From Italy, with love…

I remember the first time I tasted this little piece of Italian heaven. In a relatively new café known as ‘Sweet Chariot’ – way back in 2005; it felt so good, I almost assumed that there could be no way that one could possibly make it at home.

During the recent trip to Italy, I got the parents to sample it and they loved it so much, that I thought I must try, even though I still don’t know how to pronounce Savoiardi or even Mascarpone –for that matter.

So I scouted for the easiest and most convincing recipe on the internet and made it happen this weekend. A slight miscalculation resulted in a single layer tiramisu, but ideally there should be at least two!

If you feel so inclined, this is what you will need:

30 Savoiardi biscuits (or sponge fingers)

250 grams mascarpone cheese (or cream cheese)

200 ml whipping cream

250 ml sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

150 ml milk

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 tablespoon coffee (optional)

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Cocoa powder (for dusting)

Beat mascarpone/cream cheese with 1/2cup of sugar till creamy.

In another bowl, beat whipping cream with 1/4cup of sugar till stiff.
Then pour it into mascarpone bowl.

Add the vanilla essence and mix them till combined.

Mix all aforementioned ingredients in a bowl.

Prepare a rectangular dish
Dip the biscuits in the syrup, one by one and place them in the dish (Make sure to not drench them completely, the cream will make them soggy later anyway)
Dust some cocoa powder on top of the biscuits
Ladle in half the cream and repeat the process with another layer of biscuits
Dust with as much cocoa powder as you like on the top layer (through a tea sieve is the most convenient)  – make patterns if you like!
Refrigerated overnight

PS: There is a more complicated version of this, which includes eggs. And brandy. I’ve left that out because it tastes pretty darn awesome even without it – but here is where to go, should you want to try!