Tiramisu

I haven’t made this dessert in a year, maybe two (I don’t remember exactly), but the sure thing is that the post I wrote back then, with small, bad photos, is gone, meaning it’s lost somewhere in the blog, during one of the frequent server changes that happened last year. Well, it exists, but it’s not readable. It doesn’t matter, life has offered me the opportunity to make it again. Not for me (I admit, I kept a small piece at home), but for Adina and Mihai (especially for Mihai, which is why I named their piece Tiramike), two friends you’ve seen on the blog last summer.
Those who sell ladyfingers are tricky: on the pack of 400 grams they print a recipe that requires 500 grams of ladyfingers. They don’t sell 100 gram packs, which can determine you to buy another 400 gram pack. It’s not very nice of them, especially since the quantity of ladyfingers is not that important and it’s calculated according to the volume of the container in which you’re building the cake.

Those who sell mascarpone also have their issues, but at least they’re selling cheese (it’s cheese, I don’t ever want to her it’s sour cream) in 250 or 300 gram packs (500 grams of mascarpone covers the cream for a decent tiramisu from all viewpoints) and it’s not bad to have some more cream. And another thing: there is no such thing as a tiramisu without mascarpone. Replacing it with whipped cream or who knows what other cream produces another final result, which we can’t call tiramisu without offending the real cake bearing this name.

Three eggs (four, if they’re smaller), separated. Meaning the egg whites in one place and the egg yolk in another. Over the yolks, three tablespoons of sugar. Whisk them until you obtain a whitish cream, with a foamy aspect (it can also be yellow, depending on the yolk).

The egg whites are whipped separately, with a pinch of salt.

When the foam start forming peaks, add the sugar. Three tablespoons. Whip further on until…

…you can hold the container upside down without the foam to fall.

Combine the egg whites foam with the mascarpone and yolk cream. A bit of attention doesn’t hurt, if you want a slightly fluffy result you don’t have to be brutal when mixing, but rather gentle :)

You can add to the cream a fingertip of amaretto or good quality brandy, perhaps even the seeds from a vanilla pod. In the syrup you use to soak the ladyfingers (one part coffee, the other part water), you can put a bit of brandy and a tablespoon of sugar. The syrup has to be cold, otherwise the ladyfingers will absorb too much of it, which isn’t recommended because in the end, when you put cake on a plate, the ladyfingers should have the texture of a fluffy cake, not moist and soaked in syrup.

Assembling this cake is a simple process: on the bottom of a tall container, add a thin layer of cream, over it a layer of ladyfingers, over them a thick layer of cream and then another layer of ladyfingers, followed by another thick layer of cream (if you have room, it’s not a mistake to have three layers of ladyfingers, with the mention that it will be more difficult to remove from the container.

Over the last layer of cream, add a generous layer (one-two millimeters) of cocoa powder.

Tiramisu is a cake for the next day. You don’t put it in the oven, but in the fridge. Leave it in there overnight or at least for eight hours, for a satisfying result.