Classic Tiramisu

There are plenty of reasons not to make tiramisu; where to find those damn ladyfingers, the fact that mascarpone costs an arm and a leg, and really, a $20 bottle of wine, that you mix with coffee?!  But there is one really great reason, it tastes amazing.  Luckily for us, this was the best tiramisu I've ever had.  It was worth every bit of work and worry, because when you eat a bite of tiramisu that tastes better than the stuff you had in Italy, you know it's over.  Shane picked out this dessert to finish off a dinner of pasta and wine, and even knowing how cost prohibitive it was, agreed to make it happen.  The ladyfingers, as it happens, were on my shelf, a box that I bought over a year ago (when I saw them in an Italian store in Vancouver and scooped them up).  Check one.  I went to the store aiming to buy mascarpone, money be damned.  But when I saw the $12 price tag my resolve fell away, I bought two cups of cream instead and went home to make my own. Check two.  Finally, I decided not to buy the Marsala wine, Shane and I don't like very sweet wines, and anyways, I knew we loved coffee liqueur with ours.  In the end I'd argue to anyone, this is the best tiramisu money can buy.

Baking notes:

-I used kahlua instead of marsala wine in the espresso mixture and frangelico in the egg yolk mixture.

-It took at least 15 minutes for the egg-frangelico mixture to reach 160 F, not 3 minutes as it states.

-I made my own mascarpone cheese, which worked wonderfully.

-The egg whites made the tiramisu so light and fluffy, I would not skip these!

The recipe for Classic Tiramisu can not be found online.

67/569