You know how sometimes when you think about something too much you just end up back at square one?
This time that is not the case for me.
Over a month ago I recieved 2 bags of seasonal Godiva Coffee from the Foodbuzz Taste Makers Program. Carmel pecan bark and pumpkin spice!
I was super excited to receive these coffees and upon trying them I was hooked! I don’t usually love flavored coffee but these are fantastic. I especially loved the pumpkin spice!
I lemented for weeks over what recipe to make using the pumkin spice coffee. I’ve seen a lot of homemade pumpkin spice lattes out there but when I tried to make one myself, well let’s just say it didn’t taste too great. So I sat and thought and thought and almost used all the coffee grounds until I finally came up with an interesting seasonal idea!
Pumpkin Tiramisu!
I love a classic and I know how some people feel about messing with a classic. You wouldn’t change the Mona Lisa would you? While tiramisu is definitely a classic Italian dessert, sometimes adding a new twist is fun and can actually amp up the volume a bit without destroying the integrity of the dessert. And in this case it worked really really well. I mean really well.
Being a tiramisu purest of sorts I really do think that marscapone is the best base for the cream. It doesn’t have as sharp of a bite as cream cheese, but if it’s out of your price range and or you can’t find it, you can definitely use cream cheese.
I honestly made a classic tiramisu cream then folding in pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice until it was just right. I didn’t want the flavor to be overwhelmingly pumpkiny but just enough. And let me tell you this stuff was amazing. I may or may not have stuck my finger in the bowl numerous amounts of times, after all I had to taste test for quality control…and then some.
Unlike last time, I added a healthy amount of rum this time and a strong batch of pumpkin spice coffee instead of espresso, after all tiramisu literally means “pick me up” and if rum and coffee aren’t a pick me up, I don’t know what is?
Apparently rum and pumpkin are BFF. Makes total sense to me now. Spicy rum and spicy sweet pumpkin are basically a match made in fall heaven.
Oh and did I mention I don’t use cocoa powder in my tiramisu? Well I don’t. I always use a dark chocolate candy bar. Cocoa powder is great for making chocolate cakes and puddings and the like but for me it just brings a bitterness to the tiramisu when all I really want is something sweet.
So I’m beginning to think I’m not such a tiramisu purest after all. I seem to make this dessert my own way. And with that being said I had to add a little something even more festive to my tiramisu:
Yup, that’s right, I added a chocolate jackolantern face on top of my tiramisu. Did I go a little overboard? Yes and I love it.
Pumpkin Tiramisu:
2 packages of lady fingers
1 cup pumpkin spice coffee or espresso
1/4 cup rum
1 Dark chocolate bar
Cream:
6 egg yolks
1/4 heaping cup of sugar
16oz marscapone cheese
1/4 cup pumpkin
1 Tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
3 Tablespoons Godiva pumpkin spice coffee
2 Tablespoons rum
Instructions:
First brew a strong cup of pumpkin spice coffee or espresso and set aside to cool.
In a bowl whip 6 egg yolks and the sugar with an electric mixer until the mixture gets fluffy and light yellow. Add 2 tablespoons of rum and 3 tablespoon of the coffee and mix. Add the marscapone cheese and whip again. Add the pumpkin and the pumpkin pie spice and mix again. set aside.
Now you are ready for assembly.
Pour 1 cup coffee in a dish and add 1/4 cup of rum. Dip each lady finger in the coffee rum mixture quickly and place in a 8X8 pan until the bottom is covered with lady fingers.
Add a layer of the pumpkin cream on top of the lady fingers.
Then finely chop up 1/2 of the chocolate bar and sprinkle on top of the pumpkin cream.
Repeat these steps again until you have 2 layers.
Refridgerate for a couple hours to over night to let rum and coffee soak into the whole tiramisu. Then cut and serve!
It really is best to let the tiramisu sit over night so that the flavors all meld and intensify but really who are we kidding, I ate a peice right away.
