Daring Bakers Challenge: Tiramisu

I'm a few days late getting my Daring Bakers Challenge posted because, of course, I procrastinated and finally got it put together on the very LAST day of February. This challenge, in my opinion, was not difficult but had many steps on the way to the final product. The challenge was to make homemade mascarpone cheese, ladyfinger biscuits, zabaglione, and pastry cream. Once assembled with a bit of whipped cream, espresso, and cocoa powder all these element became Tiramisu.

The first thing I tackled was the mascarpone cheese. Having made ricotta, I was a bit over-confident in my ability to make this. All I had to do was heat cream to 190 degrees, add a bit of lemon juice, heat a little more, cool, and strain. BUT, even though I followed the directions, the mixture didn't thicken like I expected. I strained it but almost all of it just ran through into my bowl. Sooooo, I put it in the refrigerator just like that. The next day I took it out and restrained it. Tah-dah! Mascarpone cheese! It had thickened up and the watery whey came away. It was very creamy, smooth, and yummy.

Then I made the lady finger biscuits, or savoiardi. These, too, were really simple. Just eggs, sugar, and flour. They really didn't taste like much but I knew they would hold a lot of flavor when dipped into espresso.

Finally I whipped up the zabaglione which is a custard made of egg, Marsala wine, sugar, and lemon rind. And a pastry cream, also a custard made from egg, milk, sugar, vanilla, and lemon rind.

Once everything was chilled properly, I whipped up a cup of cream with some sugar and folded this into the pastry cream, zabaglione, and mascarpone to make a delightful creamy mixture. I dipped my savoiardi into sweetened espresso and layered them with the cream. This was chilled for about 7 hours. After a sprinkling of cocoa powder I sliced into it and served. The verdict? Pretty good. Three of us sampled it and all agree it was tasty. I personally didn't care for the Marsala wine flavor and might make the zabaglione with coffee instead of wine were I to make this again. Or, honestly, I might just stop in at Olive Garden and order their version.

To find the recipes, learn about the hosts of this month's challenge, or to become a Daring Baker yourself go to the Daring Bakers website.