Desserts

When this month's Daring Bakers challenge was announced I have to admit I wasn't thrilled. I'm probably the only person in the world that doesn't like tiramisù. But after reading the recipe I started getting more and more interested in making it and was hoping that maybe this was the tiramisù recipe, the one that I would actually appreciate. Making all the different components for this dessert was rather time consuming but was fun doing: making your own mascarpone, making zabaglione, making pastry cream and making lady fingers.
I think I cooked the cream and lemon mixture for the mascarpone a little too long as it turned out pretty firm. Even after whisking it wasn't very smooth. I was waiting for the mixture to curdle/thicken but this didn't happen that much. So I kept it above simmering water a long time but it never really happened. The mixture barely released whey after draining but it still was very firm. Next time I would just buy mascarpone ;)
Making the zabaglione and pastry cream was straight forward and didn't cause any problems. I did check that the zabaglione reached the right temperature for the egg yolks to be cooked enough to be safe (better safe than sorry).
I didn't realise that the amount of mascarpone used in this recipe was very little when I decided to not use the whipped cream but to replace it by whipping up the left over whites (don't like left over eggs that much). I thought this would make it less heavy (something I don't like in 'regular' tiramisù) but with the small amount of mascarpone, this wasn't necessary at all. Again I cooked the egg whites over simmering water just enough to make them safe before whipping them.
My lady fingers were only dipped up till the flat part because I don't really like the booziness that much but after tasting I should have dipped them completely.
Because I used whipped egg whites instead of the cream the mixture didn't set as much as it should. The tiramisù in the picture was frozen, that way I could cut it neatly. I really, really loved the taste of this tiramisù but that's probably because it doesn't resemble the one's I ate before ;) What I loved so much was the addition of lemon zest and the fact that it wasn't so incredibily fat and boozy. I do want to try making this again but will be using the required whipped cream. And to make it less time-consuming I'd use ready-made lady fingers (which are very good in Austria) and ready-made mascarpone.
All in all a wonderful challenge, maybe from now on I'll actually love tiramisù...but only if I make it myself ;)

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.