Teaching my son italian basics: part n°1 – tiramisu

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Teaching my son to like different things is like climbing mount everest! Even though I realized that the amount of vegetables ( only raw ons though ) our son is eating is not common at all ( which makes my poor soul a little bit proud ) nevertheless I keep fighting for a wider diet – with little success I have to admit.

Only recently he discovered tiramisu at our local italian ( who is actually from sri lanka ) and liked it a lot. But foolish me had no better idea to teach him how to make it. If only I’d known better…

We made it in our holidays in sardinia, I haven’t made a tiramisu since in was a teenager. Tiramisu used to be my standard contribution to school parties.
Anyway everything went fine till he got to taste the cream. The mascarpone we bought had quite a strong cheese flavor and the whole cream tasted quite strong of sweet cheese. My little chef was rather disgusted. A little bit vanilla and some lemon zest fixed the problem but I think till this day he remembers this and so far hasn’t eaten a tiramisu with the same love he had before.

Funny thigh is we developed a new appetite for it. I started experimenting with it and came up with quite a nice recipe.

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You’ll need:

  • 250gr mascarpone
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 2 tbs sugar
  • 1/4 tb vanilla seeds
  • zest of 1/2 lemon
  • 2 dl whipped cream
  • 1.5 cups strong black coffee mixed with
  • 2 tbs brandy
  • Savoiardi biscuits
  • some cocoa powder and black chocolate

Beat the egg yolks and the sugar till light. Add the mascarpone, vanilla seeds, lemon zest and mix well. Then add 2-3 tbs of the expresso- brandy mixture.  Beat the cream and add.
Dip the biscuits on both sides into the expresso brandy and place them on the bottom of a plate or an oven tray. Cover with a approx. 2 cm layer of the mascarpone mixture. Then comes an other layer of biscuits and one more mascarpone.
Let it rest in the fridge for at least 3 hours.
Dust it with cocoa powder and some grated frozen dark chocolate.