Tiramisu

This is a recipe that is an adaption of a Martha Stewart recipe for tiramisu. I believe she shops in different grocery stores than I do, so I have made some substitutions:) The book in which the recipe was found is called Dinner at Home and it is stunning. I recommend it highly even though I do not generally keep cookbooks around since the invention of the Internet.

Ingredients:

Vanilla wafers or shortbread cookies

8 oz mascarpone cheese - room temperature
2/3 cup whipping cream
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla or one vanilla bean
3 tablespoons brandy or spiced rum
1/2 cup sugar

At least one cup of expresso or Very Strong coffee

1 dark chocolate candy bar of some good quality chocolate

Directions:

1. Brew the coffee and let it cool.

2. Line the bottom of a glass bread pan with vanilla wafers. Slowly drizzle about 1/2 of the expresso coffee over them until they are tinged brown. Don't soak them. You want them flavored but not soggy.

3. Put the cheese, cream, vanilla, brandy, and sugar into a glass bowl with fairly tall sides. Whip this mixture with an electric mixer on high until it forms stiff peaks. This will take about 4 minutes.

4. When you have a nice stiff cheese mixture, spread half of it over the expresso flavored cookies.

5. Scrape some of the chocolate bar with a vegetable peeler and sprinke some chocolate over the cheese layer.

6. Dip more cookies in the remaining coffee, and layer them over the cheese mixture. When you are finished, spread the other half of the cheese mixture over the cookies.

7. Scrape more of chocolate and sprinkle generously over the top of the cheese.

8. Cover with plastic or aluminum foil and refrigerate for at least 1/2 hour. Serve on plates or in dessert goblets.

Enjoy!

If life must be a race to use up everything we have, who exactly will win that race?
Barbara Kingsolver in Small Wonder