Tiramisu

A sumptuous dessert! Don't forget to make it the day before you plan to eat it ...

500 g mascarpone
250 ml strong espresso
4 egg yolks
300 ml cream, whipped
1 vanilla bean, split
100 ml brandy
50 g sugar
250 g savoiardi [sponge finger] biscuits
cocoa powder and/or grated dark chocolate

Put the mascarpone in a bowl and scrape in vanilla seeds. Mix. Pour coffee and brandy into a shallow dish, add the vanilla bean and stir. Beat egg yolks and sugar together till thick, then whisk together with the mascarpone and cream. Dip half the biscuits in the coffee mixture and place in casserole dish. Spread half the cream mixture over. Repeat previous two layers. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Just before serving, dust with cocoa powder and/or grated chocolate.

This is a BIG mixture so, in a spirit of experimentation, I split it into two portions: I put two-thirds of the mixture into a casserole dish to take to our friends' place for dinner tomorrow night and the remaining third into a freezable container. Not sure how it'll go in the freezer but I'll report back later. Perhaps I just invented tiramisu ice cream ...?

Update: Friday 7 August 2015

The tiramisu ice cream was great! There were a few ice crystals in it, probably because tiramisu has a mixture of watery and creamy components (and of course the ice cream wasn't churned) but we both enjoyed it. Yum.