If making the perfect dish of Tiramisu an impossible task for you, Chef Pradeep Joshi has a solution.

Chef Pradeep deconstructs the coffee-based dessert to create a simpler version that is deliciously creamy too.

Tiramisu

Serves: 2

Ingredients

• 80 gm cream
• 70 gm milk
• 30 gm inverted sugar (a type of liquid sweetener made with sucrose and water, which can be purchased online)
• 35 gm crushed coffee beans
• 50 gm milk chocolate, melted
• 60 gm dark chocolate, melted
• 30 gm butter
• 5 gm gelatine or a gelatine substitute for vegetarians like agar-agar (please see the note below)
• 30 ml water

For the coffee syrup

• 230 gm water
• 175 gm castor sugarr (a kind of finer sugar manufactured by top baking brands)
• 20 gm Nescafe coffee powder

Method

• Heat the 30 ml water in a saucepan.
  Take off heat and pour into a bowl. 
  Add the gelatine and mix.
  Leave for 10-15 minutes to bloom.
• In another saucepan warm the cream, milk, inverted sugar over low heat.
  Take off heat.
  Add in the crushed coffee beans and let infuse for two hours.
  Using a sieve, strain the coffee bean-cream mixture and transfer the mixture into the same saucepan.
  Warm up the coffee-flavoured cream mixture again.
  Add in the bloomed gelatine.
  Pour in the melted milk chocolate and the melted dark chocolate.
  Whisk until well combined.
  Take off heat and cool the mixture down to 35°C.
  Add in the butter and keep whisking it till it melts.
  Transfer the mixture into a square glass bowl. 
  Cool in the refrigerator for a few hours.
• Transfer the cooled mixture onto a glass plate and cut into two rectangular pieces and transfer to two serving plates for dessert.
  Keep aside.
• In a bowl, mix the sugar, water and the Nescafe powder.
  Keep stirring until the sugar dissolves.
  Pour the coffee mixture on top of the tiramisu and serve.
  You may also just mix the Nescafe coffee powder with sugar and dust it over the tiramisu.

Editor's Note: Each gm or tsp of gelatine can be substituted for an equivalent amount of agar agar -- substitution is in a 1:1 ratio.

Chef Joshi suggests using Lescure cream and Callebaut chocolate. Callebaut chocolate is available for purchase online, but it is expensive.

For a sugar-free dessert substitute the chocolate with sugar-free chocolate and the inverted sugar and sugar with stevia powder. Each brand of stevia has its own stevia for sugar substitution ratio provided on its packing.

For a vegan dessert, opt to use coconut milk instead of cream and milk and use vegan chocolate and substitute the butter with cashew butter.

Chef Pradeep Joshi is the Head Chef at Barbeque Company that has several branches in Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad and Jaipur.

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