Award Winning Tiramisu

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Yes, this recipe won FIRST place!!!

Which award is this you ask?

The Chemists' Tiramisu Competition circa 2004, or was it 2005?

Huh?

Yeah, back in the days of flash column chromatography, collecting these fractions was kinda of a mindless task. So in the lab, we'd all be chatting and talking smack while running these columns. I'm not even sure how it all started, but somehow, the topic of tiramisu came up. One of our Italian chemists, claimed this was a dessert where Italians just took what was in their fridge and cupboard, and whipped them together when there's unannounced dinner guests. Another chemist claimed his sister was a chef and had the best recipe. "You can't just slap it together at the last minute!", he says. I'm pretty sure I kept my mouth shut during the conversation, but the next thing I knew, I got roped into the tiramisu showdown.

The 3 of us were to each make a tiramisu and submit it to the showdown.

In true scientific "unbiased" fashion, my labmates planned a blinded taste test for the following week, and invited judges that had to either be Italian (cuz supposedly, they would know what TRUE tiramisu tastes like), or had discerning taste buds (determined from previous observations at various lunch outings of their ability to appreciate quality food). Ummm... yeah, did we say unbiased?

That night, I went home and went to work experimenting and tweaking my tiramisu recipe. It was tiramisu every night for dinner that week-- which isn't always a bad thing!

After futzing with the coffee concentration, type and amount of alcohol, amount of sugar, types of lady fingers, timing of the dip, egg to cheese ratio, etc, I felt like I had a product worthy of the showdown.

The awaited competition day came, and after lunch, we booked a conference room (Yes, VERY appropriate use of company resources!) and conducted the blinded taste test.

Of course, the title of this recipe already gave away the punchline, but I love telling this story because it reminds me of all the good times I had as a bench chemist with fun colleagues at this wonderful "start up feeling" company that is now amazingly celebrating it's 25th anniversary!

Give this recipe a try so you can be your own tiramisu judge!!!







P.S. Pictured above is a half recipe because thanks to our current shelter in place, there's no partying, so I didn't want to make a whole tray and eat it all myself...

Yields 8 servings

Ingredients:

  • 7 large pasteurized eggs (link on how to here) separated. (You will use 7 egg yolks, and only 4 egg whites. You can save the remaining egg whites for something else.)
  • 6 T sugar (plus 1 t sugar for the coffee)
  • 1 T vanilla
  • 16 oz mascapone cheese, preferably BelGioioso (available at Trader Joes or some Safeways)
  • 1 ½ c very strong coffee (3/4 c coffee grounds with 2 c water made in a regular coffee maker)
  • 2 T cognac
  • 2 boxes Trader Joe's soft lady fingers*, or 2 packages of lady fingers from an Asian grocery store
  • unsweetened cocoa powder for sprinkling

Procedures:

  1. Make the coffee first so that there is time to cool. When the coffee has cooled down, add the cognac to the coffee, plus 1 t sugar and set aside.
  2. In a bowl, beat together 7 egg yolks and 6 T sugar on high speed for several minutes until very smooth and the color turns from dark yellow to a creamy light yellow color. Add vanilla and mix.
  3. In a separate bowl, beat 4 large egg whites until stiff peaks form.
  4. Fold the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture.
  5. Add mascapone cheese one spoonful at a time to the egg mixture while mixing with an electric mixer. The mixture should now be very light and creamy and ready for assembly.
  6. In an 8x8 glass pyrex dish, spread a layer of mascapone egg mixture on the bottom. Sprinkle with cocoa powder using a small sieve.
  7. Dip each lady finger in the cold coffee cognac mixture (about 2 seconds), and lay lightly on top of the mascapone layer. Cover the mascapone layer completely with a layer of dipped lady fingers.
  8. Cover the lady finger layer with another layer of mascapone mixture. Dust with cocoa powder. Repeat step 7 and 8.
  9. The final product consists of 2 layers of lady fingers with the final top layer as the mascapone mixture dusted with cocoa powder. Cover tightly with Saran wrap and refrigerate overnight. The tiramisu tastes best when there has been at least of few hours for the flavors to meld together.

*Trader Joe's soft lady fingers are my absolute favorite for this recipe, but they seem to be a seasonal item available during the winter months only, so feel free to use whatever lady fingers you can find at this time