Coco: This recipe came from a Zoom baking class at my office’s happy hour during the pandemic. Everyone baked from their kitchen and shared progress over the call. So fun!
Ingredients
- 6 egg yolks
- ¾ cup white sugar
- ⅔ cup milk
- 2 ½ cups heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (divided use)
- 1 pound mascarpone cheese, at room temperature
- 3/4 cup strong brewed coffee, at room temperature
- 1/4 cup dark rum (optional)
- 2 (7oz) packages ladyfinger cookies (Savoiardi)
- 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
Utensils
- 7×11 baking dish
- Small sauce pot
- Medium metal bowl
- Medium glass bowl
- Larger bowl to set the glass bowl into (ice bath)
- Fine mesh strainer
- Liquid measuring cup
- Dry ingredient measuring cups
- Measuring spoons
- Rubber spatula
- Two whisks
- Plastic wrap
Instructions
- In a medium glass bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until light in color and somewhat airy.
- In a small sauce pot, heat the milk over low heat until scalded/lightly simmering.
- Slowly stream the hot milk into the yolk mixture, stirring constantly, until fully incorporated. Add this mixture back into the sauce pot and place over very low heat.
- Place the glass bowl into an ice bath while the milk and egg mixture slowly comes to a light boil (stir constantly to avoid over-cooking).
- As the mixture comes to a boil, pour through mesh strainer into the glass bowl set in the ice bath while whisking to cool the mixture. Whisk in ½ tsp vanilla extract.
- Wrap the custard with plastic wrap, touching the film directly to the custard surface and place in the refrigerator for 1 hour to set.
- In a medium bowl, beat cream with remaining ½ tsp vanilla until soft peaks form.
- Whisk mascarpone into yolk mixture until smooth.
- In a small bowl, combine coffee and rum. Cover the bottom of the 7×11 dish with a layer of ladyfingers and drizzle with half of the coffee mixture.
- Spread half of mascarpone mixture over ladyfingers, then half of whipped cream over that. Repeat layers, cover, and refrigerate 4 to 6 hours, until set. Sprinkle with cocoa powder before slicing and serving.
