Tiramisu #...9?

Here we have yet another round of tiramisu, which I whipped up for a cousin who was visiting and would be leaving the next day. These were also the tiramisus that confirmed that baking works as a therapy for me when I'm super stressed.

I also confirmed this time that I need 3 layers of spéculoos cookies between cream layers. I got some decaffeinated coffee this time, which helps for my friends who are very sensitive to caffeine.

Want to know how to make it? Head over to my tutorial!

Triple Cheesecakes

Did I mention that I received some new springform pans for Christmas? I got about 4 of them, around 10.5 cm in diameter. Since with these, I now have a total of 8 mini springform pans, I used the opportunity to test some different recipes for cheesecakes, all in one go! As you can see, I made 3 types, and I made 2 of each type. They all have a butter cookie crust (with a tiny bit of almond).

Let me describe them from left to right:

Classic Cheesecake: This is a twist the "classic" recipe I usually use, with cream cheese and Greek yogurt (as sub for sour cream or fromage blanc that I used to use). I flavored this with rose, and topped with a berry sauce and cinnamon whipped cream.

Ricotta Cheesecake: I read somewhere about a cheesecake made out of ricotta, so I wanted to test it, since ricotta is a much lighter cheese than cream cheese. I flavored this one with lemon zest and lemon juice, topped with somewhat candied lemon slices. Although it was indeed lighter, I felt that the slight grittiness due to the ricotta's texture wasn't what I was looking for in cheesecake.

Greek Yogurt Cheesecake: This recipe was pure Greek yogurt, although I added a bit of starch to stabilize the mix. I really enjoyed the creaminess. I left this one vanilla flavored, and topped with a bit of berry sauce, and cinnamon whipped cream.

Served with more cinnamon whipped cream.

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THREE CHEESECAKE RECIPES (filling only)

  Ingredients

     Classic Cheesecake [2 x 12 cm pan]

• 200 g cream cheese
• 125 g Greek yogurt
• 1 1/3 eggs' worth of egg replacer
• 1/3 lemon's juice
• . rose water
• sugar
• topping

     Ricotta Cheesecake [2 x 10.5 cm pan]

• 250 g ricotta
• 2/3 eggs' worth of egg replacer
• 1/6 cup cream
• 1 lemon's zest
• 1/2 lemon's juice
• sugar
• topping

     Greek Yogurt Cheesecake [2 x 10.5 cm pan]

• 285 g Greek yogurt (~2 cups)
• 1 egg's worth of egg replacer
• 1/2 tbs cornstarch
• 1 pack vanilla sugar
• sugar
• topping

  Procedure

1. Mix all ingredients except the topping.
2. Pour into prepared pan (with prepared crust/base).
3. Bake at 180°C for 15 mins.
4. Let cool to room temperature, then refrigerate overnight.
5. Top as desired, and serve.

  Tips

     Put a pan filled with water on a rack underneath the cheesecakes while baking to provide steam and prevent cracking.

Mini Tiramisu

For the last hallway dinner of the semester, I volunteered to make dessert. To feed 9 (+ my cousin), I either had to make a large cake, or a bunch of mini-desserts.

Our hallway is funny: we have someone who's slightly lactose intolerant, someone allergic to gluten, and someone who's vegetarian (me). So I decided I would try to make tiramisu, and minimize the amount of lactose in it.

The first thing I did was bake a batch of gluten-free spéculoos. I am not used to working with gluten-free flour, and although I was mentally prepared (by Google) for extra stickiness while making the dough, it wasn't anything I could have prepared for without experience. I ended up having to add a lot more flour to make the dough possible to work with, which may have been the reason why the flavor wasn't as prominent as in all my other versions. I used a cleaned tomato concentrate can to cut out the circles, though the shape didn't need to be regular, since it would all collapse after a good coffee soak.

Then the usual soaking in coffee, layering with cream mix (whipped soy cream, ricotta, sugar, and a dash of coffee). I have 12 silicone cupcake molds, and seeing how there were 9 of us to feed, I figured making enough for 2 per person would work best. I used clear glasses and small jars to make up for the lack of recipients, but filled each about the same amount as I filled the cupcake molds.

Then simply the usage of a cut-out template to dust chocolate hearts on top of the tiramisus. I messed up the few first ones, as my template wasn't very good and I had to fix it, so I just covered those completely with chocolate powder.

Isn't this a nice view?

I took a picture of the one with the neatest heart.

And here's one with the heart after the chocolate dissolved a bit.

Egg-free Tiramisu in 8 Steps

Start by gathering the ingredients (makes 8 servings):
- 250 g of ricotta (healthier and cheaper than the traditional mascarpone)
- 1 pack of speculoos cookies
- whipping cream (I used ALPRO soy-based)
- coffee
- sugar
- chocolate powder

Prepare the receptacles you will put your tiramisu in. Mine were 4 short glasses, but you can use ramekins, large oven dishes, verrines, etc.

Step 1: Brew a bowl or cup of coffee and let it cool.

Step 2: In a large bowl whip the cream until the volume increases, then whisk in ricotta until smooth. Add sugar, and a spoonful of coffee if desired.

Step 3: Quickly soak some speculoos cookies in the cooled coffee.

Step 4: Layer it at the bottom of your glass (or other receptacle). Repeat desired number of times (I made 3 layers of cookies each time).

Step 5: Spoon in some of the ricotta mixture. This will form the 2nd layer.

Step 6: Repeat steps 4 and 5 as many times as desired. End with a ricotta layer.

Step 7: Refrigerate overnight, or at least 4 hours until set.
Step 8: Sift on some chocolate powder. You can either cover the whole top with chocolate, or use a template to make a shape.

You can see the layers very well in this half-eaten one:

Spinach ricotta lasagna and Cheesecake crumble

December 22, 2013
Had some relatives over for dinner, so I made a lasagna and a cheesecake.