tiramisu (for the Daring Bakers)

I think my first Daring Bakers challenge has been a success. 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. Recipes for all of the parts are available from Aparna.


I made the whole dessert from scratch, which led to some scary moments in the kitchen. Making the mascarpone cheese was the first part I attempted and although it looks more like butter, it turned out tasty in the end.


Making the lady finger biscuits was my next challenge. They are beautiful, puffy little things. I wish I had made twice as many so I could use some for another dessert, or just served plain with coffee.


I made the pastry cream, whipped cream, and zabaglione (a sweet paste made with port) and mixed them with the mascarpone. Then the whole tiramisu is assembled with layers of lady fingers (dipped in sweet espresso) and layers of the cream mixture.


Dusted with unsweetened cocoa to contrast with the cream mixture, it is a very sweet dessert with layers of spongy biscuit and smooth, cold cream.