Cherry and Cocoa Tiramisu

Short Cut Tiramisu

This is one of my short cut versions of tiramisu. Basically, I've left the eggs out. True, the more original recipe with eggs does have a more refined taste, eggs or zabaglione add fine nuance to it. If you are looking for the original recipe, here's one with a short treatise to the history of tiramisu. This recipe is maybe a tad lighter, less fussy and works especially if you cannot use eggs for one reason or another (obviously there could be egg in the bisquits). For instance, eggs can carry salmonella and they spoil easy. Not that a good tiramisu has a chance of spoiling because it doesn't live that long...

You can easily convert this recipe to resemble more the original one by using strong espresso instead cocoa and use coffee liquor, brandy or rum (the right kind of spirit is under debate) instead of cherry liquor. My choice is brandy. Omit cherry jam. If you're looking for a nice twist, try adding lemon juice and rind (a few spoonfuls, taste) into the cream-cheese mass. If you are allergic to eggs, you can use some other kind of bisquit that can absorb up the liquid used (cocoa, coffee) or eggless sponge cake.

Cheese I use in this is known as "fresh cheese" in Finnish.  Traditionally for tiramisu you use Mascarpone cheese but at least in Finland they don't have it low-lactose. Plus, if you want less fat, there are more meagre versons of fresh cheese; Mascarpone tends to be rather rich in that sense. Internet dictionaries translate "fresh cheese" to unripened cheese, cream cheese, curd-style cheese and American cottage cheese. One of the brand names for it is Philadelphia. Basically it's soft cheese (plain and flavoured) you can spread over bread, or use in cold cheese cakes. And tiramisu.

Cherry and Cocoa Tiramisu

This makes for 8-10 people. Taste for sugar, as I do tend to avoid excess sweetness in desserts, add sugar if you find it too sour. The amount of sugar used, plus sweetness of liquor and bisquits make this cake gently sweet but not over the top.

• 1 dl cherry liquor
• 350gr savoiardi (ladyfinger) bisquits
• 6 dl whipping cream
• 600gr plain "fresh cheese", (unripened cheese)
• 0,5 dl sugar
• 1,5 dl cherry jam
• 4-5 dl strong cocoa (from pure cocoa powder) + few spoonfuls of sugar
• Cocoa powder to garnish

1. Make the cocoa by whipping powder into water. Use pure cocoa powder, not any of those mixes containing also sugar, milk and/or extra flavourings. Bring it to boil briefly, just a few bubbles and then remove from the heat. Mix in the liquor and sugar. Do not add milk. Set aside to cool.

2. Put fresh cheese in a bowl with sugar and mix until it softens up.







3. Whip the cream.  Mix the cream into the fresh cheese in small portions. Patience is virtue here, rushing and mixing cream in big portions causes the mass to become lumpy. Taste for sugar, add more if it's not sweet enough. Mix thoroughly.






4. Lay the bisquits into bottom of a tin. Moisten generously with cocoa mixture.






5. Spread the cherry jam thinly over the bisquits, then spread half of the cream-cheese mix.

6. Make another layer of the bisquits on top of the cream-cheese mass and moisten it with the remaining cocoa.

7. Spread over the rest of the cream-cheese mass and put it into fridge overnight to set.




8. Next day, sieve cocoa powder over, add some cherries to garnish and serve!