#9 Italian weekend: Tiramisu - without the eggs & alcohol

Since it was an Italian weekend for us, we made Tiramisu. Due to allergies, we omitted the eggs. And the alcohol as well. 

Tiramisu, literally "pick me up", never fails to make me smile.  There are many accounts as to the origin of Tiramisu. Some say it originated in the city of Siena, where a group of confectioners were said to have created it in honor of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo III in the late 1600's to early 1700's. Others say it originated at Treviso near Venice on Christmas Eve of 1969.  Many thanks to whoever first created it. This is one of the easiest to make, and most delicious dessert.

TIRAMISU

Ingredients:

FOR THE ESPRESSO:

1/2 cup water

2 tablespoons baker's sugar

2 tablespoons instant espresso granules

FOR THE FILLING:

1 block (8 oz.) of fat-free cream cheese

1 box (8 oz.) mascarpone cheese(I used a tiramisu flavored one)

1 tbsp. milk

1/2 cup baker's sugar 

FOR THE CAKE:

3 packs (24 pieces) cakelike lady fingers

unsweetened cocoa powder

bittersweet chocolate, grated

Directions:

1. Heat water in a sauce pan  over medium high heat and combine all 3 ingredients for the espresso.

Stir well and bring to a boil. Cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat. Cool.

2. Combine cream cheese, mascarpone cheese and sugar in a bowl.

3. Beat until smooth 

4. Split and arrange 12 lady fingers in a rectangle baking dish

5. Dip each lady finger in espresso for 1 second. ( You can dip for 3 seconds but I don't like to soak the entire cake with coffee), then put it back to the dish in the same arrangement.

6. Spread filling over espresso-soaked lady fingers. Use only 1/3 of the filling since you will have 2 more layers.

7. Repeat procedure with remaining lady fingers and filling.

8. Sprinkle cocoa powder evenly over top of filling.

9. Grate bittersweet chocolate on top of the cocoa powder. Chill for atleast 2 hours.

Every Sunday is our dessert day. We call it, "Sweet Sundays". We've made this a house rule a long time ago, to help curb our cravings for sweets. We eat foods with sugars during the week, like fruits, crackers, cereals- which is already loaded with sweetness. But we say no to all pastries overloaded with sugar and to ice cream. It was a difficult challenge in the beginning, but we survived! Now we don't care very much for sweets until the big day. The smell of  delicious baked goodies and other sweets we make on Sundays fill every corner of our home. I remember when we first started, we all binged! :) Now we're better. Sugar is sweet, sweet is yummy; Life is short but don't make it shorter by eating too much sugar! :) 

Well, she did not like the coffee taste and asked for chocolate ice cream instead. Next time I will make it with chocolate powder instead of the coffee granules.