Not quite tiramisu but equally as delicious, Trish Deseine shares two recipes to try …
Matchamisu
Some clearly deluded purists would insist you make a matcha tea genoise from scratch for this dessert. I have saved you that step with a recipe that is much easier and quicker, and still full of green, grassy flavour.
20 minutes preparation
3 hours resting
3 egg yolks
60g caster sugar
225g mascarpone cheese
50g icing sugar
250ml whipping cream, well chilled
1 teaspoon natural vanilla extract
50g matcha green tea powder
About 12 ladyfinger biscuits (savoiardi)
Beat the egg yolks and caster sugar in a mixing bowl until they are pale and mousse-like.
Beat the mascarpone with the icing sugar to soften. Pour in the cream, little by little, then whip until light using an electric beater. Add the vanilla extract, then the egg-sugar mixture.
Heat 125ml water in a pan and mix in two thirds of the green tea powder, whisking vigourously. Let the mixture cool slightly, then pour the tea into a dish.
Quickly dip the biscuits into the tea and lay them as you go into the base of a gratin dish measuring around 20 X 28 cm. If there is any tea left over, pour it over the ladyfingers.
Spread over the mascarpone mixture and let it rest for three hours in the fridge. Alternatively, use a smaller dish, divide the ladyfingers and mascarpone in two, and create two layers of each in the dish before refrigerating.
Before serving, you could decorate the ‘matchamisu’ with the rest of the (non-dissolved) tea.
Pineapple, yuzu and ginger fridge cake
In my family we call the original version of this dessert ‘Beattie’s thing’. Beattie being my aunt, 100 years old in a few weeks and living proof of a famous Derry Girls’ theory about Christian names.
It has all the ingredients of an Irish dessert from the 1970s: whipped cream, crushed biscuits with a hint of salt, acidic fruits … And all that in 30 minutes flat! This is my updated version with yuzu (an Asian citrus fruit), ginger and Happy Birthday greetings to Auntie Beattie.
25 minutes preparation
2 – 3 hours cooling
About 350g crunchy ginger nut biscuits
50g lightly salted butter
400g fresh pineapple (or tinned pineapple if you don’t have fresh)
2 tablespoons preserved ginger in syrup
1 tablespoon yuzu juice
350ml thin whipping cream, well chilled
2 tablespoons mascarpone cheese
2 tablespoons icing sugar
Crush the biscuits in a food processor or by placing them in a tea towel and bashing with a rolling pin.
Melt the butter in a saucepan or in the microwave, then mix with the crushed biscuits.
Place this mixture in the bottom of a gratin dish about 20 cm wide and 28 cm long. Pack the mixture down well. Place the dish in the fridge so the biscuit base cools and hardens.
Peel and chop the pineapple into small cubes.
Combine it with the ginger and its syrup and the yuzu juice.
Using an electric beater, whip the cream with the mascarpone in a mixing bowl until light. Add the icing sugar, still beating.
Once the biscuit base is quite cold, cover with pineapple, then top with whipped cream and let it rest for 1-2 hours before serving.
