Chocolate Tiramisu

My husband loves chocolate and with Valentine's Day just around the corner, I figured I would make a nice dinner and dessert to celebrate. Last year I made a chocolate souffle recipe and chocolate covered strawberries. While going through the stacks of recipes I've ripped out of magazines or scribbled down on a piece of paper to try at a later date and time, I found a recipe from the May 2011 Bon Appetite edition. Most of the recipes I have in this stack are dinner or appetizer recipes. This one had two things that my husband likes: coffee and chocolate.  I figured I would try a different take on a tiramisu recipe.

A friend of ours father has a nice Italian restaurant located in Hull, MA called Mezzo Mare and also owns the place right next door called Beach Food Market. The market has the best subs and pizza. You can also find imported goods from Italy at the market. We get our ladyfingers here anytime we make a dessert that calls for ladyfingers. 

This recipes makes a serving for 8 and doesn't really take all that much time to make. I'm halving the recipe since Bob will be the only person eating it. The recipe listed below is the full recipe. Enjoy.

Ingredients: (espresso syrup) 1.5 c espresso or strong coffee, .25 c sugar (tiramisu) 1.75 c mascarpone cheese, 2 TBSP + .5 c sugar, .25 tsp vanilla extract, .5 tsp unflavored gelatin, 4 large egg yolks, 1 c chilled heavy whipping cream, 6 oz bittersweet chocolate*, 48 ladyfingers

Instructions: (1) Stir coffee and sugar in a small bowl until sugar is dissolved, set aside. (2) Combine 1 c of mascarpone cheese, 2 TBSP sugar, and vanilla in a small bowl and whisk until blended; cover and chill. (3) Place 1 TBSP water in a small bowl and sprinkle gelatin over it; let stand until gelatin softens, 10-15 minutes. (4) Whisk remaining sugar, yolks, 1/4 cup whipping cream and 1/4 cup water in a medium metal bowl to blend. Place bowl over a large saucepan of boiling water (don't let bottom of bowl touch water) and whisk constantly until custard thickens and temperatures reaches 160 on an instant read thermometer, 3-4 minutes. Remove bowl; add gelatin mixture and whisk until dissolved. Return bowl over water and add chocolate and whisk until almost melted. Set aside in a large bowl of ice water and whisk until chocolate is melted and custard is cool, 5-6 minutes. (5) Whisk in the remaining mascarpone. In another medium bowl, beat remaining 3/4 c of chilled cream until firm peaks form. Fold cream into custard in 2 additions to make a chocolate mousse. (6) Spread 1/4 c chocolate mousse in bottom of each eight 1-c ramekins. Dunk ladyfingers in the espresso syrup and arrange in a single layer on top of the mousse. Repeat layering with chocolate mousse and soaked ladyfingers. Spread 2 TBSP mascarpone topping over ladyfingers. Garnish with chocolate shavings and serve.

*Don't exceed 61% cacao. Chop chocolate and save some for shavings for garnish.

*Chocolate Tiramisu recipe by Kriss Harvey. Published in the May 2011 edition of Bon Appetite.