Easy Eggless Tiramisu with Griff's Coffee Toffee Crunch
Lord this Coffee Toffee Tiramisu is easy to make with no eggs, no baking, and no cooking. Oh, and did I mention it's easy to eat, too? It does contain alcohol, but I offer non-alcoholic substitutions as well.
10-12piecesGriff's Coffee Toffee(use more or less toffee depending on how crunchy you want your dessert to be)**
1 ½cupsheavy cream
½ cupdark brown sugarpacked
heavy pinchsalt
1 ½ cupsmascarpone cheese* (See Notes)
¼ cupsalted caramel liqueur (I used Bailey's) or caramel or butterscotch dessert sauce
Espresso "Dip"
1 ½ cupscold espresso or strong coffee
¼cupcoffee liqueur (I used Grind Espresso Shot)optional
To Assemble and Finish
3packages of 24lady fingers (savoiardi) (you might not use them all)
cocoa powder for sifting, stencil optional
Instructions
For the Coffee Toffee Cream
Using a chef knife, finely chop the toffee. Set aside.
Pour the heavy cream into a large bowl. Add the brown sugar and salt. Whisk a couple of times and allow to sit for about 10 minutes so the sugar dissolves.
Using a hand mixer or in your stand mixer with the whisk attachment, whisk the cream until it reaches medium-soft peaks.
Add the room temperature mascarpone and continue to whip until mixture just reaches stiff peaks. Do not over-whip or mascarpone can become grainy.
Fold in the Griff's Coffee Toffee crunchy bits until it is evenly dispersed in the cream.
For the Espresso Dip
In a shallow dish, mix the cold espresso or strong coffee with the coffee liqueur.
To Assemble and Finish
Working with no more than 2 or 3 lady fingers at a time, briefly dip both sides of the cookies into the coffee mixture. Layer them closely together in a 7" x 11" glass dish. Continue dipping and placing until you fill the bottom of the dish in a single layer.
Scoop about 1/3 of the coffee toffee cream onto the lady fingers and spread evenly and smoothly.
Repeat steps 1 and 2 twice more, ending with the last third of the cream. You'll have three layers each of lady fingers and cream. The 7 x 11 dish will be completely full.
Place plastic wrap directly on the surface of the cream and refrigerate overnight, or for at least 8 hours.
Right before serving, carefully peel off plastic wrap. Spoon about 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder into a fine mesh strainer, and evenly and generously dust the top of the tiramisu. If you would like you can use any stencil you have to create a pattern on top of your tiramisu. I used a heart template I cut out of cardboard and an Exacto knife to cut the design into a cake box. You could also use thick card stock.
Slice and serve. Note that tiramisu is a soft dessert, so much as with pie, the first piece or two might not come beautifully out of the dish. But after those first 2, you should be able to get nice, clean slices. If you are feeling spunky, wipe your knife clean between cuts to achieve the neatest look.
Notes
*Mascarpone cheese is a bit expensive, but it is worth it for this special treat of a dessert. Since you need 1 1/2 cups, and it usually comes in 1 or 2 cup containers, you can use the remaining half cup to make a fruit dip, add it to the ricotta layer in lasagna, stir it into your usual pasta sauce for a rich, decadent treat, or use it to thicken a cream soup.This recipe is scaled for a 7" x 11" pan. If you'd like to make this in a 9" x 13" pan, multiply the cream ingredients by 1.5 and get another pack or two of lady fingers. You shouldn't need additional coffee "dip."If you get the kind of lady fingers that are rounder and crunchy (savoiardi) or if you just don't want to mess with 3 layers, you can make 2 layers of each by spreading half the cream on the first layer of lady fingers and the other half on the second layer. **The more toffee bits you put in, the crunchier your tiramisu will be. Note that it will be more difficult to get clean slices with a ton of toffee bits, but it is totally your call.