Lemon Tiramisu

This month's Daring Baker's challenge was hosted by Aparna and Deeba.

I loved this! It was to make tiramisu from scratch and by scratch I mean actually making the mascarpone cheese as well as the ladyfingers or savoiardi. Isn't that fabulous?

I have to say the biggest attraction to me was to make the mascarpone cheese at home. They have always been the most expensive part of making tiramisu and I could not believe how simple it was! Sure it takes time and patience, but I swear, I am NEVER buying mascarpone from the markets again.

Mascarpone Cheese – Vera’s Recipe (Baking Obsession) for Homemade Mascarpone Cheese.
Guess what its just whole cream and lemon juice! I swear! Amazing ain't it? Well Check out the above link and judge for yourself. Also be sure to check out 

Savoiardi / Ladyfinger Biscuits – Recipe from Cordon Bleu At Home

The savoiardi was very interesting. It seemed deceptively easy, and it is. However they are even more fragile than cookies, even a minute more in the oven and the taste is ruined. Also if you don't know your hot spots in the oven, you'll be cursing while throwing away the burnt pieces. As you can see, I had some trouble with it, BUT at the end after throwing the burnt stuff, the good pieces were top notch. My husband even said the texture and taste was better than the store bought stuff. AND he also said the second batch was better than the first. Who knew he was paying attention? haha just kidding.

This recipe makes approximately 24 big ladyfingers or 45 small (2 1/2" to 3" long) ladyfingers.
Ingredients

• 3 eggs, separated
• 6 tablespoons /75gms granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup/95gms cake flour, sifted (or 3/4 cup all purpose flour + 2 tbsp corn starch)
• 6 tablespoons /50gms confectioner's sugar,

Method:
   1. Preheat your oven to 350 F (175 C) degrees, then lightly brush 2 baking sheets with oil or softened butter and line with parchment paper
   2. Beat the egg whites using a hand held electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Gradually add granulated sugar and continue beating until the egg whites become stiff again, glossy and smooth.
   3. In a small bowl, beat the egg yolks lightly with a fork and fold them into the meringue, using a wooden spoon. Sift the flour over this mixture and fold gently until just mixed. It is important to fold very gently and not overdo the folding. Otherwise the batter would deflate and lose volume resulting in ladyfingers which are flat and not spongy.
4. Fit a pastry bag with a plain tip (or just snip the end off; you could also use a Ziploc bag) and fill with the batter. Pipe the batter into 5" long and 3/4" wide strips leaving about 1" space in between the strips. (For the first batch I used a pastry bag but becomes my was very narrow, I had to squeeze and push the batter in, THAT deflates the batter faster than the blink of an eye. So.. I would highly recommend using a Ziploc bag).
5. Sprinkle half the confectioner's sugar over the ladyfingers and wait for 5 minutes. The sugar will pearl or look wet and glisten. Now sprinkle the remaining sugar. This helps to give the ladyfingers their characteristic crispness.
6. Hold the parchment paper in place with your thumb and lift one side of the baking sheet and gently tap it on the work surface to remove excess sprinkled sugar.
7. Bake the ladyfingers for 10 minutes, then rotate the sheets and bake for another 5 minutes or so until the puff up, turn lightly golden brown and are still soft. Now please pay attention to these, just as they are brown, they burn REALLY fast. Even an extra minute and I guarantee the delicate flavors will feel off with a burnt eggy yucky smell.
8. Allow them to cool slightly on the sheets for about 5 minutes and then remove the ladyfingers from the baking sheet with a metal spatula while still hot, and cool on a rack.
9. Store them in an airtight container till required. They should keep for 2 to 3 weeks.

Tiramisu – Carminantonio's Tiramisu from The Washington Post, July 11 2007

This link will give you the recipe to the Zabaglione, vanilla pastry cream and whipped cream, as well as the instructions to assembling the tiramisu. The cool part? The Zabaglione is cooked AND has marsala. Never done it that way before. Instead of using raw eggs, you use a cooked zabaglione, a lemon pastry cream and whipped cream to get similar fluffiness that you get with making the normal tiramisu. BRILLIANT!
Above is a picture of the Lemon Pastry cream (left) and Zabaglione (right).
The end result I must say was fabulous, I loved the texture and how it was creamy, soft and held up well. It was a little too sweet for my taste, and I think I would add more rum next time :)