Tuesday, June 28, 2011

*Lemon* Tiramisu, How I Love You...

Well let me tell you, my friend Ella gave me this great idea for a recent 50th Anniversary party I threw.  She sent me some recipes on a Tiramisu.  Normally, it is a chocolate/coffee confection and being in the midst of summer, the original sounds more of a winter/comforting combination.  So it was decided that Lemon Tiramisu would fit the bill perfectly.  This recipe is gluten-free and some of the folks attending do not care for chocolate.  The lemon version seemed to be right choice on all fronts.  There are several tips I will share that will make this labor intensive dessert a bit easier for you to make ahead.


I would seriously make this dish at least 4-5 days in advance.  And that is after it is all put together.  So you may be birthing this for up to a week!  I would highly recommend making the ladyfingers and lemon syrup at least 2 days before assembling, and letting it meld in the refrigerator for minimum of 3 days.

Gluten Free Ladyfingers
(adaped from Celiac Teen's recipe)
1/4 C Rice Flour
1/4 C Cornstarch
3 TB Other G-Free Flour (potato, sorghum, etc.)
3 Eggs Separated
3 TB Sugar
1/2 Tsp. Xanthan Gum (you could get away without it, so not to worry if you don't have available)

Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks with slow addition of sugar.  Whisk egg yolks until frothy and slowly add dry ingredients.  Eventually fold into egg whites reserving as many air pockets as possible.

Take batter and pour into large ziploc.  Snip off an end to serve as a piping tool and carefully pipe onto parchment paper or foil on cookie sheet.  Pipe out the size of a standard ladyfinger and do as many as you can and bake 350 degrees for around 10 min.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar and let cool and store in refrigerator.  You will need to do 2-3 batches to get to the 40 ladyfingers necessary.


Lemon Syrup

5-6 average size lemons
1 C Sugar
1 C Water

Zest all the lemons and squeeze juice from them removing any seeds.  Set aside

Bring water and sugar to boil and add 1/2 the juice from the lemons.  Once boiled, let cool and it will develop into a lemon simple syrup.

Filling
(adapted from Lidia's Italian)
2 C Mascarpone Cheese (I bet you could substitute cream cheese) room temperature
5 Eggs, separated (the yolks will be used to make lemon curd, and the whites will be whipped into meringue)
3 TB Sugar

Lemon Curd

Use a double broiler or round pyrex dish put inside a stockpot or saucepan filled with water to create steam and slowly heat the mixture.  Put the 5 egg yolks in the dish and whisk with 1/2 C Butter and 2 TB of sugar, half of the zest, and remaining lemon juice.  Whisk until the mixture becomes thick and pudding like.  Set aside to cool.

Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks and set aside.  Whip the Mascarapone or cream cheese with the remaining TB of sugar.

Dip all the completed ladyfingers in the syrup and start layering your first set of fingers on the bottom of a 9 x 13 pyrex.

Now fold the lemon curd, cheese mixture, and egg whites all together very softly.  Turn it over and over until incorporated.  This is the filling and you will layer this on top of the first set of ladyfingers.  Place another row of dipped ladyfingers (or you could just pour syrup over the bottom row and repeat process on the next layer of fingers).  Now put the remaining filling on top and decorate with remaining lemon zest.  Store for at least 3 days for best results on taste and texture.

This is so good and super fancy for very special guests.  It takes a lot of work and preparation but it will pay off in the end.

2 comments:

  1. WOW MIA!!! that certainly earns you the title of MAMA~MIA!!! That looks gorgeous, i see what you mean about it being a long process, but, most people who have gluten in their diets, could just pull those things out of their cupboards, anyone whose GF will understand the time consuming would be totally worth it!!! The picture looks very professional, have you got any of it left, you also forgot to tell people, that the kids loved the Ladyfingers so much you had to make more batches. Hugss Ella xx

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  2. Thanks Ella(:...!!! Yes, making everything from scratch is quite the time crunch. But it is going back to the way things were done in the past, and not all the convenience ways we expect now. So I am proud of this accomplishment. I do have some left, shall I box it off to you?? Wish you could of sampled it though! One thing is, this is a very sweet dessert. So a little goes a long way.

    That is right! The boys kept eating them, maybe that's why I wrote you may need 3 batches for all the "testing". (:

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