Tiramisù Crostata and Why Ahead is my Word of the Year

The beginning of the new year is a good time for new intentions and goals. 

Usually, I let a few days pass between reflections on the old year and the purposes for the new one. I don’t want to make emotional but lucid balances. I’m letting the suspended thoughts come down slowly like soft snowflakes. And while I focus on what has been to get something good out of it, I cook new recipes. 

Like this Tiramisù Crostata (tart). The kitchen is my comfort zone and a helpful therapy to empty my head.

 For some time now, at the beginning of the year, I’ve been taking a break from social, work, and confusion. I cook alone in a silent kitchen while I think about the past year and my hopes for the future. For a few years, I like to choose one word to accompany me in the following twelve months. It is a sort of formula to remember the direction I’ve chosen. A memo that sums up what I want to focus on.

My 2020 Word of the Year is Ahead.

If you want, I’ll wait for you after the recipe and tell you why.

Ahead

I want to think less about what was and what could have been and take more care of my present. For me, it has a double meaning: to be closer to the people I love and better organize the future, which always starts today.
Ahead with curiosity, strength, and gratitude.
I want to make the best use of my time here and now. To be more productive at work and take more time off to cultivate my passions.

In Italian, that word has an exhortation value, and I feel that it does me good every time I repeat this word inside me. Ahead also means making progress. And I hope to go beyond myself and all my whims.

Less me and more humility, for example. I want to hear less about myself and listen more to others.

Here on the blog, ahead will have a special meaning.
For instance, I would like to cook those recipes I didn’t eat when I was a kid. I was a stubborn little girl. Recipes I still don’t cook to this day. It’s time to grow up.

And even if it may seem incredible, I didn’t eat tiramisu.

A Tiramisu crostata

Then I made peace with coffee but continued not to eat this dessert.

One reason is that in Bologna, people traditionally make a mascarpone cream with many eggs and a lot of sugar.

Trying to overcome my culinary no, I thought I would start with tiramisu and fill a shameful gap on the blog. To do this, I tried my way.

Thanks to the coffee, the shortcrust pastry is slightly bitter in a pleasant way. The cream is not very sweet and eggless. That fact, I called it a tart, but the tiramisu tart worked. Peace made.

I have turned a classic Italian spoonful dessert into a rustic charm crostata, preserving its flavors: coffee, mascarpone, and bitter cocoa.

It is the perfect dessert to bring to the table for a family Sunday lunch or, again, on the occasion of a special event.

Buona cucina, Monica

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Tiramisù crostata (tart)

I flavored the shortcrust pastry with coffee, while the mascarpone cream is sweet but not so sweet and eggless. The knife-chopped dark chocolate between two layers of cream is a pleasant surprise of that tiramisù crostata.

Course Dessert

Cuisine Italian

Keyword Mascarpone cheese, Tart, Tiramisù, tiramisù dessert

Prep Time 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Servings 6 servings

Equipment

• 1 24cm diameter mold
• 300 g of dried beans for baking the shortcrust pastry

Ingredients

Coffee shortcrust pastry

• 50 ml of hot water
• 25 g of soluble coffee
• 200 g of wheat flour
• 80 g of powderedsugar
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 regular egg at room temperature
• 130 g of chunks of butter cold from the refrigerator

Mascarpone cream

• 500 g of mascarpone cheese
• 80 g of powdered sugar
• 1 pinch of salt
• 50 g dark chocolate
• bitter cocoa to taste

Instructions

Coffee shortcrust pastry

• Melt coffee in hot water while stirring. Allow to cool.
• Mix flour, sugar, and salt in a bowl.
• Add egg, cubed butter, and coffee.
• Knead with your fingertips until the dough is firm and smooth.
• Wrap in plastic film and let rest in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
• Preheat the oven to 180C degrees (356F).
• Roll out the shortcrust pastry between two sheets of baking paper with a rolling pin to a height of about 3 mm.
• Lay the base in the baking pan, resting the side with the baking paper on the bottom; prick the pastry with the tines of a fork.
• Cover the dough with baking paper. It has to adhere to the base and edges of the dough, then spread a layer of dried beans on the bottom for baking the tart without filling. This way, the shortcrust pastry will not puff up during baking.
• Remove from the oven, discard the hot beans carefully, and let cool completely before stuffing.

Mascarpone cream

• Combine mascarpone, powdered sugar, and a pinch of salt in a bowl, mix with a metal spoon, and then whip the cream with electric whips.
• Transfer the cream to a disposable pastry bag and let it rest in the refrigerator for about an hour.
• Knife chop the dark chocolate and set aside.

Assemblingthe tart

• Place a layer of cream on the bottom of the tart using almost half of the mascarpone cream.
• Sprinkle the chopped dark chocolate.
• Cover the chocolate with a final layer of mascarpone cream.
• Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.
• Dust with plenty of unsweetened cocoa before serving.

Food tips

• My shortcrust pastry has a mild, though distinguishable, coffee flavor. If you prefer a more intense flavor, use 1½ teaspoons of instant coffee or two teaspoons of espresso.
• Store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.