"Light" tiramisu

So, I love tiramisu. My first experience with tiramisu was my sophomore year of college - a friend had gotten a selection of pastries from Mike's Pastry in Boston's North End. My eyes were opened to the glory that was coffee-soaked ladyfingers and mascarpone cheese.

Since that time, I've made the lovely dessert many times. Regular, chocolate - I like it almost anyway. THE PROBLEM, however, is that no matter how you cut it, (well, unless you cut it v. v. small, and that's no fun), it isn't a low calorie food. And I'm tryyyying to keep a bit of a lid on the calorie intake - I am not opposed to having some fun, just not having so much of it that I have to walk the poor dog for hours or ride to nowhere on our elliptical for days.

So, bearing this in mind, I set about making a lightened version of the tiramisu - the core flavors of mascarpone and coffee still had to be there, but I tinkered with some of the elements.

I started off making a zabaglione - in this case, 4 egg yolks, a few tablespoons of sugar, and some Amaretto. Whisk over a pan of simmering water until the mixture becomes pale and frothy.



Like this - then chill.


Meanwhile, I brewed some very strong dark coffee and mixed that with some sweetener and Amaretto:


I took 8 oz of mascarpone and about 2 oz of cream cheese and blended those together (I was NOT giving up my mascarpone)


To that, I added the chilled zabaglione:


And separately beat up some whipping cream with sweetener:


Then folded the cream/mascarpone cheese/zabalione mixture gently into the whipped cream:


Then, I took hunks of sugar free angel food cake, and started dunking them in coffee and layering them in a trifle dish


And added layers of the cheese filling - then topped the mess with shavings of bittersweet chocolate.


Not the world's prettiest dessert, but I managed to shave around 150 calories off per large serving by cutting some corners - and it tasted good! Next time, I'll take the coffee dunking more seriously - the angel food can take it!