It would be, probably, nice to post it last Wednesday – St. Patrick’s Day, but I’ve been running behind my schedule lately. This recipe is slightly adapted from very old Guinness brewers’ recipe which produces a flavorful, moist eggless cake.
I was improvising to satisfy my son’s sweet tooth. Nut meringue are surely nice, but when the kid is allergic to all possible nuts existing, barely sweetened cereals make acceptable substitute. Bittersweet chocolate and some chopped prunes cut the sweetness down a little. The latter also add a bit of chewiness to otherwise crispy throughout cookies.
I like this carrot jam and make it often. This is not the marmalade, but its intense citrus flavor and the texture reminiscent to orange peel always fool everyone. If you are not very exciting about making the carrot jam, but want to give these muffins a try, any marmalade (homemade or store-bought) should do the trick just as well. To be honest, I was basically throwing whatever I had on hand (carrot jam it was) into my mixing bowl. Nevertheless, the muffins turned out perfect.
This kind of dessert is my comfort food during sometimes seemingly endless rainy Vancouver days. It’s creamy, chocolaty, sweet and soothing.
This month’s Daring Bakers’ challenge was Italian tiramisu. Deeba from Passionate About Baking and Aparna from My Diverse Kitchen, the hosts of the challenge, chose Carminantonio’s tiramisu recipe from the “The Washington Post”, July 11, 2007. The whole thing was supposed to be made completely from scratch, including the savoiardi/ladyfingers biscuits (the chosen recipe is from the “Le Cordon Bleu at Home”) and mascarpone cheese (thank you for choosing my recipe here).
Frankly, it was quite a surprise for me to read through the tiramisu ingredients list. The recipe is somewhat unusual. It calls for only 75g of mascarpone (it’s a rarity a tiramisu recipe requires less than a pound of cheese) and some pastry cream (my first thought was a cheaper substitute). The recipe creator, probably, was using what he had on hand (there’s always some crème patisserie stash in a commercial fridge). I’ve encountered many different recipes of the Italian classic and mostly everywhere Zabaglione is a must, folded whipped egg whites are quite common, pastry cream…? Really unusual…
I changed a few things here and there (couldn’t help myself, sorry). I tripled the cheese amount (I still made the required pastry cream, don’t disqualify me, please) and reduced the sugar. I used a different technique for mixing the savoiardi batter (I’m a strong believer in the power of well-whipped egg yolks) and higher temperature for baking: it is really a full-proof method that never fails me. I also added a touch of gelatin to the cream filling mixture, just a tiny bit to stabilize the whole thing, so the dessert could be presented free-standing and sliced neatly without freezing in advance. And since there was no need to chill the zabaglione and pastry cream, the addition of gelatin also allowed me to speed up the assembly (as usual, I procrastinated until the 27th and had to rush). I actually was able to unmold and slice it just after 3 hours of refrigerating (although, no doubt, the flavor does improve after overnight chilling).
As for the flavor I stepped out of the tradition (we were allowed to). I used the kumquats - wonderful citrus fruits with a very short season. I flavored the pastry cream and zabaglione with the kumquat zest, and used Grand Marnier instead of Marsala. I dipped the ladyfingers into a mixture of orange juice, Grand Marnier and candied kumquat syrup. The candied kumquats themselves became a topping and a layer at the bottom. Extra syrup was passed around to dribble over the plated slices.
Deeba, Aparna, thank you for hosting! It’s a great idea to master the ladyfingers; they are so versatile!
Maybe not as fabulous as the real thing, not as overloaded with nuts and oversaturated with aromatic syrup, still, these are pretty good for what they are – little sweet treats made of some phyllo leftovers (there’s always something left unless the baklava itself was made). The fingers also keep better, stay crisp longer.
