DB Feb 2010 Challenge - Tiramisu

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.

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Tiramisu has been one of those things I've always wanted to trying making but never got around to. So I was pretty excited about this one, and the kids were too since they love coffee. (What's with kids and coffee, anyway?)

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I wasn't quite sure what goes into tiramisu for I've never actually eaten one before. It just sounded good, being coffee flavor and all. So for this challenge there were quite a few little steps, all pretty easy, just overwhelming when you see pages and pages in the recipe! First off, it was homemade mascarpone cheese. Not quite sure what this is supposed to be like, but kinda turned out like butter in texture. I had to put it in sunlight a little to soften it before proceeding with the mixing of the other fillings. And then there was the zabaglione (another, "what is that?") flavored with marsala wine. Didn't have any so subbed port wine. This turned out to be very strong in flavor and crossed my fingers that it'll mellow out. Part three was the pastry cream. Oh, this was sooo good I think I'll use this as a cream puff filling. And last, but not least, but the whipped cream. So... the mascarpone cheese, zabaglione, pastry cream, and whipped cream were all folded together and layered in between espresso dipped ladyfingers, which of course, we had to make from scratch. The lady fingers by themselves kinda tasted eggy, this was something else I've never had before so I wasn't sure if this was how it was supposed to be, but proceeded with the recipe nonetheless.

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I decided to assemble these in cups, having read that they don't hold their own unless supported by more ladyfingers or something. This gave us nice individual portions. I was pleasantly surprised that the strong port wine flavor toned down when eated together with the espresso flavored ladyfingers. Just a little too much cream for me to finish it all in one sitting. Which is just fine because that means I can have some tomorrow as well. ^_^