Recipe: Tiramisu

One of the things I make a lot of (usually on demand) but don't eat is tiramisu. The recipe I have I got from Alvin of Caffe Cafe at Plaza Singapura (when it was still there in 1996), which was probably the first or one of the first cafes in Singapore to serve tiramisu the way they do in Italy - pudding style, not as cake, not as ice-cream.

The original recipe uses Amaretto Disaronno, an Italian almond liqueur, but you may replace with rum, brandy or kahlua. Many, I find, prefer the rum version of the dessert, and the more rum the merrier, thank you very much. The difference in the versions go a bit like this:

Rum - Good with the ladies, especially those with a sweet tooth
Brandy - Good for the alcoholics, but may go overboard on the taste of alcohol
Kahlua - If you want to emphasize the taste of coffee in the tiramisu
Amaretto - The original. Potentially lethal as the alcoholic taste of the liqueur is often masked by the almond flavour in the cream. I've known of cases where people take huge mouthfuls, complain there's "no alcohol" in the tiramisu, and promptly fall over 5 minutes later with a big grin on their faces.

Quick tip: Make in a good mood and in small quantities (nothing over serves of 1000g of cheese at a go, unless you like discovering new muscles when you fold in cheese) Tiramisu has the interesting nickname of "pick me up" in Italy, and a taste of this sinful dessert quickly tells you why.

(Serves 4-5)

Ingredients:

500g mascarpone cheese
5 eggs
5 tablespoons castor sugar
7 tablespoons amaretto liqueur
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
5 shots espresso (cooled)
375g pack of lady's fingers sponge biscuits
Cocoa powder, for dusting

Method:

1. Prepare the espresso first. Make 5 shots of espresso and leave to cool.
2. When cooled, add 2 tablespoons of amaretto liqueur to the coffee and stir in.
3. Separate egg yolks for 5 eggs. Retain the egg yolks and discard egg whites (or leave it for your hair).
4. Combine (in this order) sugar, vanilla essence and the rest of the amaretto with the eggs. Whisk until mixture is light and fluffy.
5. Fold in 500g of mascarpone cheese, taking care to ensure that the egg-cheese mixture is smooth and there are no "bubbles" or "lumps" in the mixture. The smooth consistency of the mixture is what distinguishes a good tiramisu from a bad one.
6. Soak lady's fingers biscuits with cold espresso mixture and line the base of a pudding/cake dish with the soaked lady's fingers biscuits.
7. Top with the egg-cheese mixture until the biscuits are fully covered.
8. Repeat the process with another layer of lady's fingers biscuits and cheese mixture.
9. Leave to set in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours, or overnight.
10. To serve, dust with a layer of cocoa powder and serve chilled immediately.

I make this dessert as a gift during Christmas and Valentine's Day and it's usually a big hit with friends and family, although I don't eat too much of it myself. Fondest memories of the tiramisu was an army of classmates from college who marched towards me as I emerged from the kitchen, armed with spoons. That particular tiramisu was unfortunate and lasted less than 15 minutes in the face of a ravenous horde.