Eid Special: My all time favorite dessert: TIRAMISU !!!

Tiramisu means  "pick me up" or "lift me up". It is a popular coffee - flavored Italian dessert, made of ladyfingers biscuits (origin:Italy) dipped in coffee, layered with a whipped mixture of eggs, sugar and mascarpone cheese, finally flavored with cocoa. Now the issue in question is these ingredients are quite delicate and can not be readily found in every grocery store. I went to three known superstores but couldn't find ladyfinger cookies so I decided to substitute them with wafers. For instance, I made my own mascarpone cheese using butter, cream cheese and heavy whipping cream milk. Also, an elder sister of mine raised the question of halal:haram issue that we often face in States while getting the right ingredients. Thereby, I wanted to make tiramisu using ingredients that are readily available (the best substitutes of ladyfinger cookies and mascarpone cheese) and trust me, making tiramisu is not as difficult as you might think! 

Tiramisu

Ingredients:

1. Dark chocolate wafers - 4 packets

2. Egg Yolks-6

3. Vanilla essence- 2 drops

4. Whipped cream topping-1 package **(if you want to make it at home, whisk 1 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream using a hand mixer for 10-15 minutes)

5. Expresso instant coffee mix -1 tea spoon

6. Warm water- 1 cup

7. Unsweetened cocoa powder- 1 cup

8. Sugar- 1 cup **(if it's powdered sugar, it's easy to incorporate)

For mascarpone cheese:
1. Butter- 2 sticks (melted)

2. Heavy whipping cream- 1/4 cup (*you can thicken 2-3 cups of milk to get the right texture of heavy whipping cream) 

3. Cream cheese - 1 package (8 ounces) 

Process: 

1. For making the mascarpone cheese, in a bowl, mix together butter, heavy whipping cream and cream cheese. It can be used and stored for later use.

2. Then, take boiling water in a cup and mix the expresso instant coffee mix and rest it aside for later use. 

3. Next, set a double boiler (if it's of round shape, it will be good) on a pan of boiling water. Add the egg yolks, essence and sugar. Keep whisking the mixture for about 10-12 minutes to cook the yolks. In the halfway, add 2 tbsps of milk to smooth the mixture. Let this cool completely at room temperature.
                                         

3.  Now, you can make the heavy whipping cream at home but I got myself a readymade whipped topping to save some time. If you want to make it at home, just take 1 1/2 cup of whipping cream and whisk it for 10-15 minutes until it forms soft peaks. Keep it aside.

**images of egg yolk mixture and the mascarpone cheese-whipped cream mixture.

4. Now in the egg yolk mixture, add the mascarpone cheese (or the substitute mentioned in the top section) and fold with a soft hand. Then add the whipped cream (point no.3) and make sure you do not beat this mixture but fold with a spatula in a really soft hand. You might find it tiring at times, but it will come together slowly. Just have a little patience with it! ;)

5. Finally. it's the fun time and that's the awesome part of making tiramisu. The Assembling Part! My hubby also got interested and helped me with assembling, just to note he is not that much into cooking!! Now, Let's dip the wafers in the expresso coffee mixture and place it in the serving bowl. 

                       

6. Take spoonfuls of mascarpone-egg yolk mixture and smoothly spread it over the coffee dipped wafers. Repeat the layer of soaked wafers and then again pour the final layer of mascarpone-egg yolk mixture.  So, in short, it's a wafer-cream-wafer-cream texture. You can add some crushed wafers instead of full size ones in the second layer of wafers (like I did) and shredded almonds too to add your own little touch. 

7. For the final stage, take some tablespoon of cocoa powder and dust a little bit of it through a colander just before serving. Refrigerate the tiramisu for 8 hours or more. For best use, make it a day before you need to serve it. The more it sets, the more it gets better, taste and texture wise.

Note: Many says, tiramisu needs wine to get that oozy flavor but it is neccessarily not true. It can be made without alcohol so now there is no such ingredients in tiramisu that we can not consume as muslims. 

Serves: 12-14 people.

Enjoy the restaurant quality Tiramisu at home with your loved ones. Make it for a special occasion because this dessert does reflect elegance and romance, haha!