Cookalong with Nigella.com9

I had always lusted after tiramisu, but it seemed imperfect for me having the core ingredient of coffee which is a flavour I have never managed to warm to. Some time ago I attempted therefor my very first Chocolate Tiramisu and, all things considered it was pretty fab. It was with very high hopes that I approach a Nigella Lawson version of this decadent dessert, keen once again to leave off the coffee and sub it with chocolate instead.

The CookAlong challenge for the month of February was sourced from Nigella Express. You can find the original recipe for Irish Cream Tiramisu on Nigella.com and I shall rename mine as it is altered by one very important ingredient as mentioned.

Bailey's Tiramisu

350ml boiling water
3 tbsp cocoa powder
250ml Baileys cream liqueur (175ml and 75ml used separately)
400g Savoiardi (Italian lady finger) biscuits
2 eggs (you will only need 1 of the whites)
75g caster sugar
500g mascarpone
2 1/2 teaspoons cocoa powder extra

Put the cocoa into heat proof jug and pour just a little of the boiling water over. Stir or whisk it about well to remove the lumps. When the slurry is quite smooth add the remaining water and the 175ml of Bailey's Irish cream in and stir.

Pour the mixture into a shallow bowl for dipping the biscuits. Start dunking some of the biscuits into the chocolate liquid. Dip just long enough for the biscuits to become damp. While the mix is still warm this will be the quickest dunk, but will take longer as the liquid cools. I over-dunked initially and some of my biscuits nearly collapsed on me.

Lay the biscuits neatly on the base of a 22cm square dish (I only had a round one - mistake as I couldn't fit as many biscuits).

Whisk the two egg yolks together with the sugar until it becomes a paler shade of yellow and is a little fluffy. Fold the Bailey's and mascarpone into the mixture.

Beat the single egg white until it is foamy and fold this into the mascarpone mixture. Spread half of this over the biscuits if you have the correct size dish. I used about a quarter as I knew I'd be doing extra layers.

Continue on by dunking some more biscuits, placing them side by side in the dish and then topping with the mascarpone cream. Ensure you finish with a layer of the cream.

Cover with cling wrap, pop in the fridge overnight.

Just before serving, sprinkle the top with the extra cocoa powder.

Serves 12

In spite of me choosing quite the wrong dish for the job, it still looks creamily tempting from the outside.