Tiramisu

Warning: this is a grown up dessert. It has uncooked alcohol and coffee. If you have kids present, I recommend making extra cream/cheese mix. Dunk some of the biscuits in some melted chocolate and sandwich two together with cream, for the kiddies, or making a separate dessert, like these caramel blondies (link to come)


Ingredients
3 cups strong black coffee, cooled. If you are fancier than me, you can use espresso or drip, but I just use instant.
3-4 tablespoons Tia Maria (Kahlua is also nice)
2 eggs, separated
250g mascarpone (Italian cream cheese)
1/4 cup caster sugar
250mL thickened cream
16 Saviardi (sponge finger) biscuits
1 tablespoon drinking chocolate (approx) or grated dark chocolate

Method
1. Mix together coffee and tia maria in a bowl. Set aside.

2. In a large mixing bowl, beat egg yolks and sugar until thick and pale

3. Add the mascarpone and beat well to combine.

4. In a separate bowl, whip cream.

5. Fold cream into cheese mix

6. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites to soft peaks.

7. Fold egg whites into cream/cheese mixture

8. Get your chosen serving dish/es. You can use one large dish, individual servings in any dish. Large red wine glasses, coffee cups, latte glasses. You can see some of the options at the end of this post.


9. Dip the biscuits into the coffee mix, and place in a single layer in the base of your serving dish. Don't soak the biscuits, just a quick dunk and straight out. If you leave the biscuits in the coffee for longer than a second or two, they will soak up way too much of the liquid (they are sponge fingers, after all) go soggy and fall apart.


10. Next, add a generous layer (1-2cm) of cream/cheese mixture and spread over evenly.


11. Continue alternating dipped biscuits and cream until you reach the top of your dish.


12. Finish with a layer of cream mixture and a sprinkle of chocolate

13. Refrigerate at least over night before serving.

Here is the finished result. I've used a variety of different vessels so you can see some of your serving options.