Raspberry Biscoff Tiramisu

I tend to think of desserts in categories. For Thanksgiving or Christmas, I must bring 3/4 of these flavors:

1. Nuts

2. Apples

3. Pumpkin

4. Citrus or Berry*

*#4 is never up for debate -- it’s an essential ending to any long meal. You want something bright and fresh to cleanse the palate.

Keep in mind, I didn’t say “light”. I’m talking bright… but also rich, indulgent, and over-the-top.

So that’s how I came up with my raspberry tiramisu. I wanted to play with tiramisu flavors, but also felt coffee and cream wasn’t enough to jolt your burdened tastebuds. Raspberries were introduced. Then freeze-dried strawberries to boost the sweet-tart berry flavor. And then Chambord -- the raspberry liqueur -- to bring out the berry notes of the coffee.

The rest of the players are the same: ladyfingers, heavy whipping cream, mascarpone. And just one more thing for contrast. Heavy is to bright as creamy is to… crunchy!

Yes, I added Biscoff cookies, which everyone knows are amazing on their own, but really make this a crowd-pleaser. (Just watch people perk up when they hear, “Biscoff”!)

This is a dessert recipe for savory cooks. You can taste and improvise as you go. Feel free to add more or less sugar or condensed milk. Amp up the booze or add another type of crunch. Just do me a favor — if you don’t use coffee and mascarpone, call it a trifle instead of tiramisu.

RECIPE

2 cups heavy whipping cream

1.2 oz freeze-dried strawberries (I got mine from Trader Joe’s)
1/4 cup sugar
11 oz sweetened condensed milk
16 oz mascarpone
18 oz raspberries

20-30 ladyfingers (I used Casa Rinaldi brand)

3 tablespoons strong coffee or espresso
3 tablespoons Chambord

20 Biscoff cookies (also called speculoos)

Beat 2 cups heavy cream with a pinch of salt in an electric mixer on medium-high until you achieve stiff peaks. Use a spatula to transfer to another bowl (don’t worry about removing all the cream). To the same mixing bowl, add freeze-dried strawberries, sugar, condensed milk, mascarpone, and one third of the raspberries. Mix on medium until everything is well-incorporated. Gently add three quarters of the reserved whipped cream until mixed well. Swirl the rest of the whipped cream into the mixture, so you get some white streaks.

Mix coffee and Chambord in a small bowl. Crush Biscoff cookies in a large Ziploc bag, leaving some larger pieces for extra texture.

To assemble, spread whipped cream mixture on bottom of deep glass container. Add ladyfingers and soak with coffee/Chambord mixture with a silicone brush. Add raspberries, making sure to line the edge so we can see them. Sprinkle Biscoff crumbs on top. Start again with your layers until you finish all the components.

Cover and let sit in the refrigerator. Three hours will give you half-crunch, half-crunchy. Six+ hours will give you a more uniform bite.

Book Club Bites Readers Edition: Lavender Peach Macarons from Lena's Lunchbox

"We had ordered the shaved ice and candied tropical fruits, the curry ice cream with mini brioche puffs, and the lemon basil profiteroles with blueberry-oatmeal brittle. But a small army of servers brought out even more: chocolate fondant sandwiched in coconut crisps, cinnamon apple churros with maple syrup tapioca, chocolates, macarons, marshmallows. Felix delivered the petit fours himself, and whispered to me, “I’m sorry for the delay with the truffles. Try the lavender-peach macarons. They’re my favorite.” Then he smoothed his bangs back and gave me an extra-long look that made my hair stand on end." - Food Whore, Chapter 14

This scene at Tellicherry was one of my favorite to write. This is Tia's first on-the-job dinner with Michael Saltz and there's something fishy about the service. So many desserts, each more delicious than the last. 

This actually happened to me when I ate lunch with Tim Zagat as an intern at Zagat Survey. We ate at Jean-Georges and the desserts kept coming, a seemingly endless parade. 

I'm so glad this scene resonated with others, including Lena of Lena's Lunchbox who made an IRL version of my fictional creation.

Aren't they gorgeous??? See below for the full recipe and check out Lena's incredibly creative and playful recipes (I'm partial to the Big Mac(aron) and the Brown Sugar Honey Cake with Carrot Ganache and Crushed Honeycomb). And -- get this -- she's only 16. Next Christina Tosi anyone?

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photos and words from Lena's Lunchbox

baking with lavender always makes me feel a little weird. it has a lovely taste, but using even a quarter teaspoon too much can quickly make a flavor go from ‘delicately floral’ to ‘hotel soap.’ in this recipe, finely ground lavender buds add character to the simple, meringue-based macaron cookie, and any soapiness is offset by a filling of assertive cream cheese frosting and bright peach jam.

these cookies were inspired by jessica tom’s food whore! in the book, the main character works as a secret assistant to the new york times’ food critic. their cover is blown while dining at a super nice restaurant called tellicherry, and the waiter brings them plates upon plates of desserts to try to leave a good impression: curry ice cream with mini brioche puffs, cinnamon apple churros with maple syrup tapioca, chocolate fondant sandwiched in coconut crisps, and lavender peach macarons!  it was one of the more mouthwatering chapters.

read food whore and make these (4 star) macarons!

macarons (adapted from entertaining with beth)

• 3 egg whites, room temperature
• 50 g (1/2 cup) granulated sugar
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
• 1/8 tsp salt
• purple (or red and blue) gel food coloring
• 120 g (1 cup) almond flour
• 200 g (2 cups) powdered sugar
• 2 tsp dried lavender buds

filling

• 4 oz cream cheese
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp heavy cream or milk
• peach jam

line two baking sheets with parchment paper. beat the egg whites in a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment until frothy, about a minute. add the sugar, cream of tartar, and salt, and turn the mixer to high speed. whip for 8-10 minutes, or until very stiff peaks have formed (think seattle space needle). add the food coloring, making the color a little darker than desired (it will fade as the macarons bake).

combine the almond flour, powdered sugar, and dried lavender in a food processor. pulse until the lavender turns to powder, then sift the mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a medium bowl. discard the larger almond pieces that remain in the sieve.

gradually fold the flour mixture into the egg whites with a spatula. be careful!! undermix and the macarons will be lumpy and cracked, overmix and they’ll be flat and won’t have feet. about 60-75 turns of the spatula when folding is the right amount of time. the batter should be thick but runny.

transfer the batter to a pastry bag fitted with a medium round tip. the easiest way to fill the bag with batter is to 1) twist the end of the pastry bag nearest to the tip (this prevents batter from leaking out before you’re ready), 2) place the bag in a large drinking glass and fold it around the rim, then 3) pour the batter in. pipe one-inch rounds onto the parchment-lined baking sheets, then rap the sheets on the counter to pop any air bubbles. let the macarons sit, untouched, for 30-45 minutes. this allows them to develop a skin; when they dry out, they’re forced to rise up and not spread out, giving them the trademark macaron “feet.” they should be tacky to the touch, but not stick to your fingers. during the last 10 minutes of letting them sit, preheat the oven to 300º.

bake for 20 minutes. don’t open the oven door while they’re baking. remove and let cool on pans for 20 minutes, then remove to a rack.

for the filling, beat together the cream cheese and butter in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. after a few minutes, add the powdered sugar, then the vanilla and salt. beat for 5 more minutes. add the cream and beat for one more minute. transfer the frosting to a pastry bag fitted with a small round tip.

to assemble, pipe a circle of frosting around the edge of half of the macarons. fill the hole with peach jam, then sandwich another macaron on top. makes 30 sandwich cookies. 

Thank you so much Lena!

See more Food Whore-inspired recipes here. Do you have a Food Whore-inspired dish you want to share? Email me at jessica@jessicatom.com and I'll feature you here.

Book Club Bites: Dacquoise Drops

Even if you’re not particularly food-obsessed, you probably have one. A bite, a dish, a sip that changes your life somehow. Perhaps an oyster started a lifetime of risk-taking. A restaurant meal introduced you to your soulmate. A family dish opened generations of stories.

For Tia, her dish was a plate of cookies. Dacquoise drops connect her with her family, give her national recognition, and finally put her face-to-face with Michael Saltz.

The cookie is light but sturdy -- a stiff meringue made even more hardy with four types of nuts. I love them with a nutty, milky coffee. Pro tip: save a packet of silica gel from some kale chips or freeze-dried fruit. They’ll help keep your cookies crisp.

RECIPE:

Bring 4 egg whites to room temperature. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. In an electric mixer, whisk egg whites on high until foamy, about 1 minute. Add 1 teaspoon of cream of tartar and mix until fluffy, about another minute. Mix ⅔ cup of powdered sugar with ⅔ cup of granulated sugar. Add to egg mixture one tablespoon at a time while on medium-high speed. Continue to whisk until shiny and stiff (a peak stands up straight and doesn’t fall over). Gently mix 2 ¼ cups of chopped nuts (a mixture of pecans, pecans and cashews) and 1 cup of almond flour.

Cover two baking sheets with parchment paper. Spoon meringues onto tray with two tablespoons, leaving about an inch between drops. Turn off oven and leave in there for at least two hours and up to overnight. Makes 40 cookies.

Book Club Bites: Pomegranate Lemon Bars

Lemon bars were one of the first things I baked -- from a box, of course, and I’ve repressed the exact procedure. Was it curd on top, or some sort of cornstarchy-sludge? Did I make it, or did I squeeze it out of a baggie?

It took me years to figure out that lemon bars aren’t hard to make at all. You probably have all the ingredients right now: flour, sugar, butter, and lemons. But for the best lemon bars, you need a lot of lemons.

I’ve experimented with other flavors: lime, lemon-grapefruit, and now this: a pomegranate lemon bar. I like the berried base that underpins this dessert. Citrus is a top-note flavor, while pomegranate is a mustier, base note player.

Plus, pomegranates are often on my mind so I had to incorporate them into a recipe. There’s a pomegranate on the cover of Food Whore but pomegranates don’t appear in the text of the book. Not once.

So why did I suggest a pomegranate for the cover? Well, they’re juicy, luscious, sexy -- all things I wanted my book to be. Not really in terms of scenes (don’t get your hopes up for back-to-back sex scenes), but more on a sentence level. Sentences can move with a sensual quality.

Also, I summoned some middle school Latin and loved the connection to Persephone and Hades. Do you remember that story? Basically, Hades tricks Persephone into eating a couple pomegranate seeds, sentencing her to a life in the underworld. Because of her love of food, she makes a deal with the devil.

And that… the pomegranate… is basically my book.

RECIPE: (adapted from Ina Garten’s lemon bar recipe)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Bring 1 cup of pomegranate juice to a simmer and reduce on low for ten minutes. Turn off heat and let cool.

In an electric mixer, cream 2 sticks of room-temperature butter and ½ cup of granulated sugar until fluffy, about 3 minutes. In a separate bowl, combine 2 cups of flour and ⅛ teaspoon of kosher salt. Slowly add to the mixer on low until just incorporated. Remove dough and roll into a ball on a well-floured surface. Press onto a 9” x 13” baking sheet, then chill for 15 minutes.  

Poke holes into the dough with a fork (so it doesn’t bubble up), then bake for 15-20 minutes until very lightly browned (keep in mind that it will get baked again with the curd, so no need to go all the way now).

For the filling, whisk 6 extra-large room temperature eggs, 3 cups of granulated sugar, 2 tablespoons of lemon zest, ¾ cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice, ¼ cup of the reduced pomegranate juice, and 1 cup of flour. Pour over the crust, then bake for 35-40 minutes, until the filling is set. Let cool to room temperature.
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Cut into squares (or triangles if that’s your fancy). In a food processor, powder ⅓ cup of dehydrated strawberries. Sprinkle on top with powdered sugar.