100th Recipe: Tiramisu

     I can't believe I've been doing this for 100 days already! To celebrate, I wanted to post another old favorite of mine. This tiramisu recipe is beloved in my family. It's one of the first desserts I learned to make and has been a family party favorite for years. It's consistently delicious every time, and this time I made it, my dad told me at least 4 times that it was terrific. I don't say that to brag, but to point out that for him to say that about a dessert that isn't primarily made of chocolate really means something. So if you've never had tiramisu, you need to ASAP, and if you love it but have never made it yourself, I think you'll be surprised by how easy it is. Over the years, I have made the same recipe in several different sized pans, but I've found that 9x7 glass ones work best. For the ladyfingers, you want to get the soft, cake-like ones from the bakery area of the grocery store, not the crunchy cookie ones. Finally, I don't put alcohol in my tiramisu like most recipes call for, simply because I think it tastes awful. So I know this recipe is not perfectly authentic, but I love it, and I know you will too!

INGREDIENTS:
3 3oz packages of ladyfingers
2 8oz containers of mascarpone cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup water
2/3 cup coffee
1/2 cup + 1/3 cup sugar, divided
2 teaspoons cocoa powder
a handful of crushed chocolate covered expresso beans

DIRECTIONS:
1. Brew the coffee. It's nice if you can make just a single serving.
2. In a small saucepan, stir 1/2 cup of sugar into the water and boil until the sugar is dissolved. Then, turn off the heat and stir in the coffee. Put this in the fridge to cool until the filling is done.

3. In a large bowl, stir the other 1/3 cup of sugar and the vanilla into the mascarpone.

4. Put the bowl of an electric mixer in the freezer for a few minutes to chill. Then, whip the cream with the whisk attachment on the highest setting until it looks like whipped cream, about 4 minutes. If using a hand mixer and/or just a whisk, this will take longer.
5. Add 1/2 of the whipped cream to the bowl of mascarpone and gently fold it in to lighten the filling. Then, do the same with the other half. Try really hard not to snack on the filling before assembling the tiramisu. I know, it's a struggle.

6. No matter what size pan you're using, you want to use all of the ladyfingers to assemble the tiramisu, even if you have a weird, odd number, just fit them in somewhere.  If you have enough, I recommend making 2 layers for the bottom. Place the bottom layer(s) of ladyfingers in the dish, flat-side-up, and brush them with about half of the coffee mixture.

7. Spoon half of the filling on top of the ladyfingers, and spread it out evenly.

8. Use the rest of the ladyfingers to spread a second layer on top of the filling, and brush it with the other half of the coffee. Be sure to use all of that too.
9. Spread the other half of the filling over the top.

10. Hold a fine mesh strainer over the dish, fill it with about 2 teaspoons of cocoa powder, and gently tap the side of it to sprinkle it evenly over the top.
11. This step is optional, but if you have some chocolate-covered expresso beans, crush a few up and scatter them over the top.

It's best to let this chill for a few hours before serving, and it's even better the next day.

     Since I start school again soon, I think I'm going to take a short hiatus from blogging, just until I get settled into my new routine. In May when I started this, my goal was to have 100 recipes by the end of the summer. I can't believe that I actually achieved that, but since I have, It feels like the right time to take a break. I hope that I've inspired a few people to try some new things and proven what I set out to prove, that if you can read, you can cook. It's confession time. Guess how many of my 100 recipes were first attempts....84. Only sixteen of them were things I've made before, which proves that cooking can be pretty easy. I'm proud of myself for learning how to make all kinds of things and if I can do it, anyone can. Just follow the steps, and you can create something great. It's a life skill and a creative outlet in one! So I still have my list of 200 recipes to try, and I will share them whenever I can. During the semester, I'm going to try to commit to at least one post per week, and while I expect that those recipes won't be as extravagant as some that I've posted so far, I hope they'll be just as good. So I'll shoot for once a week, but more importantly, I'll cook and write when I feel inspired.

Thanks for reading this summer. I'm looking forward to the next 100!