The custard was still missing a little something - so I added a pinch of salt and a few drops of sherry vinegar. This is a trick I learnt from making home made vanilla ice-cream. I could not believe how much this small addition lifted the custard - it went from a good custard to a mind-blowing custard! It is so much lighter, but much more complex.

For those who are interested, here is the recipe (serves 6):

Ingredients

For custard

8 egg yolks

250mL whipping cream

100mL sugar syrup (boil 100gm sugar in 100mL water)

50mL Kahlua

250mg Mascarpone

Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar syrup and Kahlua until frothy. Over a double boiler, whisk until you get a thick custard - ribbons should form when you lift your whisk. Remove and cool.

Whisk the Mascarpone with the cream until smooth. Fold into the egg yolk custard and mix well. Refrigerate.

For genoise

6 eggs + 5 egg yolks

250g sugar

250g flour

125g butter

Whisk the eggs and egg yolks together with sugar and butter until stiff peaks form. Fold in the flour and mix well. Allow to sit for 30 mins, then pour into a flat tin to a depth of 1cm. Bake in several batches at 170C for 20 mins. Remove from tin and cool on a wire rack to allow air to circulate on both sides of the genoise. The genoise should be very dry - if still moist, then return to the oven on the wire rack with low heat but CHECK to ensure that it does not burn!

Assembly

250mL espresso coffee

150mL Kahlua

Cocoa powder

Icing sugar

Oil some ramekins. Line with glad wrap, pushing down to ensure there are no bubbles. Cut the genoise into circles to fit the ramekins.

Spoon the mascarpone mixture into the ramekin to a shallow depth. Dip a genoise circle into the kahlua-coffee mixture and fit into the ramekin. Follow with another layer of mascarpone, then finish off with another soaked genoise. Press down. Refrigerate, covered, overnight.

Demold the tiramisu onto a plate and dust with cocoa powder. Finish with a decorative dusting of icing sugar.

I have already printed this, Loooooooooove The Misu Keith, thank you

V

good going Keith.now I'm hungry.

Do you know that the Italian translation for Tiramisu is something like Pick Me Up, I'll let any resident paysanne chime in to correct me if I'm really wrong.

good going Keith.now I'm hungry.

Do you know that the Italian translation for Tiramisu is something like Pick Me Up, I'll let any resident paysanne chime in to correct me if I'm really wrong.

Correctomundo Paesano

Some claim that it was first made during WW1 by the wives of serving soldiers and that the sugar and caffeine hit would be a pick me up when serving on the front lines