The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.
Ah, time for the monthly Daring Baker indulgent delight. Whew, what a lot of work. We made ladyfingers, mascarpone, zabaglione, pastry cream, whipped cream, and then assemble and decorate, too! It looked lovely and was gobbled down. Largely by my DH, and he kept trying to justify it, too. I haven’t made a tiramsu in 10 years or so, I guess I (he) was due! Obviously I made it GF, just using GF flour instead of cake flour, but I followed everything else as written, except I dipped the lady fingers in a strong chocolate concoction rather than espresso (DH hates coffee). My major gripe was with the mascrapone-you can’t get it up to 190. You just can’t. Or I couldn’t, and I stirred and stirred for 45 minutes each time. So if you do opt to give a go, do ignore the temparature part of those directions. I confess, it is so unusual for me to follow directions that to follow them verbatim (3X) and have them not work as anticipated was frustrating. It DOES work, just the temps don’t jive.
I used some of the extra filling to make little tiramisu-lettes, which were well appreciated. I did it over 5 days which worked just fine. And as directed, the original 
recipes are on the DB site.
As always, do check out the other DB creations–they are always works of art. And I can’t wait to find out what’s next in store!
Stumble It!
I couldn’t get it to 190 either. It was about an hour before I just threw in the lemon juice and hoped for the best.
Your tiramisu looks amazing =D.
Hey Cheryl – Beautiful job on your tiramisu. I can’t wait to see what we get to back in March either.
I had a lot of trouble with the zabaglione. I couldn’t get it to 190 and it wouldn’t thicken. After a half hour, I took it off the water bath and poured it into a small saucepan. Then I stirred like a speed demon to keep it from burning and wahla two minutes later it was perfect. I had similar trouble with the pastry cream, so I’m wondering if it is the burner I used on the stove top. We’re on a temp assignment in Michigan and living in a rental house.
Hey now, I may have eaten entirely too much of it, but I’m pretty sure it was no more than 1/4 of the tiramisu! 🙂
Thanks Lauren
Natalie, I think everyone had trouble with it–unfortunate, but just part of the experience!
E, since when do you read my posts? does this mean I have to stop making comments about you?
It looks fabulously decadent! But, Wow! five days of work? We don’t care for coffee in my house either. What did you use for the strong chocolate concoction?
Hi Heather,
Marscapone 3X, the zabaglione another day, the ladyfingers a week earlier. Not that much work, but I tend to space things out so I have the energy to enjoy the process!
the choc concoction was a lot of cocoa powder in hot water plus enough choc liquor and agave to make it taste delicious. Sorry I can’t be more exact.
That’s a gorgeous tiramisu–I love the heart on top! I’m sure I couldn’t make one here even as a treat for my HH, because I’d probably eat half myself. . . and be really, really sorry later (but not while gobbling it up, I’m sure). 😉
Hey! with your tiramisu you produced a piece of art. congratulation!!!! i will never be able to create sometjing like that =(
That looks so GOOD! That’s one dessert I really miss on my diet.