Yesterday marked this magical day for a lot of us. It comes once a year, and this year it snuck up on me. I didn’t realise what day it was until it was almost too late. But I did manage to bang out one large tiramisu for the husband, and a baby one for me. (I’m tired of not getting more than two bites out of any of the ones I made in the past because my husband is a vacuum cleaning eater when I make tiramisu.)

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – even the worst tiramisu is still delicious tiramisu, and I’m not even sure it’s possible to make one taste bad. I’ve thought about it a lot, and I can’t come up with a single way to screw one up. 🙂

My gorgeous Pumpkin Ice Cream

2 eggs, beaten
1 C canned pumpkin puree (or pumpkin pie filling)
1 C packed brown sugar (if not using pie filling)
2 tsp pumpkin spices (if not using pie filling)
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 C evaporated milk
2 C heavy cream (at least 18%, 35% if you can score it)

In mixer, lightly beat eggs before adding pie filling or puree, sugar, spices, salt and milk. Mix thoroughly in mixer.

Transfer to sauce pan and heat to a gentle boil. Remove from heat and sit sauce pan in bowl filled with cold water or ice to cool down for ten minutes. Stir in heavy cream when mixture isn’t hot anymore. If you don’t wait, the cream will curdle.

Put cooled mixture in fridge to chill for at least an hour. When ready, set up ice cream maker and turn it on. Pour the mixture into the machine according to instructions and let it freeze from 20 to 40 minutes (depending upon how heavy the cream you use is).

Transfer the mix into a freezer safe container with lid and freeze at least a half hour before serving for softer serve ice cream all the way up to 2 hours to let it set and get that nice hard yet creamy texture shown in this photo.

Enjoy!

Tiramisu Close Up

The hardest part of making tiramisu for me is parting with so much money for the mascarpone. It’s costs a fortune! Years ago, I found a little hack by Gemma over @biggerbolderbaking that allows me to make a fake mascarpone (that I now call fascarpone) that saves a LOT of money. Get your big girl panties on, ladies, and let’s get assembling!

The base is comprised of however many lady fingers you can manage to fit into each layer times two or three layers, breaking fingers in half if you have to, dipped in strong coffee. (Depending on the pan I use, I can make up to three layers using a bread loaf pan, or two layers using a 9″x9″ square pan.) It’s not an exact science, so if you run out of the coffee/liquor mix, just make a bit more until all of the fingers get a quick soak.

Tiramisu

20-30 Lady Fingers

1 C Strong Coffee Brew, room temperature (or cooled down hot chocolate)

1 tbsp Amaretto

The DIY Fascarpone is a two-step process. Here’s how to do it. (FYI: It’s probably best not to ever show this information to any actual Italians if you want any peace of mind.)

STEP ONE:

1C 35% Cream

1/3 C Sugar (white or superfine icing)
1 tsp Vanilla (this is the time to bust open the expensive stuff)

Using a whisk attachment in a mixer or a hand beater, whip this cream mixture on medium speed for about 5-8 mins, until the cream starts to thicken up. Then bump it to full speed for another 2-3 mins to incorporate a lot of air allowing the cream to fluff up.

Scrape the finished whipped cream into another mixing bowl. Set aside while assembling the second cream mixture into the used mixer bowl. No need to clean it out first.

STEP TWO:

6oz/168g Cream Cheese, room temp (small cubes speed up the temp change)

2 Tbsp Sour Cream (if you’re not using full fat, why are you even making this dessert?!)

3 Tbsp 35% Cream

Using a paddle attachment in a mixer or a hand beater, cream this mixture to a smooth consistency. You really don’t want any cream cheese lumps. Drop heaping spoonful of this mixture into the whipped cream bowl, and fold it in so the whipped cream thins out a bit. Add the rest and mix to incorporate both only.

ASSEMBLY:
Drop each lady finger into a shallow dish with the coffee mixture and quickly roll it over a full rotation. Immediately place each soaked finger into the loaf pan or the glass dish. When one layer of lady fingers is assembled, top it with a third of the fascarponey mixture. Smooth it out. Optional: dust the cream layer with coco powder or hot chocolate powder. I do this sometimes, but often I forget to do it. Oh, well.

Continue with more of the same two layers until you reach the top of the pan with fascarponey. Top that with either coco or hot chocolate powder. Cover and let the dish set itself up in the fridge.

Thoughts:

To be honest, you only need ten minutes for the lady finger to soften up from all of the moisture you rolled them around in and even more moisture from the cream mixture before you can dive in, but the longer it sits chilling the better it ends up tasting if you ask me. So, yeah – quick dessert for sure when you need something nice at a moment’s notice. Even a pan slapped together quickly can produce a lovely-to-eat tiramisu on a weeknight.

I’ve never tasted a shitty tiramisu. I simply refuse to believe one exists. And this speedy hacked version is no different. It’s is foolproof. If you find a way to screw it up, I need to be the first person you tell. And I will need a full explanation of just how you did it. Deal?

BWT, this is the typical portion of every pan of Tiramisu I make that the husband leaves for me. Every.single.time. I should just start making two pans instead of one.

This is a riff on a recipe I used to have to make at work when I worked in a college cafeteria. It’s a lovely bar, and it’s extremely versatile. It makes a great lunch snack for kids.

The original bar was called Cranberry Overload because it calls for making a cranberry jam filling. I do that version sometimes, but I tend to leave the cranberry jam version for Christmas and stick to seasonal jam fillings throughout the year. I will often use jammed jar when pressed for time, just like I’m doing here right now with this post.

You will need the following three main ingredients to pull this bar together:
450g Oatmeal Muffin Mix
200g Oatmeal Granola Cereal (with nuts is a great option if you don’t have an allergy)
200 g Jam (any kind will do)

120g Water

Measure out the muffin mix and top it with measured out cereal. Mix them together in a medium size mixing bowl, and dump in 126g of water. Mix with a gloved hand or with a spatula until all of the dry ingredients are wet and a ball forms. Split the ball in half, and then half again. in the bowl.

Grease a 8″x8″ or so baking dish. Line it with parchment that’s been clipped down with small bulldog clips. Place 3/4 of the oatmeal mix into the bottom and push it into all four corners and even it out working towards the centre with a clean floured hand. This will be the base of the bar.

Pour out the jam over top and spread with a knife or offset spatula. Taking the last quarter of the oatmeal mix, start to place it over the jam layers in small blobs or chunks until it’s all used up. Break it up with your fingers. Pull it apart gently.

Bake at 350 for 30 mins. Cool completely on the counter before removing from the pan using the sides of the parchment paper. Sprinkle top with a dusting of powder sugar before serving.

Optional: make a quick drizzle using 1C icing sugar + 2 Tbsp milk. Let the icing dry completely before cutting into bars and serving.

So, we don’t normally get kids at our door on Hallow’s eve – and therefore haven’t bought candy for the occasion in a few years – but one of our condo neighbours felt strongly that we would this year (not too sure why she felt that way, but she bought loads of candy she was that certain). I bought some when it was on sale the day before; just in case.

Fast forward to the night of, and oh mah gerd!, the weather was wet and nuts, so no kids. Again. (le sigh)

I really didn’t want the box of candy bars to be consumed one after another in from of the tv like years past, so I turned the best of the bars into a lovely ice cream I’m calling Candy Surprise.

The base was made using the Alton Brown recipe, and to that right before I poured it in the ice cream machine, I whisked in two heaping tablespoons of Coffee Crisp hot chocolate powder. As the machine ran the first 15 minutes of the cycle, I cut up the fun size chocolate bars (Snickers, Mars, and one other I’m blanking on) into tiny bite size chunks.

I added half of those bite size cuts to the batch in the last full minute. (I didn’t want it all to sink to the bottom of the ice cream.) I also held some back to scatter in as layers (bottom, middle and top) to compliment what the batch froze in place. I find this produces a much more satisfying inclusions distribution.

The husband loves this batch despite not being a fan of coffee (and yet still a lover of Coffee Crisps? Uh, ok.) But really, if it’s 1000% sugary and over the top, he will love it regardless of what I make. Sort of. He refuses to try my Basil ice cream, and I’m A-ok with that. All the more for me! 😀

What could possibly be better than pumpkin pin at this time of the year? Why, pumpkin pie ice cream, of course! And don’t forget the Dream Whip. Yum.