Holiday Post 5: Tiramisu

Please see Holiday Post 1 for more further details about this holiday series.

My aunt knew the instant I made the offer what she wanted: tiramisu. I looked up the recipe and figured, easy enough. (I don't drink coffee...)

Another little anecdote about the ingredients. When I got into the cab to come home with the ingredients and get started baking all these treasures, I texted my husband saying "if I don't have everything, I will cry" (he's so wonderful that he wrote back "if you cry, I will give you a present" but anyway...). I start making the tiramisu (while making other stuff of course) and realize that I not only do not have espresso, I don't have an espresso maker and I don't have a way back to the store. So I paid a cab to take my husband to the closest Starbucks, wait outside and take him back. The recipe calls for 1 and 1/2 cups of espresso. I filled a cup with that much water, showed it to my husband and sent him to Starbucks to acquire that much espresso. The clerk thought he was insane, filled his order, explained that they only sell espresso by the shot and that that much would normally be $18 but as a kind holiday gesture only charged him $12. So with the cab, that was a $33 cup of espresso. Moving on, I followed this recipe:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/tiramisu-recipe/index.html

I began with these quality ingredients:


I beat the egg yolks, sugar, cheese and a bit of the espresso. I took photos before and after the espresso (which gave it a tiny brown tint) but with the overblown photos you can't really tell.


I then set up my ladyfinger soaking assembly:


I dropped two of the cookies in the sink as I was setting up the assembly. Without those two, I had exactly enough cookies to cover the bottom layer of the pan.

I like this picture because you can see the cookies literally burgeoning with the rum/espresso mixture.

I then spread the cheese mixture atop the cookies:

(another ridiculously awful photo!)

It was at this point that I realized the recipe called for another layer of cookies and I had no more. So I popped it in the fridge as is.

The next morning I cut it in half in the pan and piled one half on top of the other. It was much easier that I thought it was going to be.

I then cut that section into four pieces, loaded them into Tupperware for transporting and sprinkled the tops with shaved bittersweet chocolate.



She loved it; she ate most of it that very night and refused to share with anyone. Now that IS a compliment.

And this concludes my 2011 holiday series. I hope you enjoyed it!