Tiramisù Cups

| By: Riya Mehta |

Since I was little, I have always been a fan of Tiramisù! The way the sponginess of the cake mixes in with the taste of coffee and the creaminess of the filling is just delightful. A lot of recipes for Tiramisù actually use drinks like rum or cognac, but I have opted out of using alcoholic beverages in this recipe.

Ingredients

Yield: 4 servings

• 3 egg yolks

• ¼ cup of sugar

• 2 tablespoons of Marsala wine

• 1 ½ cup of strong coffee with a few spoons of sugar (any type is fine but must be cooled before use)

• 10 oz of Angel Food cake (store bought is fine)

• ½ oz of heavy cream

• Unsweetened cocoa for decoration

For Mock Marscapone:

• 8 oz of cream cheese (let this reach room temperature)

• ½ teaspoon of vanilla extract

• 3 tablespoons of vanilla Greek yogurt

Cooking Instructions

1. First, place a pan of water onto the stove and let simmer. While this is simmering, add the egg yolks, sugar, and Marsala wine into a medium sized metal bowl. Whisk this mixture until thoroughly mixed. Be sure not to use a plastic bowl as the bowl will be placed over heat.

2. Place the metal bowl with the mixture onto the pan of simmering water and whisk for about 5-7 minutes. You should see the texture of the mixture first become bubbly, then start to thicken a bit. It should be creamy at the end of your whisking. Let the bowl and mixture cool once it thickens.

3. In a small metal bowl, whisk the heavy cream until it forms peaks. Start out slow and move to higher speeds gradually. I used an electric mixer for this for better consistency. This should take about 2-3 minutes. You should now have two bowls, one with the egg mixture and one with the whipped cream.

4. To make the mock mascarpone, add the cream cheese, vanilla extract, and Greek yogurt to another medium sized mixing bowl. Mix together thoroughly. I used an electric mixer here again for efficiency. This should take about 2 minutes.

5. Add the first egg mixture to the bowl with the mock mascarpone and mix at a medium speed. When you think this has been completely mixed, slowly fold in the whipped cream that was made earlier. You have now made the filling of the tiramisù!

6. Arrange the glasses in which you would like to display the dish. Pour the coffee into a wide bowl and cut the Angel Food cake into pieces that will fit into your parfait glasses. Dip each slice of cake into the coffee for about 4 seconds on each side, making sure the cake is completely soaked but is not falling apart. Create the first layer by placing the soaked cake at the bottom of the glass. Add 1 or 2 spoons of the filling as the next layer. Continue this process by alternating layers until the cup has been completely filled. The number of layers will depend on the size of your glasses and the sizes of your cake pieces. Make sure to end with a layer of filling at the top of each glass.

7. Dust a bit of cocoa powder on top of the final layer for aesthetics.

Notes

• All ingredients can easily be found in a grocery store.

• As a substitute for the mock mascarpone in the filling, you can also use mascarpone cheese. I found that the cream cheese gave it a creamier texture.

• You can serve tiramisù cups cold (after refrigerating for a few hours).

• If saving for later, dust cocoa powder on top when ready to serve.

• An alternative to cocoa powder can be hot chocolate powder. I used hot chocolate powder since I did not have cocoa powder readily available.

• Pound cake or vanilla cake can also be used instead of Angel Food cake. It is up your liking.