Barefoot Contessa’s Tiramisu

If the food gods could create the most perfect dessert, it would combine my three favorite ingredients: espresso, chocolate and dark rum. Surprisingly, Tiramisu is very easy to make, especially since it sounds so fancy and costs $8.95 at an Italian restaurant. If you don’t have an espresso maker, you can just brew super-strong coffee or even use instant espresso granules in a pinch. You can make Tiramisu in a large pan, or as I prefer, in cute little individual dessert cups. These were made in ice cream bowls I found on sale at Marshalls.

The recipe is adapted from Barefoot Contessa, however I have made some minor changes to the recipe. The biggest change that I made was the size of the pan. Ina Garten’s recipe calls for a 9×12 pan. However, I made the recipe 3 times using that sized pan, and each time I ran out of the marscapone creme and the Espresso Syrup for dipping. Its very frustrating when you’ve run out of an ingredient – especially for this dessert because once you’ve laid the soaked ladyfingers in the pan, you can’t really move them or they fall apart. I’ve been very successful using an 8.5 x 8.5 x 2.5 Pyrex square pan or my individual dessert cups pictured above which hold about 1.5 cup capacity.

I also found that the original recipe left me with runny marscapone creme – I’ve modified the technique to include whisking the marscapone to lighten and fluff just a bit. If you don’t soften the marscapone cheese to room temp before mixing it in, your creme mixture will be lumpy. If you don’t cool your espresso before adding to the egg yolk/sugar, the creme mixture becomes too runny.

In case you do run out of the Marscapone creme before you finish assembly – you can just spread the creme as evenly as you can and then top with whipped creme to cover. I often use whipped creme to add more height to the dessert. Sometimes I sneak a little more dark rum into the whipped creme too!

Barefoot Contessa’s Tiramisu

Adapted from Barefoot Contessa – Family Style

(serves 6-8)

6 extra large egg yolks, at room temperature (or 7 large egg yolks)
1/4 cup sugar

Marscapone Creme
1/4 cup dark rum
1/4 cup espresso or strong coffee – cooled to room temperature
16 oz marscapone cheese – softened to room temperature

Espresso Syrup for dipping
1/3 cup dark rum
1 1/2 cups espresso or strong coffee – cooled to room temperature
30-40 Italian lady fingers
Dark chocolate bar, shaved with vegetable peeler

8.5 x 8.5 x 2.5 pan or 6 individual dessert cups (my dessert cups pictured above hold 1.5 cup capacity). If you have a slightly larger or smaller pan, thats ok too.

1. Spoon out the marscapone into a bowl – with fork or whisk, whisk the marscapone just a bit to soften and make it easier to mix in later. In your mixer with whisk attachment,whisk yolks and sugar on high for 5 minutes. It should be creamy and light yellow. Lower speed to medium. Add the cooled espresso, rum and marscapone.

2. In a bowl, mix all of the ingredients of the Espresso Syrup together. Set up your assembly line – from left to right:

Ladyfingers – Espresso Syrup – Pan/Indiv Cups – Marscapone Creme

Quickly dip the ladyfinger in the Espresso Syrup – a 2-second dip is all that you need. If you dip too long, too much of the syrup gets absorbed and the ladyfinger will get too soggy to lift out of the bowl. The ladyfinger should still be a little hard – don’t worry, they will all soften up in the refrigerator. Line the dipped ladyfingers on the bottom of the pan/cups). Follow this with another layer of dipped ladyfingers. Finish with remaining Marscapone Cream. Sprinkle chocolate shavings on top. Cover and refrigerate overnight.