Italian Cooking Spree: We Made Easy Tiramisu

Yesterday, I got together with other people from work (there were 7 of us) to sharpen our cooking skills. The theme for this Saturday was Italian where we made Carbonara, Tomato Soup, and Easy Tiramisu. This particular entry will be dedicated to the Tiramisu.

Some few words about this: There was too much coffee liquid such that there was a lot of liquid left behind in the tray. This dessert was named "Tiramisoup" :) It didnt affect the taste of the texture, but the excess liquid was just weird to look at. I guess the only way to avoid this would be to really quickly dip the ladyfingers in the coffee so they don't absorb too much liquid. [Lesson Learned]

Up close on a slice of our Easy Tiramisu :P

Since it's our first time making this, we needed to find something easy. This particular recipe, called "Easy Tiramisu", we based it from this site: http://m.allrecipes.com/recipe/23143/recipeeasy-tiramisu

Since we weren't able to get the mascarpone cheese in the average supermarket here in Manila, we had to go for a substitute. It ended up quite good so no regrets on using a mascarpone substitute! For the mascarpone cheese substitute, we got it from this site:  http://allrecipes.com/recipe/mascarpone-substitute/

The photos of the creation process are all thanks to Tine!

Ingredients:

• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• 3 egg yolks
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (we forgot this one)
• At least 24 ladyfingers (also known as Broas here in the Philippines, produced by FMC)
• 1 crushed ladyfinger for topping
• Cocoa for sprinkling (optional)
• 1 1/2 cups brewed coffee for dipping

How-to (or What Happened):

1) Tine and Adrin started mixing together the 8 oz. softened cream cheese, with the 1/4 cup of whipped cream (we used Anchor) and the 2 tbsp of softened butter. They mixed it together using the electric mixer. We now have our mascarpone cheese substitute!

2) Afterwards, they mixed 1/4 cup sugar (we used brown because we were out of white, no regrets in using brown) with 3 egg yolks -- don't forget to make sure there's no egg shells. I bit into one in some part, but it was a really small piece. After that, it went into the cream cheese mixture. We forgot to add the 2 tsp vanilla extract, my bad. :( After everything is mixed up, leave it aside.

3) Now, it's Cherie, Fran, and Jester's turn. Fran and Jester brought the coffee where the ladyfingers needed to be dipped in. In a bowl, they poured in the 1 1/2 cup brewed coffee. Each lady finger was dipped briefly in the coffee (be quick about it, because they break easily; use a big spoon just like in the photo below). After dipping, it was arranged in our 8x8 pan.

4) When the 8x8 pan is covered in soaked ladyfingers, we added a layer using half of the cream cheese mixture. We added another layer of the soaked ladyfingers on top of the cream cheese. When it's all filled up, we poured in the remaining cream cheese.

5) Using what was left of the ladyfingers, we crushed some bits as toppings over the cream cheese mixture. When it was done, we popped it in the fridge to chill for an hour!

So to summarize steps 3-5, here it is:

Dip, Arrange, Layer (2x), then top off with crushed ladyfingers

So here's the gang that worked on the Tiramisu (along with the Tomato Soup and the Carbonara). I'll be writing next about the Tomato Soup and the Carbonara.

L-R: Jester, Cherie, me, Fran, Tine, RJ (Adrin was behind the camera)