Tiramisu

Update: After one day in the fridge, the biscuits soaked up more coffee and the texture was much better, apparently. Also, the cherry flavour went quite well with the mascarpone, Justin says. In fact, he wants me to make it again, heh :P

Hoho, I finally got to make my tiramisu. I originally wanted to make this for Hadi's birthday, but he wanted the chocolate mousse instead. :( I don't know *why* I want to make it, since I don't like tiramisu anyway, but the picture looked so nice. :P That's why they have nice pictures in cookbooks, to tempt people into making them. The thing that was funky about this particular recipe was that it was individual (not a whole cake), used amaretti biscuits instead of sponge fingers, and was very nicely decorated. :P I thought it would taste good, so yeah... hehe ...here we go! :D

What you need:
1 egg yollk
2 tablespoons caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
250g mascarpone cheese
125ml strong black coffee
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
16 amaretti biscuits
Flake/cocoa, to decorate

What you do:

1. Beat the egg yolk and sugar until smooth. Stir in the vanilla and mascarpone until thoroughly combined and set aside.
2. Mix the coffee and cocoa. Break up the amaretti biscuits and stir into the coffee mixture. Divide half of the mixture between 4 glasses.
3. Spoon half of the mascarpone mixture over the biscuit mixtre, add the remaining biscuit mixture and top with the rest of the mascarpone.
4. Dust lightly with coca or crumble flake chocolate over the top. Chill before serving.

Amaretti are a type of Italian biscotti (biscuit :P) and tiramisu is Italian as well, so I thought this would be pretty authentic. Amaretti are Italian biscuits made out of crushed almonds, so it should probably give a pretty good flavour, no? Well, I don't know if Sainsbury's got it wrong, or if Italian almonds taste different from normal almonds, but these biscuits tasted similar to normal sponge fingers, but with a strong cherry undertone - which, to me, tastes almost medicinal! Despite this, I still used the biscuits in the tiramisu - because I didn't have a substitute!

So, how did it turn out? Well, the mascarpone layer was *very* good. I used vanilla sugar, in addition to the vanilla essence, so there was a distinct vanilla taste. The mascarpone, like in the chocolate cheesecake, was very smooth and creamy, so it was almost like a mild vanilla icecream!

The coffee-biscuit layer, however, is where the problem lies. The cherry flavour is just... strange. Although, apparently it wasn't so obvious in the finished tiramisu. But, not only that, the texture was also very bad. See, I asked Hadi whether the biscuits were usually soggy or not in tiramisu (since I've never liked tiramisu, I dunno how it is...). He replied that it was, but he didn't really like it. So, instead of using hot coffee, I poured cold coffee onto the biscuits so that they wouldn't go soggy easily. Turns out that this was a bad idea. I haven't dared taste it, but apparently, the texture of the biscuit layer was very very very bad. Powdery, and...strange, somehow. Hadi went as far to say that I wouldn't be able to sell the tiramisu. (heh. :P)

I think there's actually nothing wrong with the recipe - except for the use of amaretti. I bet if I made this with normal sponge fingers and hot coffee, it would have turned out alright. :( Oh well, maybe I'll make this again some day.... But not anytime soon, I think. Heh. *disappointment...* Although, the thing is, it looks very very pretty. :P hehe

Quote of the day: I'm trying to eat better. And, I do feel wise after drinking tea. After eating vegetables, I just feel hungry.