Tiramisu

Apparently you can't go anywhere in London nowadays without encountering spontaneous corporate-sponsored choreographed group dancing. There are the en masse wannabe Beyonce dancers at Picadilly Circus, kids on the Tube who spend waaaay too much time watching the Thriller video, and scenes like this at a London train station (the little old lady at 1:55 in the clip in my fav):


For the record, this wouldn't happen in North Dakota. It's a little too silly, a little too outside the social norm, and a helluva lot of work to put on this production for our sparsely populated region. Our dancing is limited to the polka, the bouncy country two-step, and the Chicken Dance, and that's good enough for us, thankyouverymuch.

My freshman year of college I went to London for spring break with my friend Hannah. I did not encounter spontaneous street dancing like this, by the way. Like typical American teenagers, we spent a large portion of our time there wandering the streets in search of pop culture icons: the red telephone booth, Abbey Road, the royal family.

Along the way we stopped at Troubador Cafe, supposedly one of Bob Dylan's first venues in the city before he went Big Time. This little hole-in-the-wall cafe makes a couple bucks off of that claim to fame, however I will always remember the Troubador Cafe for one thing: tiramisu.


I know, only I would go to London to try a famous Italian dessert, but I'd never had tiramisu before that meal, and it was a revelation. I was hooked. I still am. Almost anytime I see tiramisu on a restaurant menu, I'll order it. However, I never made it myself. It seemed too complicated, too lusty, too dangerous to have an ENTIRE PAN of it available to me for my own personal consumption.

But what the heck, let's live dangerously. First, a few words of warning:

1. I didn't measure the booze when I made it and the bottom layer ended up tasting like a frat party. I blame my heavy hand on my alcohol abstinance for the past nine months - my subconscious self made me do it.

2. Sorry about all the special ingredients, but it is possible to find these things at the supermarket, I tried to give hints. Happy hunting.

3. Don't even ask about fat and calorie content. Seriously.

My chronic addiction to all things Michael Cera will not let me end without adding the great Superbad home ec scene. "When am I going to need to cook tiramisu? Am I going to be a chef? No."


Tiramisu

6 egg yolks
3/4 cup white sugar
2/3 cup milk
1 cup whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
16 oz. mascarpone cheese (look in specialty cheese section of supermarket)
1/2 cup strong coffee, room temperature
3 Tablespoons rum (can substitute part with amaretto, Kahlua, creme de cacao, etc)
14 oz. package ladyfinger cookies (look in Italian section of supermarket)
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder

In a medium saucepan, whisk together egg yolks and sugar until well blended. Whisk in milk and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture boils. Boil gently for 1 minute, remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Mixture will be thick and creamy. Cover tightly and chill in refrigerator 1 hour. When cooled, whisk mascarpone into yolk mixture until smooth.

In a medium bowl, beat cream with vanilla until stiff peaks form to make whipped cream.

In a small bowl, combine coffee and liquor. Drizzle over ladyfingers. Arrange half of soaked ladyfingers in bottom of a 7 x 11 inch dish. Spread half of mascarpone mixture over ladyfingers, then half of whipped cream over that. Repeat layers. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 to 6 hours, until set. Best when served 24-48 hours after prep. Sprinkle top with cocoa just before serving.

PS - Save the egg whites! I'll post a recipe using those next (two words: Coconut. Macaroons.)