Quick Strawberry Tiramisu

I was reading a forum thread somewhere about mascarpone cheese and everyone was talking about how wonderful it was and all the things you could do with it. I've never cooked with it before, so when I went to the market the other day I picked up a tub.

I love tiramisu, so it was the obvious choice to experiment with. I didn't want anything too fiddly though, so I tried a Quick Strawberry Tiramisu from Super Food Ideas magazine.


Quick Strawberry Tiramisu, serves 4

From Super Food Ideas October 2007, p91

200g mascarpone cheese
1 1/2 tbs icing sugar, sifted
1/2 tsp instant coffee powder
1 tbs boiling water
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup marsala
250 g strawberries, hulled and cut in half lengthways
8 sponge finger biscuits
mint leaves to serve

Place mascarpone and icing sugar into a bowl. Using a wooden spoon, beat until smooth and combined.

Combine coffee powder and boiling water in a cup. Stir until coffee is dissolved. Combine the coffee mixture, brown sugar and marsala in a medium pan. Cook, stirring, over a medium-high heat for 2-3 minutes or until sugar is dissolved.

Reduce heat to medium-low. Add strawberries. Cook, stirring gently, for 1 minute or until strawberries are slightly softened. Remove from heat and set aside for 10 minutes to cool slightly.

Arrange biscuits on plates. Drizzle with syrup from the pan. Top with mascarpone mixture, strawberries and mint. Drizzle with syrup again and serve.

It was very good, but I did feel a little ill afterward. I didn't think I had that big a serve (certainly less than a quarter), but maybe I'll have a smaller one next time.