The fact that claire had NO coffee waste, but still had better coffee flavour. Ughhh, how can anyone not love her recipes, they're written so thoughtfully
@@tehkokhoe if you ask me the best recipe is the one of my nonna (of coarse it is) which is the traditional recipe with some twist. 1. Put half the sugar 2. Substitute 1/3 of mascarpone with ricotta 3. Instead of cocoa powder use a knife to cut very thinly a chocolate bar (or more, at your taste) 4. Moka coffee and not espresso Italia Squisita did a perfect video of the recipe Expecially in UK I found overly firm mascarpone cream that make the cake much heavier. I hope it was just bad luck. I am not American but to me adding Kalhua, vanilla and coffe in powder make the cake with harder to find ingredients and harder to make than the traditional. Maybe for American this is easier or more similar to thei taste. Idk Although I recognise it is safer expecially if you are a beginner or someone who never did cakes with raw eggs.
it's just that it uses instant coffee. It's not exactly a bad thing, just a difference and it makes me wonder if it can be made, perhaps better, with espresso
This attention to detail is what keeps me coming back to these videos over and over. Like sometimes there will be a framed poster on the wall behind that is relevant to a five-second sidenote then it reverts back to what was there before.
@@keksimus__maximus Nope, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was out there. Mr. Hoffman is a very focused and dedicated person when it comes to his Avocation. Wanna shoot me the Video link if it's not any trouble please? 😁
I can't speak for Brian Lagerstorm (what a cool name) - but after making multiple recipes from Babish, Weissman, and Saffitz, it's *extremely obvious* who's worked in kitchens and food writing and who's primarily a RU-vidr. I was not surprised at all that her Tiramisu recipe is more practical.
@@DarkxxLightningXx I've made quite a few of Brian's recipes and many of them are very good. In terms of people on RU-vid and online I would also recommend Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen, all of her recipes are tested and she herself makes them in her small New York City kitchen.
I adore Claire's recipes. They're so well developed and thoughtful for an everyday kitchen, and the sweetness level is perfect, I never feel like I'm biting into a wad of sugar when I try her recipes. This one in particular is so easy to make, I love it, it's a delicious interpretation of tiramisu flavor and texture - all in a convenient and easy to make/serve icebox cake method!
I clicked on this video, expecting some sugar-coated collab with all the youtubers in the thumbnail, where they chat with you on skype, give you some advice and then you go off and do your own thing. But what I got was head and shoulders above that; all the critique and confusion, the quiet british anger, it was brilliant. Also brilliant: the way you guys set up those pictures, in frames, like at a wake
James does a good job of pointing out that it's actually pretty hard to make an instructional video and recipe! Just clearly instructing, knowing what information is and isn't relevant to viewers and what parts they might goof up.
in Claire's defense, I think she she describes it as a non traditional riff rather than a originalist interpretation. And THANK YOU for noting that Babish's tiramisu is so not basic. He is delirious. Amazing. Also: Delirious.
I love Claire Saffitz! My only gripe with her is her pronunciation of challah. She says “hallah.” I understand when non-Jews can’t make the “kh” or “ch” sound. My French accent is atrocious and I apologize when I have to mispronounce a French word. But why oh why does Claire, with the same background I have, anglicize it?
honestly that's a problem with a lot of the "Basics" series Babish does. the series started with more basic recipes but as time went on it basically just became recipes he wanted to do but couldn't fit into his mainline series.
@@TamarLitvot Because inserting foreign-language words with foreign-sounding phonemes can break the flow of a sentence and hurt understanding? I anglicize my own _name._ Why are you so offended that she anglicized a _bread?_
@@TamarLitvot You really should take a closer look at how names and loanwords get assimilated into other languages. Native speakers not being great at certain phonemes is the entire freaking point of why things are pronounced differently, making a fuss over this sort of thing is like complaining about bike geeks not properly pronouncing derailleur - it's insufferable and unnecessary, especially considering that every single language in this world does it extensively. Besides, it invariably makes you come off as a know-it-all, so why would you ever bother not going for the bastardized pronunciation? Those are cooking channels aimed at English speakers, not lectures in Hebrew phonology.
@@whatr0 That is also my problem with it. It started of great showing the basics in the kitchen. And therein also lies the flaw in the series. Once you have done the basics, then you are done with them and you start on the next level of cooking. They ran out of information which you classify as basics. But instead of just ending the series, which I would argue was the best, they kept it and just added things which are no longer basic.
I like how James talked about how easy each recipe was. Clearly, Claire thinks about the clean-up and takes care of integrating that into her recipe. Wheras the rest of the youtubers tend to show off their complicated recipes for the sake of clicks.
That's because Claire is a professional pastry chef who has worked in professional kitches and she's clearly taking all that expansive knowledge and making it more digestible for the average home cook. Most of her recipes can be accomplished with very little in the way of specialty ingredients and equipment as well as techniques. She's often opting to use hand mixers and whisks vs expensive stand mixers and she often says that you can use the stand mixer if it makes it easier but you can easily do it just using a hand mixer. If the professional pastry chef can be this down to earth and still have a following as large as she does then everyone else really has no excuse to make their videos more daunting to the average person who thinks they can't recreate them simply because they "don't have the right equipment" when most of the time that is simply not true.
@@harrisonpike4973 So, what, the others require more elaborate methods because they are going for more expert-tier results? Clearly not, since their more complicated recipes did not taste better than Claire's simple one. More complex does not mean better!
Haha, home coffee can get expensive! What have you bought so far? I've bought 3 grinders and two espresso machines, without talking about the coffee itself, and i blame him! 😂
As far as the “original” being sweeter than what you were served in the restaurant: I have often found that published recipes online in English have more sugar than the original, perhaps in anticipation that a lot of Americans prefer sweeter desserts. I once made a chocolate dome cake featured on an Julia Child episode and the guest cook used a much lower amount of sugar than the accompanying published online recipe.
In Europe in the last several years there's been a love hate relationship with sugar now that we know it kills us. Chefs are absolutely trying to reduce sugar in recipes, and so there's also an association that if it's less sweet, it's fancier.
@ranyd timrek Out of curiosity, I downloaded both the English and Italian copies of the recipe. Interestingly, both the English and Italian copies included the same 1/2kg of sugar.
I have been trying to perfect my brownies game for a while now. Results are... pretty varied, suffice to say. But one constant thing remain: In every recipe I do, I always halved the sugar. The sweetness is on point already, so I would not bother using the full amount of sugar prescribed in the recipe. Can't imagine how overly sweet that would be.
I’m not surprised that Claire Saffitz’s recipe is one you liked a lot (except for the instant coffee). Since desserts are to Claire what coffee is to you, I would expect a good balance of flavors (flavours). I haven’t seen her recipe but is there a way to make it with real coffee rather than instant? And since I don’t have an espresso machine, would good regular coffee or perhaps coffee from a Bialetti work?
It's not clear through James video, but Claire uses real coffee(in the recipe, it calls for strong brewed coffee for the lady fingers), the only step she uses instant coffee is for the filling.
@@adrianocampanhola4250 Yes -- after I asked my questions, I went and watched the video and saw that. I'm thinking that espresso powder might yield a better result than regular instant for just that part of the recipe. And given what someone else said in a comment, maybe bittersweet chocolate shavings rather than cocoa on top (though I like cocoa, so might stick with that). Overall, her recipe looks absolutely wonderful. I might try it when my daughters come into town for a visit. And I really appreciate her desserts not requiring a stand mixer. I'm not about to buy one at my age (too old to get enough use out of it) so sometimes feel discouraged at all the recipes that seem to use it.
I wonder about using a good strong cold brew for dunking the ladyfingers? You can play with the ratio of grounds to water and get a concentrated coffee that might give more of that "coffee-forward" effect that we're all chasing?
I feel like a moka pot brew is good for Tiramisu as it’s more intense than a filter brewed coffee. It’s not really practical or economical to brew espresso (you’d need a lot of shots!). I feel like maybe some espresso powder in the lady finger mixture might be the way to go. The dilemma is always wanting lots of coffee soaked into the lady fingers without them going to soggy mush. I’m quite partial to amaretto in the mascarpone too.
I think what I like about every James Hoffmann video, is the precision. The small issues he highlights with the how-to-videos here mirror how I feel about many tutorial/cooking channels on RU-vid. Admittedly, 95% of the audience is never going to even try to make the receipes, I understand that, I'm usually in that camp too. But even as a viewer, being more specific and transparent is always more enjoyable to me. And I wanna thank James Hoffmann (and crew) for always delivering a comprehensive video. I don't mean comprehensive as in it covers every single aspect of the topic, but that it covers all the relevant info surrounding the elements in the video; so that there is no confusion or heavily biased omission.
Brian is my favorite home chef RU-vidr. Great to see his recipe and recognition on your channel, James! I also have really enjoyed Claire’s recipes- her chocolate chip cookie recipe is a household staple for us. Her icebox tiramisu was also a major hit at multiple family gatherings.
I like how James is utterly confused about how to put more lady fingers on a round plate. The kicker is that, in the first video (EP #1), he has a picture from Alle Beccherie where the owners are holding a plate of tiramisu, and it's round, not rectangular. James was so focused on the task he didn't think about making a circle of cookies.
You could literally talk about which toilet paper is the best for 10h and i would be more involved with that video than with any other video on youtube. Your videos are truly captivating.
I've made Claire Saffitz's recipe twice in the last month, it's honestly so good and was super easy to do. haven't tried the others, but can definitely recommend her version :) (i also added extra booze and stronger coffee to get more of those flavours the second time around and it turned out great, so you can definitely adjust it to your liking)
Yeah as a top tier amateur baker Claire's videos are really palatable and easy for the average person to recreate. It's just so satisfying to find a channel full of stunning desserts with recipes that are clearly laid out and easy to pull off with very little in the way of specialty items.
Loving the kitchen provisions apron as well! Only tried Claire's recipe out of these. Very easy and simple even if not a classic tiramisu (which she very clearly says it isn't). Still delicious. Looking forward to your coffee focused version which I assume is Pt3 of the series 😊
I am so HYPED to see Brian on here! He’s such a talented chef all around and freely shares his wisdom on RU-vid. I love his approach and recipes. Great work James!!
I myself never liked tiramisu much, until I noticed it was the cocoa powder. I made the original recipe you showed here, but with, indeed, half the sugar, and replaced the cocoa with high percentage chocolate shavings. It was the best tiramisu, or even dessert, I ever had, and it took me so little time, effort and money (mascarpone is very cheap in germany). I think, nonetheless, that using savoiardi ladyfingers made the biggest difference, I used 2,5 regular size moka machines worth of coffee for around 20 ladyfingers and the balance was perfect.
Hi, I am looking to improve my Tiramisu. What exactly are those Savoiardi Ladyfingers? Are they a special brand or something? A quick Google search shows me some Ladyfingers from Edeka called Savoiardi. Are those the ones you prefer?
@@ArnoNuehm1000 Savoiardi are Italian ladyfingers that are a little bit thicker. So you can have the exact eight amount of soggyness on the outside while maintaining some crunch on the inside.
extremely late to this but did you really use cocoa powder ? if you were using the commercial cocoa powder mix like nesquick and the like, you would have been sprinkling your cake with mostly sugar and almost no flavour. the cocoa powder is supposed to be without any sugar, or fat to combine well with the batter. using high cocoa chocolate is indeed a good way to achieve a similar thing :-)
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James slowly drifting to the left the entire time he was blindfolded was way funnier than I anticipated 😂😂😂😂😂
I tried babish's recipe for tiramisu, but i used storebought ladyfingers instead of making them yourself (why on earth would you make them yourself? anyway). It came out well but i agree it definitely needed more coffee flavour. I had a hard time saturating the biscuits with coffee and in the end since it was just brewed coffee it didnt really taste like anything in the finished cake. Came out really delicious though.
I can only think of two reasons for making the ladyfingers yourself: 1. To incorporate coffee directly in the batter for more coffee flavor. 2. If you have a dietary restriction (such as celiac disease) that keeps you from eating most ladyfingers you'd find in the store. Neither of these seemed to apply to any of the ladyfingers in this video, unless I missed something.
My reason would be that in my part of the world if you were lucky enough to find ANY ladyfingers in a store, cardboard would taste better and no amount of coffee could redeem them. Does Amazon sell good ladyfingers and could they get delivered without being crushed?
Hi! I used to bake professionally and I was so inspired by you to get a tiramisu recipe perfected. I tried “The Original” recipe and agree I would cut down on the sugar! But it was still really good in small servings. I have an idea what I want a tiramisu to taste like after having an amazing one in Rome. It was lighter in texture, less sweet. I believe the method was the same and I will be using this recipe to work off of. No whipped cream!
Wow, couldn't have been more right. People watch Babish they don't make his recipes. Claire teaches, and makes stuff that tastes great. It may not be traditional, but it will taste great. Also, tiramisu I think just has to use moka pot coffee.
i tried his vids but.... for various reasons, not for me. i like ones where i'm actively learning. i can cook, but i like to expand, and also learn to make things i've not done before or techniques. the point of his seems.... less about cooking than anticipated. and i think his personality or approach or something just doesn't jive for me. haven't seen claire but i'll look her up. have watched a lot of brian and weissman. brian i feel is better with the actual things made, though weissman is highly entertaining. (just there's a lot of his recipes that recreate junk food, so that's not often what i'm looking for. BUT, plenty of his stuff would be fine.)
I went on this rabbit hole a couple months ago, this video is so validating I literally had the same questions and questioned several times if I was the problem. I have peace now. 😂
Personally a fan of wet tiramisu. The tiramisus I've enjoyed the most have been completely saturated with liquid, I think. Was a reminder to me, I guess, that food is ultimately a matter of taste. Love this second installment on my favorite dessert from my favorite strange coffee guy!
Because of you, I bought some tiramisu when ordering from a fancy pizza restaurant in Sydney. They didn't use ladyfingers, it wasn't overly sweet and the coffee was real espresso. It was moist, creamy, and delicious. I went back a few days later to get more, and that's saying something because I normally don't even like tiramisu
I've found that you can create your own amount of sogginess in the lady finger by increasing / decreasing the dipping duration. For me, 1-1.5 seconds works best. Additionally, there is a difference in the sogginess dipping the sugar side in the espresso or dipping the biscuit side in the espresso. Excited to see what part three is going to bring!
I've made a decent amount of Tiramisu and I always substitute a good aged rum for marsala for two reasons. 1) I don't have marsala usually 2) The flavors of an aged rum go well and the flavors of an aged rum (Vanilla, caramel, etc...) Can really bring more flavor to the coffee.
Ive made Claire's tiramisu ice box cake 4 times now for different parties and it is always a hit. So easy to make (although I have a stand mixer so that's why), and it is so well balanced. I think the instant coffee is a great addition since I always like more coffee flavor personally.
Haven’t tried these recipes myself, but I love the recipe from Food Wishes. He does a nice trick with a double boiler with the eggs yolks which firms up the texture nicely.
I would love to see your opinion on the Genaro Contaldo's take, which uses lemons and lemoncello. Babish's Basics is the takes a basic dish and do it his own, so he usually goes way deeper than necessary. Very good video! Hope there is a part 3.
thank you for calling out crappy youtuber recipes. lots of these people are RU-vidrs first, chefs second. before you even got to talking about the recipes, i knew that claire's recipe was going to be more cook-friendly than that of babish's and weissman's.
I would want to see how the original recipe can be changed to go lower on the sweetness by sugar and what would be the results with different coffee (espresso, strong filter coffee and specialty instant coffee)
Claire's Ice box tiramisu has been amazing. I've made it twice. The second time making it, I used espresso for the lady figure dip and also made it a day in advance. The longer it sits in the fridge the better it gets. Very easy and delicious.
I like how every other recipe he's like this is weird, not complex, this isnt enough coffee and that's bad. And Claire he's like oh it's great she's great 😂😂 as he should Claire is too sweet 😭
The "gelatin in the cream" thing is an old pastry chef trick for a whipped cream iced cake like a Black Forest cake. You add dissolved gelatin to your cream while you're whipping it, whip it up stiff, ice your cake, and put it in the fridge. The gelatin will set within the bubbly matrix of the whipped cream and your whipped cream frosting won't fall and turn all gross and revert back to it's liquid state. Because that's all whipped cream is, it's a liquid made into a foam, as those bubbles pop it goes back to being a liquid. The gelatin sets that liquid in between the bubbles so the foam structure is stabilized. Hence the product is called 'gelatin stabilized whipped cream'.
I make a chocolate sponge cut in half then espresso and rum is spooned on top. The next layer is chocolate mousse, topped with Italian cream then repeat all layers. Very different but it is very good.
I've experienced this with recipes before. You have this common enough thing which means every website has its own twist on the recipe and they all have different strengths and weaknesses. You can't truly make an "ultimate" version because it all comes down to personal preferences and so all you can do is Frankenstein the recipes together to try and make the recipe that is best for you.
I think James misunderstood the instructions in the Le Biccherie recipe. I think they want you to arrange the cookies in the circle, like the hands on a clock. This would then result in the circular cake described in the recipe (and explain the need for more cookies than he used). @JamesHoffman maybe I'm wrong, but that was my interpretation of their instructions!
I know several others have mentioned Stella Park/Bravetart's recipe and I will whole heartedly reiterate that as a great recipe. I also have found that there is a huge benefit to using a really good cocoa powder, I have found that a Stella's suggestion of Cocoa Barry Extra Brute is really good. I had also used regular Fry's Dutched Processed Cocoa but Cocoa Barry is soooooooo much better. I have made Stella's homemade ladyfingers although usually when I make the recipe now I just use store bought. Stella's recipe has some lemon zest which adds a different flavour, I do like it but also find that using store bought ladyfingers results in a really tasty tiramisu that I don't bother with the extra work.
I put you (James), Brian, and Claire on the Mount Rushmore of "really good culinary/food/drink-youtubers of the last 5 years". Throw in Matty Matheson or Cocktail Chemistry as a wildcard and you've got a wealth of good vibes and great food content. Thanks James!
Aw man, now I really want a Mount Rushmore with those people on it. That would be so great. Is there a RU-vidr out there we can challenge to carve faces into the side of a mountain?
I’ve made the Babish recipe half a dozen times now but with store bought lady fingers. my girlfriend adores it. I’ve left out the heavy cream every time. this is a good experiment. I think I’ll play around with espresso, marsala, and tempering the yolks
I can say, I really love tiramisu. I don’t have the equipment needed to make tiramisu so I can’t do it by myself yet. However, one of the major things for me is I want coffee to be the primary flavor with every bite. I want to be punched in the mouth with a blast of coffee on my tongue while it not being overpowering. I think that’s the charm of a tiramisu. People expect coffee and chocolate to be the primary flavors. Then, depending on the culture/person will dictate how sweet they want to make the desert. I feel like the original would be a good starting point.
The real challenge of attempting a Joshua Weissman recipe is making it through the video without suffering an Aneurysm and having your attention span reduced to that of a child
KEY to me, with cooking or making anything - that all steps are NEEDED and add to it. i hate complications with little to no gain. also hate not streamlining to avoid excessive dishes. your line at the end summed it up nicely: "i'm not sure that messing around with the extra things was taking you to greater heights"
I made Joshua's recipe last year for my birthday and while it tasted good, my issue with it is that the lady fingers you make have a tendency to flatten while baking, the entire recipe uses almost a dozen eggs (read, you'll use 8 egg yolks for the cream, with nothing to do with the whites). Also, if it doesn't set properly, you'll essentially have something closer to soup than a tiramisu.
@@erikbukovac5944 I mean, I do that now, after looking at how other yt cooks make tiramisu. I reduced it to 6 whole eggs, whites and yolks separated into 2 bowls with half the total amount of mascarpone in each, which then were combined. Still haven't figured out why my ladyfingers are different.
Thank you for pointing out that the "basic" tutorials were in no way basic. I've felt like making some of the recipes in those videos, but upon watching them I thought I was completely useless as a cook because I couldn't follow these "basic" recipes, it killed my confidence even before I started until I looked at other, much simpler tutorials.
Personally I'd love for you to collaborate again with Alex and I bet you could even incorporate those techniques of the coffee eclair into the lady fingers
i'm excited for this series! tiramisu's my favorite dessert, and ironically my go-to is the premade one from LIDL. let's see if your recipe will taste better ;D
Have a look for mine and give it a try if you don't mind making a sabayon. But it does make an enormous one so you might want to halve or quarter it. My vid is old and was just to try to help people reading my recipe. It's filmed in my kitchen totally non-professionally, the sound is basic (and that's being kind) and the lighting is ghastly. Plus it's not monetised so it's very grainy now but I think you can still see it well enough to figure out what's happening - and I've put the recipe in the "More" section. If you try it, let me know what you think of it. :-)
I think the first time I had tiramisu was when I made it myself from a recipe I found somewhere. The recipe was super basic with very few ingredients. Storebought ladyfingers, which in Germany most often are crusted with sugar, mascarpone, coffee (I think the recipe specified several cups of espresso, but that's probably 90% personal preference), eggs, sugar, and cocoa powder for garnish. You can also add alcohol of your choice to the espressi, but since I don't do that, I can't speak to how well that works or not. They even gave a ratio for eggs to mascarpone, which I liked a lot. It's 1 egg (45g, or medium size) for 100g mascarpone and 1 TBSP sugar - since sugar is one of the ingredients that are quite consistent when using volumetric measurements, I don't even hate that they used tablespoons here. 1 tablespoon sugar is 15g, btw. Plus 30g (storebought) ladyfingers and 70ml espresso. They say this is the amount you should plan for 2 portions. The way you make it is you - separate the eggs, whisk the whites to stiff peaks with about half your sugar (the exact amount is not important here, but the sugar helps not overwhip the whites and helps with consistent sweetness should you not fold it in 100% evenly), remember to be careful about having residual fat in your bowl or on your whisk/hand mixer beaters, as that can impede whipping. [If you're not sure, put some vinegar on a paper towel and use that to clean the bowl. You don't need more than a teaspoon and you won't taste it] - put the yolks and mascarpone in a different bowl that's big enough for all your cream (I usually use something that's at least 3l in volume for 500g of mascarpone) and whip them up with the other half of the sugar (Doing this after the whites in a different bowl means that you don't have to wash the beaters of the hand mixer, which you would have to do if you work the other way around). - Then you fold the whites under the mascarpone (easiest way is to do that in 3 batches, with the first just being whipped in there to loosen the mascarpone/yolk mixture, cause that's QUITE stiff, and then folding in the other 2 parts). - After that, you do the layering. Personally, I like my ladyfingers a bit soggy, so I put them in my rectangular dish and spoon coffee over them until the color is consistent (and I do that for every layer. It does work unless you have wide gaps between your ladyfingers^^). The dip and turn method works well, too (dip a ladyfinger in the coffee, turn it over, dip a second time, put it them in your rectangular dish), especially if you're not into having your ladyfingers a bit soggy. But that's basically it. Alternate soaked ladyfingers and mascarpone cream until you reach the top of your dish and sift unsweetened cocoa powder over the entire thing. You can also do the cocoa powder as the last step before serving, after cooling, but I like my cocoa a bit soggy, too^^ - Then it is very VERY important to keep the tiramisu in your fridge for several hours, otherwise you have a REALLY soggy mess that you can't actually plate. This has to do with how we loosened up the mascarpone and that it has to re-stiffen. Also, the ladyfingers aren't uniformly soaked until then. I haven't done a scientific test, but the moisture from the mascarpone cream probably soaks into them a little too. This recipe always works for me and it's not overly sweet, despite the sugar crust on the ladyfingers. It's sort of important to use the storebought ladyfingers for this, though. I use the German aldi store brand and they work really well. The things are half an inch thick, crusted in sugar and about 10 by 2.5 cm and that fits into my ceramic dish very very well. Tiramisu can be very easy to make, so long as you don't use expired ingredients or don't do egg separating well. A tip here is that you don't want to crack your eggs on the rim of something, you'll want to crack them on a flat surface. And then, the easiest way to separate them is either with an egg separator, which is a separate tool you can buy that will clutter your kitchen, or you can actually just put the entire egg in a small bowl and use a clean hand to fish out the yolk. Or you can try the plastic bottle trick. You also have to remember that this dessert won't keep forver. It's got raw egg in it, so you shouldn't serve it to people sensitive to that or pregnant people. It's usually harmless, especially when you use fresh eggs, but safety first. And you can't pasteurize this in a domestic environment.
My favorite recipe is that of Marco Pierre White. It was published in the Independent (Irish paper?) A few years ago and can be found online. I cut the sugar amount by 10-20%, and don't bother with the tuile bit. I also add some amaretto type liquor to the coffee. Granted the mascarpone cream is a bit faffy, but the result is light, creamy and intensely flavoured.
I have a theory: I believe that chefs without a sweet tooth make way better desserts. A chef with a sweet tooth drowns everything in sugar and are pleased with the taste of sweetness. A chef without a sweet tooth have the complexity of flavours as a goal and lets sugar be a team player instead of the main character. I actually don't care to much for sweets, so I'm hoping that your own recipe is a bit bitter and with excellent texture.
@@user-sx4yu3nw4j yes, I'm just as selfish as everyone else. 🙂 However, I do believe that a dessert chef without a sweet tooth makes everyone happy, instead of just the people addicted to the taste of sweetness.
In my own experience trying Patisseries and bakeries all over the world, I think the issue is more to do with training and cultural background. While I agree that chefs with extraordinary like for sugar will probably not create complex tasting desserts, I do find that their "school" of bakery is the determining factor and I say that because the problem is not only the level of sweetness, it is also about other aspects like texture and how well things are prepared. I found that anyone who has been trained in the classic French style of patisserie is usually able to create very good desserts. Some might be slightly sweeter than others but usually the textures are very good, there is actual flavour, and the stuff has personality. It might taste sweet but there is still room for delicacy. Anyone not trained in the French style just creates sweet junk. I call it the American school of sweets. It's heavy, there is never anything delicate about it, it tastes like sugar with fats and often smells too heavy of fake vanilla, its just a mess. Texture is never balanced either, always heavy (be it creams, mousses, doughs, fillings). If it is made with puff pastry then it never flakes delicately. Chocolate never tastes like intense chocolate. I can spot them straight away by just looking at it and I avoid those places at all cost. Same is true for ice cream btw. There is also a slight exception and that's the Japanese school. I think they are heavily influenced by the French on this particular aspect but still add their own twist and creativity to it. It's also where their culture shines as they are able to combine a lot of typical Japanese ingredients (tea, yuzu, sesame, etc.) and their own eye for perfection and dedication.
@@santibanks I haven't been traveling all over the world. My experience is limited to the chefs I've worked with in Sweden where I live, so I'm sure you have a much wider expertise in the subject. But I suspect you make a good point. The best desserts I've ever tasted was served at VRÅ, a Swedish - Japanese restaurant in Gothenburg. Textures are wildly underrated. And portion size! If I have finished a dessert and want just two more bites, then the portion is perfect. 🙂
I seen a traditional tiramisu being made and it was actually quite different from these. They poured espresso over ladyfingers, covered them in custard then sprinkled the espresso powder over them. Very rustic.
I think something that must be said about the American recipes is that lady fingers aren't readily available here. The people creating the recipe might be able to get their hands on some, but the people watching their video probably wouldn't know where to get them. So that would be why they all involve making them from scratch.
Thanks to James' first episode on tiramisu, I noticed my local normal grocery store actually had Ladyfingers. It was in the "foreign" aisle but it was ladyfingers. How long they'll have them before kicking them out for lack of demand, I have no clue but my store isn't a Whole Foods or anything like that so I was pleasantly surprised.
Hi James, great video! Just a note about sweetness: my mom makes a lot of recipes from Brazil, where she is from, and she ALWAYS changes the amount of sugar (here is the US) she uses vs what the original recipes from back home. The sweetness levels are very, very different. Unsure why, but would be interesting to to look into it.
I've tried a bunch of tiramisu recipes and I've always find that it takes a lot of practice and tweaking to really get them to come out great. Sure, it's easy to make a decent tasting Tiramisu, but it is truly a challenging desert to master. There are so many variables where making slight changes can drastically effect the end result. The level of coffee absorption into the ladyfingers can be especially difficult to control. It is something you generally have to dial in through a few attempts. It's actually a lot like pulling good shots of espresso, in that way. Two people can follow the exact same recipe and come out with very different results, so it's always hard to judge these kinds of "tests." That's not a criticism, though. I loved the video. This is a really great direction this series has gone in. Would love to see more coffee-adjacent content like this.
The ladyfingers in a row on a round plate may be referring to them being stacked in a row end to end in a spiral. That way I could see easily getting 30 in a row but still circular.
Ive been making (original) tiramisu since I was little, and you want to make sure you do use enough sugar, because otherwise it won’t stiffen. I would use 300 grams of sugar for 1kg of mascarpone and 12 egg yolks
This makes me want to try more recipes. I have made Joshua's recipe a few times and I absolutely love it. I do agree it could use a bit more ladyfingers, but compared to the regular supermarket ladyfingers they have much more flavour.
