mom's favorite

for my birthday, i received a basket of ingredients for making tiramisu (thanks kayla : ), and even though i have loved tiramisu for years, i've never attempted making it. this first attempt was pretty successful, and i see many more tiramisus in my future (and yours too, mom).

ingredients:

3 egg yolks (save the whites for a scramble or frittata)
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
8 oz mascarpone cheese, at room temp
1/2 tsp cocoa + more for garnish
dash of cinnamon
pinch of salt
1 cup of very strong coffee (espresso is ideal, but strong coffee works well too), cooled
2-3 tablespoons sweet marsala, depending on how booze-y you want it (vin santo or dark rum could easily substitute the marsala)
ladyfingers (i used apx 30, or 2 store bought boxes worth)
semisweet of bittersweet chocolate shavings, for garnish (i used a chocolate with a 70% cocoa content)

directions:

in a medium-sized bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar until thick and pale (about 3-5 minutes, and it can be done by hand if you don't own a stand mixer or electric beaters, or if you just want to tone your arms). add the mascarpone, a tablespoon of coffee, 1/2 tsp of sifted cocoa, a dash of cinnamon, and the pinch of salt and beat until smooth.
combine the remaining coffee and the marsala in a shallow container. briefly dip the ladyfingers in the mixture and arrange the soaked ladyfingers on the bottom of baking dish (i used a roughly 5x9 sized loaf pan). avoid soaking the ladyfingers for longer than a few seconds because they are very delicate, and will begin to fall apart. it also best to dip and arrange them one by one.
once you have completely covered the bottom of the dish with ladyfingers, pour apx 1/3 of the mascarpone mixture over them. repeat the process by creating another layer of soaked ladyfingers, followed by another layer of mascarpone until you have used all of the ladyfingers. if you have remaining mascarpone, add it to the topmost layer. dust the top with sifted cocoa and chocolate shavings, and allow to chill, covered, for at least 3 hours.

serve with coffee, sweet wine, whipped cream, or whatever your belly desires and enjoy!