As a fairly orthodox (heterodox?) individual, it will be fairly clear why knowledge of the usual ingredients in the popular Italian dessert known as Tiramisu keeps me from enjoying this particular delicacy; so I've tried to create a variation using my own rules about what is halal and what is not: the first is based on fairly straightforward substitution; with the second I've begun to add some more variation. Eventually, I suppose, this may evolve into an entirely new dessert altogether; for now though, this is what I've done. Amounts are approximate, because that's how I cook. For standard Tiramisu recipes, I simply used Google - some called for decaf coffee, some didn't call for the alcohol, many left out the heavy whipping cream - but that's all irrelevant; I picked what I thought would be good and went with it. (When you're adapting a recipe, I've found it's best to go with the lovliest, most decadent recipe you can to start with.)
First Variation
Ingredients (in no useful order):Pero
Heavy whipping cream
Eggs
Sparkling grape juice - I used Meier's [fake] Spumante. It's a bit tart, which is definitely good- the point of this is not to add more sugar.
Sugar- not much
Neufchatel cheese
Ladyfingers
First, I boiled water and made up the Pero, to about triple strength. My reasoning? Tiramisu - the best tiramisu - is made with espresso. More thoughts on this under future variations, below. Note: it is tempting, for the sake of expediency, to simply dump the pero into the pot with the boiling water. Do not do this. Just as with herbal tea, some flavor will be lost through overboiling. Put the water into a shallow pan, add the powder, and do any needed mixing there. You'll want this to cool a bit, so set it aside. Oh, splash in some
fruit du vin, here. (That, for the less french-inclined, is a joke: fruit du vin means fruit of the vine, but the word for vine and the word for wine are the same....)
Ok, now the tricky parts. Separate the eggs. I used six, but then, I had a huge, monster packet (over a pound) of ladyfingers to use up. I take out any blood spots, as I find these unattractive; but be sure and resist the temptation to do this before the yolk and the white are separated. Important: in most recipes where you separate eggs, you can throw any mistakes in with the yolks and be fine. Not so with this. First, take the yolks and beat them - with a fork, probably - until they turn from a bright, lovely orangy-yellow to a soft, golden, creamy yellow. This takes a few minutes, but is so worth doing. If you have left too much white in with the yolks, this will be difficult-to-impossible to achieve. (Come to think of it, the application of an electric mixer might solve it; more on this, probably, later - as in another posting.) Once the yolks are entirely the right color-lighter and creamier - pour them into a mixing bowl with a small splash of grape juice (did I mention this should
not be red or purple or anything other than white grape juice?) and about two packets of neufchatel cheese. I chose neufchatel not for its supposed health value over traditional cream cheese (if you want healthy, you should not be making tiramisu) - but because it is a bit closer in consistency to the traditional mascarpone, which is what is normally used for this dish, but is a little harder to find here. A small glug of sugar (think two to four tablespoons -and this is totally a case where less is more) and mix away. Use a folding attachment if you have one (on my handmixer, these look like beaters with only one cross bar, instead of two - two dimensional, as it were; think regular instead of phillip's head) otherwise you might be better off to hand mix, though if you do that you might want to beat the neufchatel cheese separately with a handmixer for a bit first, then put in the egg stuff, so that it's a little easier when it comes to folding by hand. Anyway, however you do it, get this stuff mixed together. Smooth. It really does need to be smooth.
Now, take the whites - no yolk in these, and, after some quick work with a metal spoon, no blood spots, either. Whip them up, just like you were making meringue. In fact, I love to do the meringue test - when you can turn the bowl upside down without anything sliding out, it's ready.
One small spoonful of sugar might not go amiss here, if you must - I didn't, and I don't recommend it. A pinch of salt, on the other hand, is definitely a helpful item; it will make the whipping go faster and fluffier. Don't overdo it, though.
Ok, so fold the whites into the yolk mixture. Definitely do this by hand; a rubber or a wooden spatula will work for this. The idea is to mix well without substantially decreasing fluffiness; this is a really good trick once you get the hang of it, useful for all kinds of cullinary shenanigans - again, there will possibly be more on this somewhat later.
So, you can use the (metal or glass, not plastic) bowl that you mixed the egg whites in for mixing up the whipping cream. Throw in a good-sized splash of your
jus des grapes (more french, meaning "juice from grapes" - see, don't it feel like gourmet cooking already!) and some more -not too much- sugar.
Layering: Get a metal spatula ready. Open the packet(s) of ladyfingers - you want to be ready to move. You don't have to be lightning fast, as this isn't, for example, phillo dough -but if you get called away for a phone call or your one of your children starts pulling down the bookshelf, you will want to move
very fast when you return. Set your pans up in this order: Ladyfingers, Pero, egg mixture, then whipping cream. Put the (rectangular) dish in front of this row, so you can move it along quite easily. Put serving/spreading utensils in with each item. You can, if you want to, measure about how many lady fingers fit in your serving pan; there is very little use, though, as they change size and - to a degree - shape, once you've soaked them, anyway.
Here goes: Drop (gently, to avoid breaking) ladyfingers into the pero, scooping them out with the metal spatula (or a pie slicer could work nicely) and arranging them attractively in the bottom of your serving pan, once they have soaked up just enough of the liquid to be tasty and not so much as to completely disintigrate. Hopefully you will have enough for two (three would be too much to hope for) layers - it goes without needing to be said, nevertheless I am saying it: don't soak the next layer until you have completely assembled the first one. Arrange prettily-this doesn't affect the flavor, but it's just fun. Spread the egg mixture over this, and then, somewhat thinly, the whipping cream. Repeat. The last layer of whipping cream should be a bit thicker.
Now get some (unsweetened, and un-dutched if you have it-I didn't, but it generally tastes nicer) cocoa powder, put it in a seive - not a colander, which is used for draining spaghetti, but a seive, which has a fairly fine wire mesh. Shake it over the top. (If this is for someone who cannot handle chocolate, use more pero powder for this step.)
Chill. I mean the dessert - the longer you can hold off, the better it tastes; an hour is the minimum the recipes I looked at recommended. Enjoy.
Second VariationMelt one packet of semi-sweet chocolate chips in a double boiler. Add some cocoa powder - so we're looking at kind of demi-sweet rather than semi-sweet. Pour it into the bottom of your serving dish. Assemble the other ingredients as described above, on top of it. Dunk the bottom of the pan in hot water for a bit before serving.
Third VariationFreeze the whole thing. Then eat.
Future InnovationsPear juice. Chocolate drizzled on top. Less whipping cream. More on this, probably, later.
More (this is later) future innovationsInstead of Pero, getting organic Cocoa beans and roasting them in my own oven, then running them through my soy-milk machine (would this boil them too long? I think it's mostly a steaming process, which is what I'm looking for... Still thinking about this one.
