Tiramisu

How to make the best Tiramisu you've ever tasted!

My wife and I picked up this recipe at a cooking class at Deer Valley, UT when we lived in Park City. The class is really more of a night out to dinner with lots of wine (although my pregnant wife couldn't partake) plus fun cooking instruction as a bonus. The pastry chef told us she'd been working on this recipe for years and now feels it is just right.

I tasted a lot of Tiramisu while I lived in New York, but this was definitely the best I've ever had. This recipe isn't difficult except for the whisking to make the zabaglione.

The first time we made it, we prepared the Zabaglione by whisking over a bowl of hot water and it took forever. The second time we put the mixing bowl in a pan of water we kept hot on the stove and it went a lot faster. You could also use a double boiler.

This method of heating the ingredients in a double boiler is called bain-marie. Not only will it speed up the cooking process, it should also help reduce any issues with salmonella. You will be whisking everything over the simmering water just below the boiling point.

• 8 egg yolks
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup dark rum
• 1/2 cup cold water
• splash of Amaretto
• 2 1/2 lbs. mascarpone
• 36 ladyfingers
• 2 cups coffee reduction or espresso
• splash Kahlua
• chocolate shavings (optional)

Not a lot of prep for this recipe. It's more of a let's get started. You will have to make the coffee reduction or espresso.

1. Whisk egg yokes, rum, Amaretto, sugar, and water over a hot water bath (use a double boiler if you have one) until thick and ribbony. This mixture when finished is called zabaglione.

2. Cool the zabaglione mixture over ice bath.

3.Whisk cooled zabaglione and mascarpone cheese together until well incorporated and smooth. DO NOT overmix or the mascarpone will break and become granular.

4. To prepare coffee reduction, simmer 4 cups of coffee until reduced by half. Cool and add Kahlua.

5. Prepare a 10 inch springform pan by lining the bottom and sides with parchment paper. If you don't have a springform like me, you might try a 10 inch casserole dish. Sometimes we have to be creative.

6. Place a layer of ladyfingers, flat side down, on the bottom of the pan, leaving a 1 inch gap between the sides and the ladyfingers. The 1 inch gap is so you can add more ladyfingers in an upright position in step 9.s

7. Using a pastry brush, soak the ladyfingers with the cooled coffee reduction.

8. Fill a pastry bag (you can buy disposable bags at most housewares shops) with the mascarpone mixture and pipe a rope of cream to fill the gap around the ladyfingers. Also pipe cream across ladyfingers.

9. Place ladyfingers, in upright position, sugar side out, against the pan. Be sure to push them into the cream and fit them tightly against on another.

10. Begin the next layer by placing ladyfingers on the cream layer. You may cut them to create a perfect fit. Brush them with the coffee reduction.

11. Pipe a layer of cream on top of ladyfingers and smooth with a spatula.

12. Allow to chill overnight.

13. To unmold, simply undo springform and remove pager collar. Top with chocolate shavings and serve. If you didn't use a springboard, you can spoon serve from your pan. Not as pretty, but just as tasty.

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