' Adaptation of THE TIRAMISU .'

Dessert of Tiramisu cream custard on Coffee Genoise sponge, Chocolate & Coffee Macarons, Coffee marscapone cream, Cocoa, Hazelnut chocolate shavings and Coffee syrup.

              For this plated dessert I've done my adaptation of the Italian dessert the tiramisu. Taking the general concept of the marscapone and coffee flavours, presenting them in a custard and sponge form, accompanied by coffee and chocolate flavoured macarons. The macarons were really the inspiration to the whole dessert as over the past few rainy cloudy days we've had here I've been trying to conquer the baking of a modern day macaron. The few batches you see here were of the best quality and I used a recipe I found on the net for these dividing the mixture after adding the almond meal and icing sugar, adding the flavourings at this stage. I can't find the original site I found this recipe to give them the credit, but I've tried a few and this seems to be the formula. The tiramisu cake was an after thought and was a combination of a coffee soaked coffee genoise sponge rather than the traditional coffee soaked sponge fingers. Topped with a traditional tiramisu cream predominantly of marscapone cream, egg yolks, cream and sugar, but set with agar to form a custard. The accompaniments are coffee marscapone cream and coffee syrup.                                                                                                          
           I began this dish one night last week by separating 4 eggs, into bowls whites in one and the yolks in the other. Covering each with paper towel wrap I placed the bowls in the fridge over night. The next morning I removed the whites from the fridge and left them on the bench at room temperature for several hours before making the macarons. This process is called ageing the whites and allows them to reach maximum volume when whipped. I greased and lined flat baking trays with baking paper. The baking paper was pre stencilled with 3cm circles all two inches apart, the paper was then turned ink side down on to the greased baking trays. I then whisked the egg whites to a soft peak in an electric mixer bowl, gradually adding a quarter cup of caster sugar while continuing to whisk until the sugar had dissolved. In a bowl I sifted together 1& 1/4 cups of almond meal, with 1 & 1/2 cups icing sugar. I then folded in half of the almond meal mixture in to the egg whites until it was just combined then adding the other half. I then halved the macaron mixture into two bowls, in one I added half a tablespoon of powered coffee and mixed to incorporate and in the other I added 1 tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa powder and mixed to incorporate. I then spooned each mixture into separate bags snipping the end of one and piping onto one of the baking trays. I did the same with the other flavour, piping on to the other tray. These were left to rest for 30-40 minutes before being baked at 130 degrees C. for 20 minutes or until the foot of the macaron had set hold, they were then cooled and transferred to an air tight container to settle over night. The next morning I prepared the ganache by bringing full cream to just on the boil before removing and pouring over chopped bitter sweet chocolate, stirring to mix and then I let sit for a minute before adding a little butter and stirred until smooth. I divided the ganache into two bowls and added a little instant coffee to one of the bowls . They were then placed into the fridge to set for half an hour and then piped onto their respective macaron shells.                                                                                                                              I then went on to make the genoise by whisking in a bowl 2 eggs with 160g of caster sugar and 2 tablespoons of instant coffee until thick and creamy and sugar was dissolved. To this I added 50g of self raising flour and mixed to incorporate, this was then baked on a lined shallow baking tray in a 160 degree C. oven for about 8-10 minutes until it sprung back on touch. This was then removed and set aside to cool. Next I placed 180g of heavy cream, 1 tbsp. of vanilla essence, 2 tsp. of agar agar powder and 220g of marscapone in a saucepan bringing gently to a simmer, and then removed from the heat .       In a bowl I whisked together the 4 egg yolks left over from the macaron prep and 90g of caster sugar, until thick and pale. This was then added to the cream mixture and mixed to incorporate before being returned to the heat and gently heated through whisking to keep from over cooking. This was then poured into a mould and set in the fridge before being sliced to serve. The coffee syrup was brewed coffee and sugar brought to a simmer and reduced to a thick syrupy sauce. And the cream was marscapone, coffee and icing sugar whipped and piped.                                                                        To serve the genoise was cut to a rectangle portion and soaked in some of the coffee syrup. The same size rectangle was sliced from the tiramisu custard and placed on top of the sponge, this was then piped with coffee cream and drizzled with the coffee syrup and sprinkled with shaved hazelnut chocolate.