24 Aug 14 (Sun) - Tiramisu

Tiramisu has always been my favourite dessert. After I managed to find ladyfingers biscuits in Candy Empire in Vivo City, I decided to buy the mascarpone cheese and the rum essence that I saw in NTUC Finest in 100 AM. 

Searched the Internet for recipes and found three which I then modified to produce this final recipe which I used today. The recipe is able to make about 10 glasses. The end product was not very pretty but fortunately, the taste was good. Out of curiosity, I did some calculations of the cost involved. The mascarpone cheese cost $7, whipping cream cost $3.40, rum essence cost $5.25, Nescafe classic instant coffee cost $2.95 and ladyfingers biscuits cost $3. The total cost of the main ingredients is about $13.40 and if I add on the cost of other ingredients, the total cost should be roughly about $18. So which means the cost price of one glass of tiramisu is about $1.80 compared to the usual $6-8 per serving if you buy from cake shops. 

Ingredients:

20 pcs ladyfingers biscuits

250g mascarpone cheese

200ml whipping cream

200ml strong coffee

2 tbsp rum essence

200g white sugar

3 egg yolks

some cocoa powder

1 square semi-dark chocolate (shaved)

Method:

1.  Combine egg yolks and sugar in a mixing bowl

2.  Bring a pot of water to boil and then lower the heat

3.  Place the mixing bowl with sugar and egg mixture in the pot of hot water and stir for 10 mins

4.  Remove the mixture from heat, let it cool then whip the mixture till thick

5.  Add cheese to the mixture and blend well

6.  Whip the whipping cream till stiff peak form

7.  Fold the cream into the egg mixture and set aside

8.  Dip ladyfingers biscuits one at a time quickly in the coffee and arrange in serving glasses

9.  Spoon some cream-egg mixture over the biscuits

10.  Repeat step 8 & 9 till the biscuits finish and with top layer ending with the cream-egg mixture

11. Dust the top layer with some cocoa powder using a fine sieve and sprinkle some shaved chocolate

12. Chill for 8 hrs before serving

---------------- Edited on 25 August 2014 ----------------

Packed a box of tiramisu to office for my group of food buddies to try and it received many positive reviews. Most of them like the strong rum flavour which doesn't come with high alcohol content. A couple of them said that one improvement can be to use espresso to soak the ladyfingers biscuits so that the bitterness from the espresso can compliment the sweet taste of the cream and rum.