Tira, and quite possibly, misu.

Yesterday I took part in the second cheesemaking course. As before, it was excellent, and if anyone is contemplating learning how to make cheese, and lives in NZ, you should not go past these courses, run by Jean Mansfield.

Yesterday's course took us through the making of Camembert, Gouda (blue and white) and Marscapone.

Needless to say, the Camembert and Gouda need to be matured, and are doing so in the fridge (which I have had to turn down to the lowest setting so that the bacteria and mold can develop). Apologies to all who wanted a very cold drink...

However, the Marscapone is ready, and I've never made Tiramisu before, so it just had to be done. Especially as my wonderful dental assistant and her husband make their own Kaluha, and have given us a bottle!

So I bought some sponge fingers (Savoiardi) and we had all the other ingredients:

Whisk 4 egg yolks with 200g of caster sugar, then, when the mixture is pale and thick, add the marscapone and whisk till smooth. Add a tsp of vanilla extract. Fold in the beaten whites of 4 eggs.

Meanwhile: soak (briefly) the sponge fingers in a mixture of cold espresso and kaluha,

and make a layer in a bowl/dish/supertanker.

Cover with about half the eggy/cheesy goodness and grate some chocolate over it.

 Then another layer of soaked fingers, and the rest of the cheesy/eggy goodness and more grated chocolate.

Then place in a fridge (or ram into an antarctic glacier if you are using a  supertanker) for about 3 hours.

Then eat. Tiramisu was invented in 1985. So something wonderful did come out of the 80's. I'm amazed that it took so long to be invented, but, perhaps, people made it all the time but never called it that?