Other flavours in Tiramisu

i had to make some tiramisu for a wine tasting a few months back.. we had to make a couple cuz we couldnt get the taste just right... but we finally perfected it...

i found the key to the flavor in tiramisu is the coffee flavored liquid that you soak the ladyfingers in.... what i did is i mixed together Espresso, Baileys (regular flavor), Godiva Chocolate Liquor, some brand of cognac (any will do), and finally i drizzle a little chocolate syrup in and i whisk together to incorporate everything. this is where you find out exactly how those ladyfingers will taste so figure out if it tastes good to you, if not add some more chocolate syrup if you want it more chocolaty or some more cognac if you want a bit more kick.

i put the liquid in a small bowl and a squirt bottle as well (this allows you to get in some crevices the brush may not). lay the ladyfingers out on a pan, i rub it down with a mix of butter and confectionery sugar (a little secret i learned to keep the crust and bottoms of baked goods taste sweet). Grab a pastry brush, dip it in the liquid and start liberally brushing the liquid on the ladyfingers. I find that if i just dropped the ladyfingers in the liquid to soak that they turn into what looks like little brown pieces of soaking wet doggie-doo-doo... not delish and you have wasted ladyfingers...

but then i take the first layer of custard mix and spread it on the ladyfingers... then drizzle a lil more of that liquid on top... shake a good amount of powdered cocoa on top of that.. then repeat process starting with ladyfingers, liquid, custard and then just put a bunch of powdered cocoa on top and your done.

i found also that to have the best consistency the first custard layer is a mix of the egg yolks, mascarpone and Italian meringue.. while the top custard layer was egg yolks, mascarpone and whipped cream. Leaves the top layer a bit more fluffy using whipped cream folded in instead of the meringue.

enjoy

Re

In my shop we use mixed berries, lemon cake for the biscuits , and flavor the cheese mixture with Grand Marnier.

picture here.

I dunno about this... it's kinda like re-inventing vanilla.

Translated from it's orginal Italian, Tirimisu means something like "pick me up", and is comprised of ladyfinger biscuits soaked in espresso and kaluha layered with marscapone with beaten eggyolk and lightened with whipped eggwhite, usually dusted with cocoa. Some put citrus zest in the marscapone.

Frankly, I wouldn't mess with it.

Now, on the other hand you could do a layered marscapone and ---------- (fill in the blanks) dessert that would work probably very well.

To my mind, tiramisu is something fairly specific. Shortcakes and trifles served as Napoleons are wonderful things, but they're not tiramisu. On the other hand, what's in a name? As long as the dessert tastes good and the customer (and/or the wife) is happy...

BDL

I find that even vanilla detracts from the beauty of the tiramisu and after chocolate, i love vanilla. But mascarpone has a delicate flavor of its own,if you start doctoring it up, you might as well use anything. Certainly liqueur like kahlua is not traditional, it's hardly even known here. Lemon would grate on my teeth. But as bdl says, if you like it, go with it. Liqueur would make it, to my mind, a tiramigiu' rather than a tiramisu'

I'm also curious about the various mentions of "custard" - never heard of custard in tiramisu. Is that to prevent the raw egg risks? If so, i suggest using an "italian meringue" instead of egg, it makes an incredibly soft and fluffy tiramisu - i imagine if you want the whole egg, it would be possible to beat sugar syrup into beaten whole eggs too, though never tried it.

I've had it with cocoa powder on top or grated bittersweet chocolate, both are good.

I often add a little orange liquor (triple sec, Grand Mariner, etc.) to the espresso-Kahula mixture.

The only "flavor enhancements" I have ever seen or tried with a Tiramisu have been the espresso/rum mixture to soak the cookie in, and adding a good dark rum like Meyers, to the Mascarpone. I have also used a little Zabaglione spread on the cookie during the building of the dessert. :D

I had a party with babies or pre toddlers attending, I didn't mix raw white or any raw egg, rather I just used fully whipped cream and mascapone with icing sugar and chocolate. For the adults, I added coffee liqueuer and espresso, for the kid's portions I mixed dissolved chocolate milk additive as their flavouring, with a dusting of drinking chocolate. It was very rich and creamy and met all our needs without the raw eggs.

seems as tho its definitely a personal preference to use eggs as a liaison for this.