Christmas Baking, Part 2

I'm exhausted..... after I finished with the German Chocolate Cake Balls I went to get Jody's Christmas present.  He usually doesn't give me any kind of clue or hint as to what he wants.  The other night he gave me a hint so I ran with it.  That doesn't mean he'll be all excited to get it.  Unlike me, he doesn't get excited about much. 

Afterwards I met Dawn and we went into Garland to a restaurant supply store.  I love going to cooking stores.  There are always the coolest gadgets.  The only problem is for some things you have to buy 3 dozen instead of just one.  I got a few gadgets and scoped out a mixer.... that's what Santa is bringing me.  Since mine officially died tonight.  The smaller one was only $1200.  The larger one was only 6 inches shorter than me.  Excuse me.... I'll take two of these.

So tonight I didn't make the Orange Cake Balls...  No, I had to use some strategy in how to make sure I can get all this delivered by tomorrow night.  It was best for me to wait and do the cake balls in the morning.  I made Tiramisu tonight since it has to chill over night.

I know some of you wanted the recipe so here we go.  First your ingredients...  No, first your recipe, or my recipe.... it's really a recipe I got off allrecipes.com.  BUT, I changed a few things so now it's mine.

6 egg yolks
1 1/4 cup white sugar
1 1/4 cup marscapone cheese (don't try this with cream cheese)
1 3/4 cup heavy cream

This is where the switch comes in..... I don't use lady fingers like the recipe calls for I use Panettone....  NO, not the one with the fruit, I know that's all they have in some places, but just hold out until you can get the chocolate kind.  We don't need no stinking fruits.

When I buy Panettone, I cut the it into pieces to fit it into my freezer.  As I was cutting it into slices I thought, HEY why couldn't I use this for Tiramisu?  So I did.   I trim the bottom off because no one, not even the Panettone bakers can seem to keep from scorching the bottom of this gigantic cupcake.

I am giving part of this Tiramisu away as a gift so I wanted it to be in a nice little Christmas Tin.  I lined it with plastic wrap and I'm hoping when they get ready to serve it, the Tiramisu can be lifted out.  Who knows it could just fall apart and they have to eat it off the kitchen counter with a spoon. The person I'm giving it to would do that too. 

Then I lined the pans with the Panettone.

Now to the cooking.  You'll need to bring some water in a double boiler to a boil and then turn it down and cook the egg yolks

and sugar in the top portion until all sugar is dissolved and you have a nice lemony looking custard.   This takes about 10 minutes, don't cook it too fast you don't want the water to boil, just simmer under the eggs. 

Now add the Marscapone Cheese, and gently fold in until it's all smooth.

After you have wiped the heavy cream until it forms stiff peaks you can fold in the egg and cheese mixture.  Then you'll need to paint the Panettone with Kaluah.  Or you can use cooled espresso, but what fun is that?  Here is my little pan of painted Panettone.

And the bigger dish.

Then you spoon half of the custard onto the Panettone and top it with another layer of Panettone, and paint on more Kaluah. Top that with the rest of the custard.

And finally, take a little cocoa (I use the Special Dark) and the Instant Espresso Powder, mix them together in a little dish and sprinkle the top of the Tiramisu.

This will turn darker due to the moisture in the Tiramisu. So it won't look quiet so pale in the morning.

Now for the best part.... clean up.  I just painted a piece of the Panettone with Kaluah, scraped the last of the custard onto it..... YUM!


I'm off to bed, busy day of cooking again tomorrow with Part 3 and 4.