That's Amore~The Recipes, Dessert

This tiramisu recipe, as grand as it is, is one of the reasons we had to bill our menu as a "mostly authentic" Italian dinner. Authentic tiramisu is usually made with liqueur and marscapone cheese, two ingredients that were cost or otherwise prohibitive for us to use. However, this mock tiramisu seemed to satisfy as I've already received a few requests for the recipe. This was very, very easy to make. And though, here in Amman, we are often hard pressed to find the right ingredients, I easily found authentic Italian Savoiardi, or lady fingers, in the local market.

Easy Tiramisu

Ingredients:
2 packages of Savoirardi/ladyfingers (my packages were 200g or 7 oz each)
3 Tablespoons instant coffee
1 1/2 Tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 cups boiling water
2 packages (227 g. or 8 oz, each) of cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup whipping cream, slightly sweetened with powdered sugar (should yield 2 cups, whipped)
unsweetened cocoa powder

Putting it together:
Arrange 1 package of the biscuits on the bottom of a 13X9 inch backing dish.

Dissolve the instant coffee and 1 1/2 tablespoon sugar in boiling water. Brush 1/2 of the coffee mixture over the biscuits in the dish.

Beat cream cheese with an electric mixer until smooth. Add sugar, mixing until blended.

In a separate bowl, beat the whipping cream, sweetening it lightly with a little powdered sugar.

Gently fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture.

Spread 1/2 of the cream cheese/whipped cream mixture over the biscuits. Top with the remaining biscuits and brush with the remaining coffee.

Spread the remaining cream cheese/whipped cream mixture over the biscuits. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.

Dust with cocoa powder before serving. We also garnished each piece with and After Eight mint and a sprig of fresh mint.

Makes 12 servings.