TIRAMISU

TIRAMISU

#SIAintheKitchen

There was was a point in my life where I was dating someone who’d always surprise me with tiramisu. He’d always buy me the classic version, or sometimes the limoncello version when it was available, and I totally fell in love with the traditional Italian dessert! Before that, I hadn’t really tried it before or had some horrible versions. What I loved about it was how light it was, that it wasn’t overly sweet, and the combination of flavour was truly indulgent.

When I visited Rome last month, I have to admit that tiramisu wasn’t high on my list. If I have a choice between sweet or savoury, I’d always go for savoury. And after having the best gelato in the world, who needed tiramisu!? But when in Rome…I might as well have tried the tiramisu.

There is a large dessert chain in Rome called Pompi which sells small batches of gelato and an equal amount of tiramisu. I kept seeing people with these little boxes of personal-sized tiramisu (I mean, they were still large!) that I thought I would give it a try. They had so many flavours there - mixed berry, hazelnut, mocha, almond, limoncello…I was in tiramisu heaven! Of course, to be a good judge of any food, you’d have to try the original, which I did.

It was so good. Light and airy, delightfully soft pieces of lady fingers that weren’t over-soaked and my favourite part - the whipped marscarpone, was delicious. Taking a quick look at the ingredients in tiramisu seemed to me that making this at home would be easy as pie - and it was.

From start to finish, active cook speaking, this can take you 10 minutes. The only part that is time consuming about making tiramisu is letting the coffee cool down and to let the finished product chill and set for 4 hours or more. Luckily, this product has staying power and can be stored in the fridge for up for 4 days (that is, if you still have some leftover!). But for ease and convenience, I would definitely make this again in a heartbeat.

TIRAMISU - serves 4 (adapted from Bigger Bolder Baking)

• 1 cup whipping cream

• 1 cup marscarpone cheese

• 1/3 cup granulated sugar

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 2 cups instant coffee, cooled

• 1 (150g) pkg Milano Giant Lady Fingers

• Dutch-processed cocoa powder, for dusting

1. Whisk the whipping cream together until stiff peaks form with a whisk or stand mixer.

2. Add in the marscarpone cheese, vanilla extract and sugar and whip until well-incorporated.

3. Dip each lady finger into the coffee and place in 6 x 6 deep container. Do this unti you have one complete layer, about 4 lady fingers.

4. Apply some of the whipped cream mixture until first layer is covered. Repeat until the lady fingers are finished and finish with whipped cream as a layer.

5. Dust the cocoa powder on top with a fine sieve and chill in the fridge for atelast 4 hours or overnight. Can keep up to four days in the fridge.