HCB: Tiramisu

Heavenly Cake Bakers submissions No. 41.

Once upon a time - the time when I was using my oven as storage for pots and pans - I had an idea of trying to make tiramisu. It being my favorite dessert at that time, I thought I should learn how to make it. So, armed with store-bought ladyfingers, a hand mixer, and the Williams Sonoma's Tiramisu recipe, I attempted to make this lovely italian dessert. Everything went on smoothly, I mixed the egg yolks over simmering water and mixed it with the mascarpone. Then I whipped the cream, which btw, took forever with a hand mixer. Then fold everything together. At that time I didn't know what folding means, so who knows what I did exactly. The WS recipe used whipped egg whites. So I had my egg whites in a bowl and used my hand mixer. Well, the instruction said to "whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form." I have read somewhere that stiff peaks means that I can invert the bowl and the egg whites would not fall at all.

Not really believing this is possible and not knowing how long it would take, after 5 minutes on medium speed I thought this is impossible, and whatever literature I read that said I can invert the bowl must be wrong. So I called it good and proceeded with the recipe. The tiramisu came together nicely and into the fridge it went.Well, by the next morning, the egg whites has dissolved and I got this nice puddle of liquid at the bottom of the tiramisu. We still ate some of the tiramisu as it taste okay though the texture was less than desirable.

That was 3 years ago. I no longer use my oven for storage (heck, I have dual oven now :)). And I have since then, made the WS' tiramisu recipe many many times. I have even made my own ladyfingers - which happened because I couldn't find it at the store one day. My friends has said that it's the best tiramisu they've ever had.

That being said, let's see how Rose's recipe compared.

First, the ladyfingers. It was pretty easy and came together nicely. And I have to say that I love piping these babies.

The next thing didn't come together nicely or easily. The egg yolks, marsala, and sugar mixture was whisked on top of simmering water for 10 minutes. It thickened, all right. But it didn't triple in volume. More like doubled. I was devastated. I read the recipe again and it looks like I did everything right. So oh well, let's try this again. 2nd batch of egg yolks, marsala, and sugar. Same results.

Moving on...

Whipped mascarpone then whipped in the cooled egg yolk mixture. Then whipped some cream. To compensate for the volume-less egg yolk, I doubled the whipped cream. Then, taking cue from the WS recipe, I whisked 3 egg whites until stiff peaks, then folded it into the egg yolk mascarpone cream mixture.

Then came the best part: putting the tiramisu together. It is so easy to do and it is the part that I look forward to the most. I used coffee instead of espresso as I'm not a big coffee drinker.

Tasting impressions:
I am in tiramisu heaven. With floating ladyfingers and mascarpone cream. It is very very good. I would say that Rose's recipe won over the Williams Sonoma one. I love that Rose used sweet marsala, more fitting, seeing that this is an Italian dessert and all. When I make this again (and yes there will be many many repeat), I hope to be able to make the egg yolks triple in volume :)). If  not, I know I can use more cream and some egg whites!