Ricotta Tiramisu

I wanted to use the mound of ricotta I had sitting in the fridge, but instead of doing something boring like making strawberry ricotta muffins or a cheesecake I thought, why not try a tiramisu recipe but substitute ricotta for marscapone? I'm sure it wouldn't taste too much different, but I would play around with combinations till I got it tasting good.

I thought since marscapone is kind of creamy I will add some cream cheese and also some sugar as ricotta is quite a plain cheese. Then to give it a bit of coffee flavour I poured in a but of kahlua. I mixed that till it was smooth and still a little runny. You don't want it to be too thick as that probably means there is too much ricotta and it won't be sweet enough.

Now the fun part!!! Soaking the biscuits in coffee and alcohol. I made up some strong black coffee, plunger of course, then added kahlua + galliano. If you don't want it too strong just add kahlua or no alcohol at all, but I like my tiramisu with a bit of an alcoholic flavour to it (probably not the best idea since it is double demerits this Australia Day long weekend).

I soaked the biscuits till they were almost falling apart and then put them into the glasses. The reason I wanted them to absorb as much liquid as possible is because you want there to be some extra liquid which will combine with the cheese mixture. You then layer the biscuits then the cheese until you fill up the glasses.

N.B. you will probably have to top up the soaking liquid about 4 times as the sponge biscuits take up the liquid very easily.

Finally its time to dust with grated chocolate, and for all of you who know me well, you will know I love my dark chocolate, so it was a given I would be grating over some 85% Lindt. Now they just have to set in the fridge a bit. If you are leaving them overnight I would cover the top in cling wrap so the cheese mixture doesn't get too dry on the top.

So this is the final combination I came up with and they tasted fantastic, not too heavy yet still creamy and indulgent.

1 1/2 cups ricotta
3/4 cup cream cheese
1/4 cup kahlua
1/4 cup sugar
sponge fingers

1 cup strong coffee
1 cup kahlua
1/2 cup galliano
(these are only guides as I didn't really measure out the liquids, I just poured them in and tasted until they were balanced,but this can be adjusted to your own liking)

Now they are just waiting to be eaten...............so who is going to visit me tomorrow???