WEEKEND DOUBTS AND A BIRTHDAY

Today a friend celebrates his **th birthday and I obviously wanted to partecipate in my very own way. The fact is that - as far as I remember - this friend likes cheesecakes A LOT.

But I didn’t have the *right* ingredients for a real cheesecake; instead - thanks to my late crush on tiramisù - I always have a good dose of mascarpone and ladyfingers (also known as Savoiardi) in my cupboard.

But preparing a tiramisù to celebrate the mentioned friend didn’t just seem to be the right thing to do... so after a few hours spent thinking about it (in the meantime I actually had beers with friends... I’m not THAT much of a freak :P) I decided to go for a deconstructed tiramisù/cheesecake :). So, here we go! Happy Birthday, Stefano!

Tiramisù cheesecake

Base:

50g ladyfingers

30g butter

Mascarpone cream:

100g mascarpone cheese

2 tablespoons brown vanilla sugar

100g + 2 tablespoon whipped cream

1,66g (1 sheet) gelatine leaf

Choco-coffee cream:

75g dark chocolate

1 tablespoon milk

3 tablespoon coffee

1,66g (1 sheet) gelatine leaf


Prepare good espresso coffee and let it cool.

Melt the butter and mix it with the crumbled ladyfingers. Divide the crumbles in 2 glasses or cooking rings (mine were 8cm) wrapped - inside - with acetate ribbon*.

Prepare the mascarpone cream mixing the cheese with vanilla sugar and whipped cream. Soften the gelatin with water into a bowl; heat 2 tablespoons of whipped cream and melt 1 sheet of gelatin into it. Add it to the mascarpone cream and pour it on the crumbled biscuits.

Refrigerate for 1 hour or until the mascarpone layer thickened. In the meantime prepare the choco-coffee cream, melting the chocolate together with a tablespoon of milk, then adding the coffee.

Heat 1 spoon of whipped cream and melt the gelatin into it. Add the cream+gelatin to the choco-coffee cream and pour it on the mascarpone layer. Refrigerate for another hour until the 2nd layer thickened, then remove the little cheesecake from the acetate ribbon and steel ring and serve.

* Acetate ribbon is a medium gauge clear plastic often used for cake decorating and chocolate work. Sold in rolls, it can be found in baking supply stores.