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.I LOVE tiramisu, and had previously never made it, so when I saw the February challenge, I was definitely excited. For this challenge, we were to make tiramisu from scratch -- meaning all of the components had to be made from scratch, including the lady fingers and the mascarpone cheese.
There were many components to this recipe. From experience, I've learned that for the sake of my mental health, I should never expect to complete a Daring Bakers challenges in one day. This dessert consisted of lady fingers, mascarpone cheese, zabaglione (Italian custard), pastry cream, and whipped cream. So, for this challenge, I split up the work over a span of a few days, and it worked out very nicely. I made the lady fingers and mascarpone one day, the zabaglione, pastry creams, and whipped creams 3 days later, assembled the dessert the following day, and let it chill overnight.
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For my version of this decadent dessert, I made an extra chocolate layer by spiking the pastry cream with about 6 ounces of chopped bittersweet chocolate, and topped it with some shaved chocolate. I have a hard time saying no to chocolate. Sorry, it's a weakness.Please check out Aparna's or Deeba's blogs for the recipe.
Oh, there it is! Yours looks nice too... I like the round dish, it was difficult to get slices out of my square pan. Love the chocolate pastry cream idea, too!
ReplyDeleteThis was a time-consuming challenge, no doubt about it!
ReplyDeleteBut I really like it in a round dish...the first I've seen like this. And yummy with the extra chocolate!
Pretty. Looks really good in that little personalized dish. Oh, and I'm a meanie too sometimes!
ReplyDeleteThat looks amazing! The chocolate on top looks like it's just melting into the cream--yum! Good idea to serve it in the dish--they were hard to keep neat when unmolding.
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You've done an amazing job with the challenge. It seemed more involved than most. I love the use of chocolate pastry cream. It is a lovely creation. Kudos.
ReplyDeleteThere's no need to apologize. Chocolate is a yummy weakness for many and a great addition to this tiramisù. Congrats on completing the challenge.
ReplyDeleteYour tiramisu looks gorgeous! I'd have a hard time saying no to it!
ReplyDeleteYour tiramisu looks wonderful! After seeing this I am going to have to try it!
ReplyDeleteI can't really say no to chocolate too :) Beautiful presentaiton adn thanks for stopping by to say hi!
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful presentation! I didn't put any sugar in the coffee dip and I sprinkled a layer of cocoa powder on every layer of sponge fingers. It's a bit too sweet for my taste.
ReplyDeleteA very creative dessert. My weakness is also chocolate. There's a french bakery in my city and their specialty cakes all have shaved white, strawberry, milk, and dark chocolates.I love their cakes there. Your recipe is a must try!
ReplyDeleteextra chocolate, you say? that's what i like to hear! your version of this treat is quite stupendous--nicely done!
ReplyDeleteMake that the 2 of us - I can't say no to chocolates too. That tiramisu looks heavenly!!!
ReplyDeleteWow that is so impressive. When I think of making tiramisu I automatically assume that the ladyfingers and mascarpone will be store-bought but you took it to a whole new level with the homemade version. It looks amazing! My absolute favorite dessert.
ReplyDeletethats my name in your blog!
ReplyDeleteyou made your own lady fingers??? what the heck--even the Italians don't do that.
Very wise not to try and cram this into a 24 time slot.:)
ReplyDeleteLovely presentation, It looks so pretty through the glass. Brilliant work!!
You guys should all be jealous because I had some of this tiramisu and it was absolutely delicious. Msmeanie is an awesome cook!
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to believe that something containing fingers can be so good. Way to go.
ReplyDeleteThat's great adding the chocolate to the pastry cream. It must have been delicious. I added a little lemon essence and vanilla extract to the ladyfingers and found they had a beautiful flavour this way.
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