This week's Baked Sunday Mornings recipe, "Blood Orange Tiramisu," was a bit of a paradox. In my mind, tiramisu has a few essential components -- ladyfingers, mascarpone, coffee, and cocoa. If any one of those is missing, it's not tiramisu. But this version from the Baked boys doesn't have any coffee at all -- it's been replaced with blood orange juice and Grand Marnier. This made me contemplate the very essence of tiramisu, and whether or not blood orange tiramisu can actually be tiramisu at all.
But onto the recipe. It's very easy and doesn't require you to turn on the oven or use the stove. It was so easy that I decided would make my own ladyfingers, using Flo Braker's "Sponge Ladyfinger" recipe from The Simple Art of Perfect Baking (the same cookbook also has a recipe for génoise ladyfingers).
To make the ladyfinger batter, you whip egg yolks until thick and pale and add a little vanilla; fold the egg yolk mixture into egg whites that have been beaten with sugar to stiff peaks; and fold in sifted cake flour and sugar. You pipe out the batter into fingers, sprinkle the cookies with powdered sugar, and bake. As it happens, the recipe produced exactly the amount of ladyfingers I needed to make the tiramisu, with a couple to spare, so I was able to taste one plain -- it was soft and delicious, a perfect little spongecake.
The tiramisu is comprised of three distinct layers: ladyfingers dipped in a mixture of blood orange juice and Grand Marnier; a mascarpone filling (made with egg yolks, sugar, mascarpone cheese, orange zest, Grand Marnier, and egg whites beaten with salt to soft peaks); and cocoa powder. I chilled the assembled tiramisu overnight and sprinkled some chocolate shavings on top before cutting and serving.
When I sliced the tiramisu, I saw that the ladyfingers were not completely soaked with the blood orange juice (I used Moro oranges and the juice was very dark). The recipe instructs you to soak each cookie from top to bottom, a second or two on each side. While I did make sure to dip both sides of each ladyfinger into the fruit juice, I was afraid of the cookies getting too soggy and so I kept the drunking pretty brief. Apparently too brief, because you could see the dark red color of the juice isolated to the tops and bottoms of the ladyfingers, leaving the centers still completely pale.
Still, I thought that this dessert was delicious. I was afraid that the Grand Marnier mixed in with the orange juice and mascarpone mixture might make it too alcoholic for me to enjoy, but the alcohol was fairly subtle. The orange flavor was bright and a great complement to the mascarpone; the coldness of the dish was refreshing. And even though the centers of the ladyfingers were not saturated with juice, they were not dry at all. Eating this dessert gave me the odd sensation of eating a multi-layer and moist sponge cake with mascarpone frosting. I loved it.
Also, the dish was surprisingly easy to cut and serve with no muss and no fuss. The above photo shows my Pyrex pan after I cut and removed the first piece, using only a rigid plastic spatula. The layer of ladyfingers on the bottom lifted up cleanly leaving almost no residue behind. The different layers looked neat and consistent -- I would be comfortable bringing the entire pan to the table and serving it in front of guests.
Back to my original question of whether of this dish is actually tiramisu -- despite the lack of coffee, this dish did still read like tiramisu to me. Regardless of the name, I thought it was fantastic. And if you use store-bought ladyfingers, you can put it together in no time at all. This is a beautiful winter or springtime dessert.
Recipes:
Previous Posts:
But onto the recipe. It's very easy and doesn't require you to turn on the oven or use the stove. It was so easy that I decided would make my own ladyfingers, using Flo Braker's "Sponge Ladyfinger" recipe from The Simple Art of Perfect Baking (the same cookbook also has a recipe for génoise ladyfingers).
To make the ladyfinger batter, you whip egg yolks until thick and pale and add a little vanilla; fold the egg yolk mixture into egg whites that have been beaten with sugar to stiff peaks; and fold in sifted cake flour and sugar. You pipe out the batter into fingers, sprinkle the cookies with powdered sugar, and bake. As it happens, the recipe produced exactly the amount of ladyfingers I needed to make the tiramisu, with a couple to spare, so I was able to taste one plain -- it was soft and delicious, a perfect little spongecake.
The tiramisu is comprised of three distinct layers: ladyfingers dipped in a mixture of blood orange juice and Grand Marnier; a mascarpone filling (made with egg yolks, sugar, mascarpone cheese, orange zest, Grand Marnier, and egg whites beaten with salt to soft peaks); and cocoa powder. I chilled the assembled tiramisu overnight and sprinkled some chocolate shavings on top before cutting and serving.
Still, I thought that this dessert was delicious. I was afraid that the Grand Marnier mixed in with the orange juice and mascarpone mixture might make it too alcoholic for me to enjoy, but the alcohol was fairly subtle. The orange flavor was bright and a great complement to the mascarpone; the coldness of the dish was refreshing. And even though the centers of the ladyfingers were not saturated with juice, they were not dry at all. Eating this dessert gave me the odd sensation of eating a multi-layer and moist sponge cake with mascarpone frosting. I loved it.
Back to my original question of whether of this dish is actually tiramisu -- despite the lack of coffee, this dish did still read like tiramisu to me. Regardless of the name, I thought it was fantastic. And if you use store-bought ladyfingers, you can put it together in no time at all. This is a beautiful winter or springtime dessert.
Recipes:
- "Sponge Ladyfingers" from The Simple Art of Perfect Baking by Flo Braker, recipe available here at Cookstr.
- "Blood Orange Tiramisu" from Baked Occasions by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, recipe available here at Baked Sunday Mornings.
Previous Posts:
- "My Cakes Could Use a Pick Me Up: Tiramisu Cake," August 2, 2014.
- "A Little Cake a Lot Like Tiramisu: Coffee Mascarpone Cake," June 30, 2013.
- "Vegan Birthday Treats: Raspberry Tiramisu Cupcakes," December 20, 2012.
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