Mini Nutella Tiramisu for World Nutella Day

• Are you participating in World Nutella Day? You MUST send an email to nutelladay **at** nutelladay **dot** com today with your entry to be included in the round-up on the 7th, tomorrow.
• Don’t forget to add your pics to the Nutella Day Flickr pool!

Happy World Nutella Day to all!

I wanted to give a big shout-out to my co-host and fellow expat blogger, Shelley from At Home in Rome for doing such a great job in promoting the event and putting up with me in general! I hope she doesn’t cringe at the next email I send her with “Project” in the subject! :)

I really enjoyed experimenting with this recipe because that’s what it really was, an experiment. The best part about it is that you can make the ingredients separately and then assemble when needed, so if even if you’re alone, you can enjoy one immediately and make the others the next day, for example. Of course, piping hot and fresh is best!

I also have a “low-impact” recipe option at the bottom of the post for those of you who don’t want to do anything too intensive!

Mini Nutella Tiramisu
Ingredients:

• 150-200g. Nutella
• 1/2-3/4c. Moka coffee or espresso
• 3 Eggs
• 250g. mascarpone
• Coffee liqueur (like Kahlua) (I used Caffe’ Borghetti)
• Cocoa powder (I used the leftover fair-trade cocoa I used for Chocolate by Brand on Sugar High Friday)
• Vanilla extract
• Pasta sfoglia – (Phyllo dough)
• Fresh whipping cream

Prepare the mini tiramisu “vehicles” by spreading out your phyllo dough onto a baking sheet. I used phyllo dough because I wanted something that wasn’t sweet to anchor the rest of the dish. I cut the dough into 3-4″ wide pieces using a butter knife (a long slice down the middle and a few along the width). Bake your phyllo dough according to the instructions on the package, until golden. Remove from the oven.

This is the tricky part.

I had 8 big puffy pieces of dough, and I took each one and split it where it was bursting at the seams, creating two halves, open like a sandwich. You must do this while they are still quite hot, otherwise they will cool down and you won’t be able to manipulate them as they set up. Don’t burn your fingers!

For the Nutella-coffee sauce

• 150-200g. Nutella
• 1/2-3/4c. Moka coffee (weaker than espresso)
• 3T. Coffee liqueur
• 1/4c. fresh whipping cream (optional)

Heat (most of the) Nutella and coffee in a double boiler, stirring constantly to fully melt the Nutella into the coffee (I later transferred the small pan to direct heat but I was stirring a lot, but you can continue in the double boiler). Add a bit of the coffee liqueur and taste to judge the balance – you don’t want this syrup to be *too* sweet as the tiramisu filling is quite sweet. Add more coffee liqueur or Nutella as desired. Add the cream last, mixing well and removing from the heat.

For the tiramisu filling

• 3 eggs, separated
• 100g. sugar
• 250g mascarpone
• 1 1/2 t. vanilla extract

Mix the egg yolks with the sugar using a wooden spoon or hand mixer. Add the mascarpone and vanilla and blend well, for a minute or two. In another bowl, beat the egg whites with a little sugar (Bakingsheet has a good tutorial on this) and fold the egg whites into the mascarpone mixture. If it’s too runny, you can put it in the fridge for 30 minutes to firm it up a bit.

To assemble: You want to use the Nutella-coffee sauce warm/liquid, so if you’re using it the day after, microwave it for a few seconds, or heat it on the stove. I added a small spiral of the sauce where I wanted to anchor the bottom of the phyllo shell to the plate. I then spooned a tablespoon or two of the sauce into the bottom of the shell.

Add one or two spoonfuls of the tiramisu filling, and sprinkle it liberally with cacao. You can serve them opened or closed! At this point, you can be as creative as you like, and drizzle the sauce on top of the shell, on the plate, even leaving a pool of the Nutella-coffee sauce on the side.

Whip the fresh whipping cream and serve as a garnish. You can use the leftover sauce on ice cream, in coffee, or whatever you like!

For the low-impact World Nutella Day observers – get your favorite brownie recipe, prepare as directed, then heat a jar of Nutella in the microwave (with the top off) for a minute to soften it up. Spread the brownie mix into your baking pan and then add large dollops and swirls into the batter, but don’t mix it in. Cook as directed. Ecco! Nutella Brownies!

Happy World Nutella Day!