Easy Tiramisu

A delicious serving of tiramisu.  Yummy!

A couple of years ago I had a wonderful dessert of tiramisu at the Lavender Bistro in Tryon, North Carolina.  That inspired me to undertake making this dessert, and I discovered it is really quite easy.  I wanted to find a recipe that did not use egg yolks and did not use alcohol.  I tweaked a recipe of Sandra Lee's of the Food Channel.

Ingredients:
1 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup sugar, divided
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, at room temperature  *(I used 8oz of mascarpone cheese.)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (7-ounce) package of ladyfingers
1 cup strong black coffee *(I made a cup of strong espresso---stronger than coffee.)
1 teaspoon cocoa powder

Sandra Lee made her recipe in 4 wine glasses---four individual servings.  I used an 8 x 8 inch glass dish and I was able to get 6 servings from this.

Directions:
1.  In a chilled bowl combine 3/4 cup of heavy cream and 1/4 cup sugar.  Whip with a hand mixer until soft peaks form.  Cover and refrigerate until ready to use. 

Heavy cream and sugar ready to make whipped cream.

2.  In a large bowl combine the mascarpone cheese, 1/4 cup heavy cream, vanilla and the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar.  (Next time I will use only 1/4 cup of sugar here, because the mascarpone cheese is  sweet.) Whip with a hand mixer until light and fluffy.

Mascarpone, heavy cream, sugar, vanilla.  Blend together.

Cheese mixture.

3.  Line the bottom of the glass dish with ladyfingers that have been dipped quickly into the coffee.  You do not want to soak the ladyfingers, because they will turn into a mushy texture.  Dip quickly, no more than 5 seconds.

Ladyfingers dipped into coffee lining bottom of glass dish.

4.  Spread half of the cheese mixture on top of the ladyfingers.

Sptread cheese mixture on ladyfingers.

5.  Add a second layer of ladyfingers that have been dipped into the coffee.

Second layer of lady fingers.

6.  Spread the remaining cheese mixture on top of these ladyfingers.    Top with the whipped cream.

Top with whipped cream.

7.  Refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving.  Just before serving put the cocoa powder into a small sieve and tap gentle to dust the top of the dessert. 

Dust with cocoa powder before serving.

This is an easy dessert.  It would be quite elegant served in individual wine glasses as Sandra Lee's recipe suggests.  I'll be making this again. 

Ready to eat. 

Check this out for a recipe to serve in individual wine glasses.

Photo from Well Fed.