Rachel's Italian Kitchen: Andrea's Tiramisu

I started this blog with promises of more of our favorite recipes to come and within a week was stuck in the hospital. It's been a strange few months, but I'm back on track and ready to post one of our all time favorite treats: Tiramisu! My husband has been making this for me for years and it just might be one of the reasons I married him!! Hope you like it!

What you will need:
4 very fresh eggs (since they are eaten raw it's best to get them from a farmer's market or to use eggs with an expiration date at least a few weeks out)
8 spoons of sugar
500g of mascarpone cheese
1 package of lady finger cookies
about 4-8 cups of espresso coffee (depending on how much coffee you want and how soft you like the cookies to be)
dark chocolate shavings or cocoa powder

2 mixing bowls (preferably with a mixer to whip the egg whites)
a deep dish glass or ceramic casserole dish (or you can use individual bowls as I did.)

Step 1: Divide your eggs. Whites into one bowl; yokes in the other.

Step 2: To the bowl of egg yokes, add 2 table "spoons" for each egg yoke. Eight spoons for this tiramisu, but this recipe can easily be adjusted up or down to get the amount you want. Mix well until the sugar begins to dissolve and it gets a creamy consistency.

Step 3: Add the mascarpone cheese to the egg yokes and sugar mixture and mix well. Set aside.

Step 4: In the other bowl, start to whip/mount the egg whites until they become fairly stiff.

Step 5: Gently combine the two bowls - slowly, and stirring from the bottom up - mixing just enough to combine them so the egg whites don't fall.

Step 6: Make your espresso and put it in a shallow plate to dip your lady fingers in. (Espresso should be cool before dipping the lady fingers.

Step 7: Dip the cookies for about a second on each side and lay them as the first layer in your glass dish. Cover with about 3/4 to 1 inch of cream and top with a layer of chocolate.