The Tiramisu Experiment

Remember the whole "cooking with no fear" concept? Well that definitely applied to our Valentine's Day treat!

We decided to stay in on actual Valentine's Day as it was hard to get a reservation anywhere when we were kind of last minute in deciding that we wanted to go out. So, when we decided we would stay in - I suggested to Nate that we finally try making homemade tiramisu as it had been something we'd been wanting to do for quite awhile now.

See, we love a good tiramisu. And the best tiramisu used to be available at Buca di Beppo, where we celebrated many important events in our life (graduations, engagement, rehearsal dinner, etc.) Then for Nate's golden birthday a couple of years ago, we went and ordered it and found something had changed. This may sound bad, but one of the things we used to love best about it was it's super strong rum flavor - it almost made your tongue burn! But on that birthday we discovered Buca was taking a more "family friendly" approach to their restaurant and replaced real live rum with "rum flavored extract". Let me tell you, not quite the same.

So, we then spent the next two years trying to find another good tiramisu. They have a good one at Donatelli's we discovered - but still not quite what we've been wanting.

Finally we just bit the bullet to making our own at home. It was alot of work! And alot of mess. And the results were - tasty! Not quite the right consistency in texture, a little runny in fact, but we have ideas to improve for next time. It actually set up a little better overnight and was pretty darn good the second day.

Here are some pictures:

In the bowl

Side shot

Slice in a bowl - you can see it's a bit runny

Overall I enjoyed our experiment. I would like to try it again sometime. The recipe we followed most closely matches the one on the side of the package of Lady Fingers that we bought at Byerlys. Otherwise you can Google "Original Buca di Beppo Tiramisu" and you'll find the other recipe that kind of guided us!

The other perk of this project? It encouraged me to bring out my old espresso maker and I'm now attempting lattes at home again - far cheaper than going out for one!