I would love a recipe for taramisue (I know that is spelled wrong) At a local resturant I had the dessert piped out on the lady fingers and would love to offer it to my customers.
Also can I freeze them to keep them fresh in large quanity?
Thanks,
Megan

By mikebel on Monday, April 03, 2000 - 10:02 pm: Edit

Megan we do a frozen line of tiramisu for the restaurants and hotels you can try, it is as follows.
10 egg yolks
100 grams confectioners sugar
1 kilo mascrapone cheese
100 mls cognac
48 firm ladyfingers
4 cups good quality strong coffee
6 tsp cocoa
beat egg yolks and sugar untill creamy add mascrapone and cognac beat untill well combined soak ladyfingers in coffee, now either layer alternately mascrapone then fingers so u have 3 layers mascrapone and 2layers fingers dust with cocoa (we freeze in moulds then send out frozen to the kitchens to un mould and plate up)

By W.DeBord on Tuesday, April 04, 2000 - 09:49 am: Edit

There are endless recipes for tiramisu. Mikebels is classic using lady fingers. Mine as you read is way different (and will be laughed at by some traditionalists) but it's good, it can be done in great volume and it holds for days.


1 lb. marsapone
1 pkg. 4 oz.instant vanilla pudding
1 qt. whipping cream
sugar to taste
splash vanilla
drop or two of coffee extract

Whip all together till stiff, like whip cream.
I layer (in glasses or in ring molds) this with chocolate cake and ganche instead of lady fingers and cocoa.

This firm marscapone mixture can also be used in a torte, presliced it will hold on a buffet. I use a light sponge cake split into layers. Brush kaluha and coffee mixture on sponge, layer with cheese etc.. There are many ways to decorate using chocolate.

I find I personally don't like cocoa powder in my tiramisu. In its' place I use either shaved chocolate, mini chocolate chips or ganache.

By oliver on Tuesday, April 04, 2000 - 01:32 pm: Edit

W.DeBord:
I am going to try your recipe but I am unclear about the 'coffee mixture'. I always enjoy doing the classics but different variations can be better depending on ones tastes or the customers.
Thanks
Oliver

By mikebel on Tuesday, April 04, 2000 - 07:40 pm: Edit

hey thats a differnt way of making it W.DeBord I like the idea of being able to present it on a buffet while still holding. (even thru the patrons will probably ruin it by the time the last tables come thru ) thats what i like about this trade you can take a classic dish and with a bit of creativity and skill you can make it your own : )
~~~~~~ mike~~~~~

By jeee2 on Wednesday, April 05, 2000 - 12:20 am: Edit

If you're making a lot of this stuff for wholesale to restaurants, why not just make sheets of the lady finger sponge instead of individual fingers. Make full sheetpans and cut into whatever size you need, if you can't see the lady fingers why bother pipe them out.
Seems like a big time loss .

By jeee2 on Wednesday, April 05, 2000 - 12:31 am: Edit

If you're making a lot of this stuff for wholesale to restaurants, why not just make sheets of the lady finger sponge instead of individual fingers. Make full sheetpans and cut into whatever size you need, if you can't see the lady fingers why bother pipe them out.
Seems like a big time loss .

By Pam (Pam) on Wednesday, April 05, 2000 - 02:20 am: Edit

The way I pipe out ladyfingers for tiramisu or charlottes etc it to pipe out in an up & down continuous movement across the sheet pan in long rows. It is very fast.They can be cut at whatever length & you have a strip of ladyfingers. They have the look because of the up & down pattern that shows. Does this even make any sense???? The syrup I make is simple syrup mixed with strong espresso & kahlua to taste.Thats probably what w debord means by coffee mixture.

By W.DeBord on Wednesday, April 05, 2000 - 08:47 am: Edit

Coffee mixture meaning a mix of coffee and kahula to taste brushed on cake. I've tried other combinations adding other liquors, espresso etc... I find the espresso is too bitter for me and I get distracted by any other liqiours.

The other thing I mentioned was coffee extract, purchased item like vanilla extract.

Spagos' gold colored dessert cookbook (can't think of the name) has something similar to what I do, if you want to look at that.

By Panini (Panini) on Friday, April 07, 2000 - 04:25 pm: Edit

Mikebel,
Your using fresh raw egg yolks?
W.DeBord,
Contrast is a very important part of cooking.Cocoa powder is a very important ingredient or garnish to this dish. I know its your personal taste, but if I order any tiramisu products and it arrives without cocoa I'm dissapointed.
my 2cents
panini

By W.DeBord on Saturday, April 08, 2000 - 08:16 am: Edit

I love contrast also Panini. It's part of what makes a dessert "sing" to me. But the cocoa powder sticks in my throat, and if it's freshly sprinkled I cough and gag. I just barely sweeten my marsapone mixture to balance against the cake and ganache. Or I don't sweeten and add mini bit's of milk chocolate in the cheese mixture (got that from spago book).

When I first began making taramisu I discovered that people didn't really understand what they were ordering. The classic way wasen't a big hit ( glasses came back half gone, only), but it kept showing up on party sheets so I did adapt it to meet the mid-west tastes. I understand my recipe isn't for everyone but now they eat the whole dessert when served at my club.

There are many other desserts that are popular but when it comes down to it people don't really know what it is. I don't get it because I'm not talking about a middle class customer. I think they pay more attention to the entree than dessert.

By Markus on Saturday, April 08, 2000 - 08:14 pm: Edit

Looks like there are about as many different ways of making tiramisu as there are of spelling it... :)


Heres my version FWIW..

1k Marscapone cheese
500ml double(heavy) cream
2 glasses Marsala wine
1 tin of sweetened condensed milk.
(alternatively reduce cream and equal quantities of sugar till thick and throw in about 300g of the resulting gloop)

beat the cheese till smooth, add the condensed milk, whisk the cream and fold nto the cheese, flavour with Marsala

sheet of genoise
very strong espresso

good quality cocoa powder - or refiner (?) crumb
(at least thats what I think it's called - its basically powdered chocolate)

soak the sponge with as much coffee as it can take without turning to mush

layer in a shallow tray cheese/cocoa/sponge/cheese cocoa

Serve on a large plate in quennelles...

From a restaurant perspective this holds for about 3 days very nicely(just make sure it's well covered or it dries out :) )
not tried freezing it tho

By mikebel on Sunday, April 09, 2000 - 05:17 pm: Edit

panini
yes we still use the fresh egg yolks in our lines and we havent had any problems yet.... .The health dept saw us about our egg whites and told us we had to use pasturized egg whites for the meringue and cold set cheesecakesbut didnt say anything about the yolks in the tiramisu now that you mention it sounds a bit funny, oh well health dept knows best right : )

By Panini (Panini) on Sunday, April 09, 2000 - 08:51 pm: Edit

Not really, salmonella is not killed by freezing, the growth may be slowed down, the only way to kill salmonella is to cook above 155f. You might try to ribbon the egg yolks over a dbl. boiler.
thanks for the reply.
panini

By mmmegan on Wednesday, April 12, 2000 - 06:06 pm: Edit

Hey Guys,
Thanks for all the information! Sorry to have not responded sooner, my computer has been off line for a week.
I will try to make it on Saturday, as I am having a party at my house and would like to try it out before I offer it to my customers.

Thanks again,
Megan

By vbean on Monday, June 12, 2000 - 03:58 am: Edit

I am so tired of tiramisu. It is not a classic- it comes from the early 70's. I have tried many times to reinvent it with the same flavors/ different contrasts and textures. I never use Kaluhua, either grappa, strega, or marsala. Frehly brewed espresso with simple syrup and grappa is nice for dipping.
The dessert that I could just go dump in the street is creme brulee! I am sure that I have made enough to fill the hotel that I work at in my career! I just read an article about a chef in New York that gives it away to his customers so that they will order something else. I don't have it on the menu right now and dessert sales are booming- maybe there is hope!