Tiramisu tart

December 11, 2020meza-admin

Prep time: 2 hours 30 minutes

Cook time: 30 minutes

Serves: 8-16 slices

A couple of days ago I was challenged to a “Tart-off” (yes, it sounds terrible). My mission was to bake a perfect Tiramisu tart. More than ashamed, I admit this was my first encounter making a tiramisu, let alone a tiramisu tart – which to my wonder is very uncommon. During my lifetime I ate plenty of this delightful dessert so I knew what I was looking for, I just didn’t know how to execute it.

This fun little competition resulted in a rather astonishing dessert aved by all whom tried it making, me wonder once again how come are tiramisu tarts so uncommon.

The crust:

Nothing out of the ordinary can be said about the crust itself. A classical tart crust infused with a single shot of espresso. I was thinking of being a bit more adventurous and creative to maybe enhance the flavor adding a portion of almond flour and/or some liquor but I feel the tart itself is very aromatic as is, so I kept it simple.

If brewing Moka coffee or just cooking it on your stove top try to either reduce it greatly or make it really really strong then pass through a filter to strain the grains. You don’t want to be putting a lot of liquid into tart dough as vaporing liquid during baking tends to make your crust shrink resulting in an uneven bake.

The “ladyfingers sponge”:

Replicating the store bought lady fingers the biggest key to achieve here was to make the sponge so dry and light. The recipe itself is rather simple. It’s a basic English sponge cake, but no matter what procedure you go through, within couple of hours from baking it will always soak up moisture from the air and become tender.

To cope with this problem, after having baked the sponge I left it in the closed turned off oven for as long as the sponge could bare. I think it was inside for a rough one hour at least.

Partially dehydrating the sponge I managed to overcome the softening very decently.

The cream:

besides the coffee. the ingredient that gives this tart it’s signature overwhelming aroma is the liquor used in the cream and sponge dip.

Traditionally, the mascarpone cream for Tiramisu is refined with Marsala wine – a Sicilian dessert wine fortified with brandy. It’s taste is nutty, sharply sweet with a hint of dried fruits and licorice. Since, when cooking I love to experiment, and above all I love sourcing local produce I decided to use a dessert wine local to my whereabouts.

The liquor i used was Dalmatian prošek, seldom compared to Italian prosecco, though taste wise and production wise it has nothing to do with it.

Wine liquor/dessert wine native to Adriatic shore is made by “Passito” method. Fresh grapes are partially dried on mats or by hanging them in bunches. They are then dried directly on the sun for about a week. The process of drying removes the water content of the grapes while concentrating sugar and flavor content. this results in a wine with high volume of alcohol, up to 18%. The grapes are then crushed and fermentation begins.

The aroma:

Besides the delicate liquor, meritorious ingredient for giving tiramisu it’s signature aroma is coffee. Ideally, you really want a freshly brewed espresso from an espresso machine as it’s flavor is way more concentrated than brewing on your stovetop. If stovetop brewing is your only option, bare in mind to brew the coffee at least twice as stronger as you regularly would and use as least water as possible. Another neat option would be to simply stroll down your neighborhood caffe while waiting for your dough to chill in the fridge and buy a couple of espresso shots.

I’m not going to lecture you as of white sort of coffee to use because I feel that’s something of a personal preference. I bought mine from my local brewers https://kava.family/ as I beforehand mentioned I love sourcing local produce.

Another key ingredient, which applies in general when baking is to use good vanilla. Be it extract, paste, powder or bean it makes a tremendous difference. In this recipe I used Nielsen Massey’s vanilla extract, a bit on the price side but worth every cent.

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Tiramisu tart

  • Prep time: 2 hours 30 minutes
  • Cook time: 30 minutes
  • Total time: 3 hours
  • Serves: 8-16 slices

Ingredients

For the "ladyfingers sponge"

  • 3 eggs
  • 60 gr granulated sugar
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 70 gr all purpose flour
  • 2 shots of espresso, (for dipping later)
  • 0.3dl wine liquor (prosecco), (for dipping later)

For the tart crust

  • 200 gr all purpose flour
  • 150 gr room temperature butter
  • 20 gr powdered sugar
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 shot espresso

For the tiramisu cream:

  • 5 eggs
  • 100 gr granulated sugar
  • 500 gr mascarpone cheese
  • 0.7 dcl wine liquor (prosecco)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 pinch salt

To garnish

  • cocoa

Method

For the tart crust:

  • 1)

    Place your softened butter into a mixing bowl, add sifted sugar and mix well with a spatula, until creamy.

  • 2)

    Now add your yolk and continue mixing.

  • 3)

    Now add your espresso and mix to incorporate. (Once you mix in your espresso the buttery mix will seem to have separated, but just give it a good beating for a minute and it will come back together.)

  • 4)

    once all your wet ingredients are beautifully blended, add your sifted flour and salt.

  • 5)

    Work the dough with your hands as least as possible until roughly formed a dough (Do not kneed!)

  • 6)

    Press your dough down with your hands into a disc, cover with cling film and refrigerate for an hour.

For the "ladyfingers sponge"

  • 1)

    While our dough is resting, we will prepare this simple sponge.

    pre heat the oven to 170*C and separate yolks and whites. In a mixing bowl place your egg yolks along with 30gr sugar and beat well with a mixer until very thick, light yellow and creamy. (this will take somewhere between 5-10 minutes) best way to check is to dip your finger into the cream. If you don’t feel any sugar you’re good to go.

  • 2)

    Now add vanilla extract and mix well shortly until incorporated.

  • 3)

    In a separate bowl, mix egg whites, along with a small pinch of salt on medium speed until you get soft peaks. (2-3 minutes). Once soft peaks are present, turn the speed to high adding the rest of you sugar (30gr) gradually. Mix until you get sharp spikes and a glossy firm texture. (Or flip the bowl over your head and check if it falls….on your head.)

  • 4)

    Now sift the flour over the egg yolks mixture then add salt and 1/3 of your egg whites meringue.

  • 5)

    Fold in your flour and meringue with a spatula gently going all the way from the bottom to the top as flour tends to fall down.

  • 6)

    Once incorporated, add the rest of your meringue and keep gently folding.

  • 7)

    Once all the ingredients are well combined, transfer to a baking tray aligned with parchment paper. (I drizzled a bit of oil under the parchment paper to help it stick.)

  • 8)

    Now using a offset spatula, distribute the mixture evenly around the surface making sure it’s not more than 0.5cm thick.

  • 9)

    Place inside your preheated oven on 170*C and bake for about 15 minutes or until beautifully golden brown.

  • 10)

    Once done, turn the oven off and leave it inside for another half an hour or so. If the oven seems too hot, or if the dough has already got a rather darker color, open the oven door slightly to let some of the heat out.

  • 11)

    Once done, while still warm cut out the sponge to your desired shape to fit your tart mold.

Back to tart crust:

  • 1)

    Place your chilled tart dough in between two sheets of parchment paper and flour lightly.

  • 2)

    Gently roll out the dough. Apply no greater pressure than the rolling pin itself. Applying pressure while rolling tart crust will cause it to break, so just be patient.

  • 3)

    So basically the easiest way to make a round shape is to pass the rolling pin back and forth until it doubles in length, then rotate the dough 45* and repeat this step.

  • 4)

    Roll the dough until very thin (about 5 mm), and feel free to lightly dust as needed while rolling. Also make sure the diameter of the dough is about 6 cm wider than the diameter of the mold. (the recipe works for up to 28 cm molds)

  • 5)

    Now align your baking mold with parchment paper and grease the edges with butter.

  • 6)

    Tuck in the edges of the mold, but very gently, as pressing hard would make the dough think around the edges and collapse the tart.

  • 7)

    Place the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes (or even better into a freezer) to let the dough set and pre heat the oven to 175*C.

  • 8)

    Take out of the fridge and poke the dough with a fork. This is crucial so the dough doesn’t bubble up from escaping steam while baking.

  • 9)

    Now to blind bake the tart pastry, cover the whole dough with parchment paper, it’s important to cover the edges as well, as they would burn off very quickly.

  • 10)

    Now fill the dish with baking beans, rice, beans, lentils or what ever you have in your pantry.

  • 11)

    Place inside your pre heated oven on 175*C for 20 minutes. Once done let cool off 15-20 minutes with the beans still in place, then remove beans and let cool completely.

To make the tiramisu cream.

  • 1)

    Separate egg yolks from egg whites. Place your yolks in a heatproof bowl, along with sugar, and wine liquor.

  • 2)

    Place the bowl over bain-marie on medium heat and whisk constantly until thick and creamy. (it will take in between 5-10 minutes.)

  • 3)

    Once beautifully creamy and bright yellow, remove from the heat and add mascarpone (preferably room temp.) to your egg mixture, along with vanilla and a small pinch of salt.

  • 4)

    Beat well with a whisk until incorporated. At first you’re going to think, no, this will never come together I need a mixer, and 30 seconds later it will come together.

  • 5)

    If your mascarpone cheese wasn’t room temp like mine, you’ll need to pass the cream through a fine sieve to remove lumps.

  • 6)

    Now beat your egg whites along with a small pinch of salt until you get sharp peaks and a glossy thick texture. (You don’t really need the salt when making meringue, salt or acid just helps it stay together.)

  • 7)

    Once your meringue is beautifully thick and glossy, add half of it to your mascarpone cream and fold in slowly and carefully.

  • 8)

    Once all is incorporated, add the second half and fold again.

To build your tart:

  • 1)

    Take your crust, and fill the bottom with tiramisu cream and spread out evenly using a silicone or offset spatula.

  • 2)

    Now mix together two shots of espresso and wine liquor. Very quickly dip the ladyfinger sponge into the mixture on both sides and place over the cream. (Less is definitely more when soaking ladyfingers in coffee! leaving them any longer than two seconds will make them fall apart and make your tiramisu watery as they will absorb too much liquid.)

  • 3)

    Now fill the tart with cream to the top and even it out with an offset spatula.

  • 4)

    decorate per wish with more cream and sift over fresh cocoa.

Nutrition

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