Raspberry Tiramisu with Glayva.

Not so long ago I took part in the Heston challenge and was making flowerpot tiramisu. It was fabulous, although much of the recipe was a classic tiramisu, there were a few twists which made it very special. There was a complicated ‘soil’ recipe and each tiramisu layer was separated by a thin disk of chocolate that, when we ate the dish added a real crunch. It was also frighteningly rich.

So, as an experiment I decided to try a raspberry tiramisu, adapting and greatly simplifying the ‘soil’ but using the chocolate disks to divide the tiramisu layers. I was sent a bottle of Glayva this week and I love the idea of scottish whisky, honey and raspberries…so that’s the alcohol I used here. But you could substitute your own choice, just remember to adjust the amount of sugar if necessary.

Ingredients (to serve 2)

100g raspberries

25g icing sugar

150ml cream

125ml marscapone

2 egg yolks

50g dark chocolate (70% minimum) for the chocolate disks

4 sponge fingers

4 tablespoons of Glayva

For the chocolate crunch topping

100g white caster sugar

40g dark chocolate, roughly chopped (minimum 60% cocoa solids)

1 teaspoon walnut, almond or hazelnut oil

1 teaspoon cocoa powder

Method

Make the Crystalised Chocolate Crunch Topping

Put 35ml cold tap water and the sugar into a saucepan. Bring to the boil and continue to cook until the mixture starts to caramelize.

Take the pan off the heat and using a small wire whisk, beat as hard as you can, as if you are making fudge, till you have a crystalised mixture.

Spread this onto a piece of baking parchment and break all the little bits off the whisk then allow to cool completely before breaking it up into little pieces so you have a chocolate fudge crunch. According to Heston, this can be kept in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 1 month.

Make the Chocolate Disks

Melt the chocolate in the microwave then pour between two sheets of acetate (I used overhead transparencies!) and weigh down with a board or baking tray.

Allow to cool for at least 30 mins then, when the chocolate is set, remove the top layer of acetate and cut out ‘rounds’ of thin chocolate to fit your serving dishes using pastry cutters. You will need 6 disks of chocolate in total. Don’t worry if they break, you can save the left over bits of chocolate to fill in the gaps!

Prepare the Raspberries.

Put the raspberries in a small saucepan with the icing sugar and one tablespoon of glayva. Heat gently till the raspberries start to go squidgy and all the icing sugar is dissolved. Put in the fridge to chill.

Make the Marscapone Cream

Whip the fresh cream

Beat the egg yolks and one tablespoon of glayva into the marscapone.

Now fold the marscapone mixture gently into the fresh cream

To make up the Tiramisu

Take the sponge fingers and break up into the remaining glayva.

Put a third of the crumbled sponge fingers into each serving glass. Now top with some raspberries, then marscapone, then a chocolate disk. Continue till the glass is full, finishing with marscapone cream.

Put in the fridge and leave to chill for at least 2 hours.

Just before serving, stir the oil and cocoa powder into the crumbled chocolate crunch topping and use to top each serving glass.

You could use Drambuie instead of Glayva, or for a more traditional tiramisu, use marsala wine, in which case you may need to add a little icing sugar to the marscapone cream mixture. And, if you don’t want to make the chocolate crunch topping, well, grated chocolate works very well too:)