Dolce! - Tiramisu -

Tiramisu -- this was a killer I did it. I made tiramisu for the first time in my life. From what I have read in keiko’s post in March, I assumed that tiramisu is relatively easy to make.　So even when I couldn’t find lady fingers anywhere around and baking genoise myself seemed inevitable, I didn’t chicken out. After googling with the keywords “tiramisu,” “marsala” and “genoise,” and finding this recipe on top of the list, I just went for it with no second thought. Yes, nothing was terribly difficult about making tiramisu. It was fun baking the genoise, making the coffee syrup, making layers of genoise and mascarpone cheese cream and sifting cocoa on top to garnish. (I skipped the whipped cream and the chocolate gratings.) When I tasted it, however, I found so many points that I need to improve or do differently next time. It was just TOO SWEET!! No, it’s not necessarily the recipe’s fault or the cultural difference in the preference of sweetness. It’s the sugar I used, I suppose. I used the cheapest brand of granulated sugar, and even for the part that recipe said “superfine,” I used the same cheap thing and did not bother to mill it in blender. (Or I might have made a mistake in conversion.) Also, the marsala I used was “dolce” so that probably contributed a lot to the extra sweetness. What was more, I made 2 layers of genoise in this small ramekin, which made the taste of coffee syrup in genoise dominant instead of the taste of mascarpone cream. A big mistake, especially when I used the cheap mascarpone that didn’t have as much cheese flavor as imported ones. I managed to eat this much, and thought that was all I could eat at one time. The rest is for tomorrow. So, next time I will: 1) use less amount of better sugar, 2) make sure to first add less amount of sugar than what the recipe calls for and gradually add more, tasting frequently, to reach the sweetness I want, 3) make sure to put more mascarpone cream than genoise when making layers, 4) make weaker coffee for the syrup (It was almost giving me mild caffeine-overdose symptoms…I mean, I should have known better even though the recipe said “the strongest you can make.”) , and 5) use a glass container so that the layers will show. Well, better luck next time! ;) ---- Oh, BTW, this has nothing to do with the tiramisu, but I found a helpful info. on the net about whipping cream. Some of you readers might remember that I once complained about my whipped cream always turning out rather runny no matter how long I whip. The reason was that some whipping cream do not contain as much fat as others, and I always used the one with a low fat content. In a Japanese cooking forum site, someone commented that adding a little pectin powder (or a little jam that contains pectin) helps whipping cream thicken and improves whippability and stiffness. A great tip for getting rid of my "I-can't-whip-cream-like-everybody-else inferiority" ;)