Zipping past through a very busy last week, between working late hours in office, friends visiting from US over the weekend and then rushing back home on Sunday afternoon, I somehow managed to take sometime for baking and feeding this constantly growing hunger of mine to write up this food journal. All I had to do was to timeline and prioritize the tasks. Tiramisu had been on my mind, ever since I made the luscious mascarpone at home. But I was waiting for some special moment, and what else it could be, while dear friends meeting up after almost two years. And the excitement was to meet their four months old lad. This was another reason to do this stuff well in advance, so that I could save on time to spend with the little one {did I mention that I love kids}.

I baked my ladyfingers and made Mascarpone two days in advance. And on Friday morning, before leaving for work, I whipped up the ingredients and layered them up in wide mouth water glasses and piled them up in refrigerator to set. I decided to make Tiramisu in verrines rather than a big round cake, all because the ladyfingers didn’t shape up like the ones you get from store {they were flatened a bit, as I didn’t have proper molds}. But trust me, they tasted nonetheless delicious. I was hesitating a bit in adding raw eggs to Mascarpone, so I used the store brought vanilla custard powder instead.

Lady Fingers/Savoiardi/Biscuit a la cuillere

Ingredients

3 eggs, separated
6 tbsp cornstarch
6 tbsp plain flour
80 gm superfine sugar

Instructions

1. Using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites with 3/4th of the sugar until firm peaks form.
2. In separate bowl, beat egg yolks with remaining sugar until it resembles a pale yellow light mix.
3. Mix the egg yolks to egg whites, very gently.
4. Sift over the flour and cornstarch and fold in gently with a wooden spatula, without losing the airiness of the mix.
5. Pour the mix in a piping bag with 2″ circular nozzle and pipe on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
6. Let stand for 2 minutes and bake for 15 minutes in a 180 degree C/350 degree F preheated oven.
7. Remove them from the oven and let them cool a little before placing them on a cooling rack.

Tiramisu

Ingredients

200 gm mascarpone, at room temperature {homemade recipe here}
1 1/2 cup cold milk
4 tsp vanilla custard powder
80 gm powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup prepared strong dark coffee, at room temperature
3 tbsp whipped cream
unsweetened cocoa powder for dusting
10-15 ladyfingers {recipe above}

Instructions

1. Mix the custard powder with milk and 1/3 of the sugar and simmer it for 2/3 minutes {follow package directions}, let cool and come to room temperature.
2. In a separate bowl, beat the mascarpone with remaining sugar, vanilla essence and  custard till it becomes light and airy, almost doubles up in volume.
3. Fold in whipped cream gently.
4. Take one ladyfinger, quickly dip it in coffee and cover the bottom of glass with it. Add more cookies to glass, if desired.
5. Spoon the mascarpone mix into the glass, dust over cocoa powder.
6. Repeat the layers of ladyfingers soaked in coffee, mascarpone.
7. Cover the glasses with cling wrap and let them sit in refrigerator for atleast 5 hours {preferably overnight}.
8. Dust with more cocoa powder while serving.