Purple Haze: Double Coffee Tiramisu

It’s been six long days since I’ve blogged. This has been a busy week for me; filled with doctor appointments, minor life crises, riveting American Idol episodes, and a hair appointment that resulted in somewhat purple hair (love it!). I’ve been cooking and taking pictures, but haven’t found the time to sit down and share what I’ve been doing with all of you. Then it dawned on me this morning, I’m missing my blog! So, here I am! See my purple hair??

Emiline of Sugar Plum announced on March 1st that she is hosting her first blogging event, which centers around cooking with booze. Which, I’m all about; I’ll take any opportunity I can get to cook with booze. Plus, I really like Emiline’s blog. She’s funny, and I admire how hard she’s been working to save for Culinary School. (Good luck to her on that!) So, it seemed only natural that I would whip up something for the occasion.

For Emiline’s Pub Crawl I decided on Double Coffee Tiramisu (Tiramisù),with some adaptations, from Southern Living, one of my favorite magazines. Hubby and I absolutely love the flavor of this decadent dessert, as we both love coffee. It has a strong dose of coffee added, and a healthy dose of coffee liqueur. (I used Kahlua. Yum.) It’s super simple to make, it’s gorgeous to serve, and it makes me want to lick my bowl when I’ve spooned up the last little bit. But, I would never do that. Really. But, it’s O.K. if you want to do that, I give you permission.

A thought about cream cheese. Letting cream cheese soften at room temperature will help avoid lumps. If you’ve been wondering why you get them sometimes and sometimes you don’t, now you’ll know. You can nuke it and whip and beat it, but if it hasn’t gradually and evenly obtained the lower temperature, you’re going to end up with lumps. So, when you’re planning to work with cream cheese – set it on the counter for a couple of hours and let it soften up there. This is especially important in recipes where you aren’t cooking the cream cheese (like Double Coffee Tiramisu). While those little tidbits of cream cheese probably taste just fine, it screams “I rushed through this recipe” when you find one on your spoon. Oh, and when I was in Culinary School, if my chef instructor found cream cheese bits in an otherwise smooth dish, she just got unreasonable!! She didn’t like it, at all. Not one eensy-weensy bit. As a matter of fact, she liked it so little that she might have maybe marked me down on an icing – even when I told her I was going for “an explosion of cream cheese flavor at every corner.“ Yeah, o.k., Angie, sounds good. Here’s your “C-”. So don’t do that, o.k., folks?

This recipe can be made ahead, according to the magazine. Hubby and I ate some the day I made it, and it held up in the fridge for two or three days after that. (I know because I ate some every day until it was gone!)

Double Coffee Tiramisu
8 ounces of cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups whipping cream
1/2 cup hot water
1 tablespoon instant coffee granules
1/3 cup coffee liqueur (Kahlua works well)
14 ounces of Margherite Cookies or 6 ounces of ladyfingers
1/2 cup grated semi-sweet or dark chocolate
chocolate curls, if desired

Beat softened cream cheese and sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy.

Beat whipping cream with an electric mixer until soft peaks form.

Fold into cream cheese mixture.

Mix hot water and instant coffee until dissolved. Stir in liqueur.
Arrange cookies in the bottom and around the sides of a 2 quart serving bowl of dish, reserving the crumbles from the cookies.

Drizzle the coffee mixture over the cookies, reserving about 1 tablespoon.

Spoon or pipe the cream cheese mixture over the cookies.
Sprinkle the crumbled cookies over the cream cheese.
Drizzle the reserved coffee mixture over cookie crumbles.

Sprinkle the grated chocolate over the top and garnish with chocolate curls, if desired.