hard to believe but it has been a whole year since my first post for the daring bakers. last year for my first challenge, i made a flourless chocolate torte for valentines day. we had dinner with the girls and this year, we did it again.
BLOG-CHECKING LINES: 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.
over the years, i have made many batches of tiramisu. i have made my own mascarpone and my own ladyfingers too. for my first book, skyhigh, i even designed a wedding cake made of tiramisu and for that cake, i made the layers with sponge cakes. i have perfected the method for whipping zabaglione by using a hand held electric mixer which some would say is cheating. but when you work in a restaurant and have to make batches of tiramisu to feed several dozen guests at a time, you find a way to make it happen...
since i was serving this to my girls, i used coffee rather than espresso and i left out the rum altogether. i didn't have any in the house and i really didn't want to buy a bottle for just this recipe. i made the mascarpone using a 40% cream because it was the only one i could find that wasn't pastuerized and it was a bit firm but it worked out fine. one other thing i did-omit the lemon; i do not like the combination of coffee/espresso with lemon at all. would i made tiramisu again, you betcha! would i use this method again, no. the addition of pastry cream was not necessary and i didn't care for the consistency of the cream-way to soft. we ate, we enjoyed and we had a nice valentine's day dinner.
thanks ladies for a wonderful challenge!
