Tiramisu minus Amaretto

Tiramisu ala Mama Sarah
(original recipe from The Complete Book of Italian Cooking edited by V. Sperling & C. McFadden)

The Ingredients:
20-24 (150g) sponge fingers
2 tbsp cold black coffee
2 tbsp coffee essence
2 tbsp Amaretto ^[1]
4 egg yolks
90g (6 tbsp) caster sugar
few drops of vanilla essence
grated rind of ½ lemon
350g (1 ½ cups) Mascarpone cheese
2 tsp lemon juice
250ml (1 cup) double (heavy) cream
1 tbsp milk
30g (½ cup) flaked almonds, lightly roasted
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp icing sugar



1. Arrange almost half the sponge fingers in the base of a glass bowl or serving dish.



2. Combine the black coffee, coffee essence and Amaretto ^[2] and sprinkle just over half the mixture over the fingers.



3. Put the egg yolks into a heatproof bowl with the sugar, vanilla essence and lemon rind. Stand over a saucepan of gently simmering water and whisk until very thick and creamy and the whisk leaves a very heavy trail when lifted from the bowl. ^[3]

4. Put the Mascarpone cheese in a bowl with the lemon juice and beat until smooth.



5. Combine the egg and Mascarpone cheese mixtures and when evenly blended pour half over the sponge fingers and spread out evenly.



6. Add another layer of fingers, sprinkle with the remaining coffee and then cover with the rest of the cheese mixture. Chill for at least 2 hours and preferably longer, or overnight.



7. To serve, whip the cream and milk together until fairly stiff and spread or pipe over the dessert.

Sprinkle with the flaked almonds and then sift an even layer of cocoa powder so the top is completely covered.

Finally sift a light layer of icing sugar over the cocoa.

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Mama Sarah's Footnote:

^[1] I understand the concern of my family members and readers of the ingredients I use in my cooking. Of course, I do not use alcohol. If we were in Restaurants, we would specifically request if the Chef could substitute the alcohol with a non-alcohol ingredient.

When I made this Tiramisu, I simply omitted the Amaretto and increased the equal volume of coffee essence to make up the liquid quantities.

^[2] I have made a research on Amaretto if there is a suitable substitute rather than just omitting the flavour. I found out that Amaretto can be substituted by mixing the following;

1 Tablespoon light Karo syrup
1 Tablespoon almond extract
1/4 cup clear apple juice

p/s: Karo syrup is corn syrup, suitable even for constipated babies :)

^[3] Here's how you can cheat (The Uncle De's method). Simply replace step 3 with a tub of devon custard (around 500g). This way, you will not have to worry your zabaglione turning into scrambled eggs.