Tiramisu Two Ways

Happy Valentine's Day ! When it comes to love, I become hopelessly tongue-tied. So I guess today I'll just post some of my favorite quotes in between some pretty pictures of the tiramisu I made a while ago (look here) and pretend it's really professional.

"You know how sometimes you meet someone and everything changes, just like that ?"

- Prince Eric, The Little Mermaid.

"The way you laugh is just the best."

- Winnie the Pooh.

"When I'm with you, I don't feel so alone." 

- Hercules.

Christopher Robin: Forever and ever is a very long time.

Pooh: Forever isn't long at all when I'm with you.

"That might sound boring, but I think that the boring stuff is the stuff I remember the most."

- Russell, Up.

"Sometimes," said Pooh, "the smallest things take up the most room in your heart."

"The ones that love us will never really leave us."

- Harry Potter.

"You and me together, that's how it should be. One without the other don't mean nothing at all to me."

- Monsters Inc.

"The more I look inside, the more you mean to me. I see you here, I see you there, I feel you everywhere."

- Piglet's Big Movie.

Yes, I am hopelessly obsessed with Winnie the Pooh.

Remember when I said I had made some tiramisu here ? This is the recipe.

Tiramisu Two Ways

For the filling:

1 cup of whipping cream

500g of mascarpone

5 yolks

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup brandy (I replaced this with 2 tbsp of water)

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp matcha powder

For the coffee syrup:

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup hot brewed espresso 

2 tbsp rum or brandy, optional (I omitted this)

For the green tea-milk soak:

1 tbsp matcha powder

1 cup milk

2 tbsp sugar

To assemble:

1 pack of ladyfinger biscuits

75g dark chocolate, grated or finely chopped

75g white chocolate, grated or finely chopped

1. Make the filling first. Whip the cream to soft peaks and set aside. Beat the mascarpone gently to soften it, then fold in half the whipped cream. You might have to use the whisk to beat it in more vigorously than you normally would when folding in cream, to smooth out any lumps but that's okay. Fold in the remaining half of the cream. If it deflates a little, it's alright. Set the mixture aside.

2. Whisk the yolks, sugar and brandy in a metal or glass bowl placed over a pot of gently simmering water, whisking constantly until the mixture has doubled in volume and it forms a ribbon when the whisk is lifted. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla. Cool the mixture slightly.

3. Whisk the mascarpone mixture into the egg mixture in two additions. The filling will be a little fluid. Divide the filling in half. Dissolve the matcha powder in 1 tbsp of boiling water. Stir this into one of the fillings. Chill both mixtures while preparing the rest of the components.

4. For the coffee syrup, stir together the sugar and espresso - the sugar should dissolve easily but if it doesn't, you can heat the mixture until the sugar is fully dissolved. Remove from the heat and stir in hoeing rum or brandy, then set aside.

5. For the milk soak, pour the milk into a heavy bottomed saucepan and stir in the sugar. Heat the milk until the sugar dissolves, then whisk in the match powder until that has dissolved too. Remove from the heat and set aside.

6. Have your ramekins (I used 1/2 cup capacity ramekins but I only had six so I used cake rings as well) ready. If you need to, cut the ladyfingers to fit the ramekins. For the traditional tiramisu, soak one ladyfinger at a time in the coffee syrup, then place it in the bottom of a ramekin. This is to prevent them from falling apart, since you want them saturated but still holding their shape. Cover the bottom of the ramekin in one layer of coffee soaked ladyfingers. Spoon over 2 tbsp of mascarpone filling. Sprinkle over some grated dark chocolate, then place another layer of coffee-soaked ladyfingers over the chocolate. You can press them in slightly. Spoon over more filling to fill up the ramekins. Sprinkle over the some remaining grated dark chocolate. Repeat with the other ramekins until the filling is used up.

7. Do the same for the green tea tiramisu, except soak the ladyfingers in the milk soak and layer with the matcha-mascarpone filling and grated white chocolate. When all the filling has been used up, chill the ramekins for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight, to let the flavours meld, before serving.