Tiramisu Parfait #Recipe by Maya Corrigan

For the last week I've been working on the copy edits for A Parfait Crime, the 9th Five-Ingredient Mystery coming out in October 2023. Today I'm sharing a recipe from that book to whet your appetite. Though tiramisu is usually made in a large pan, this recipe makes 6-8 individual servings for glasses, jars, or cups.

Parfaits are layered desserts, though what goes into the layers varies. The creamy layer might be cold or frozen custard, whipped cream, ice cream, or yogurt. Another layer—cake pieces, crumbled biscuits, or crushed cookies—is often soaked in liquor or a flavored syrup. A healthy breakfast parfait usually consists of yogurt, granola or oats, and fruit. 

My sleuth Val's grandfather, who limits himself to making recipes with five ingredients, serves this treat at a rehearsal for an amateur production of Agatha Christie's play, The Mousetrap. 

Ingredients

1cup espresso or strong coffee, cooled
3/4 cup cold heavy cream
8 ounces Mascarpone cheese
3 tablespoons Kahlúa, other coffee liqueur, or coffee syrup
12 crunchy ladyfingers (1 package Savoiardi Italian ladyfingers)

Optional garnishes: unsweetened cocoa powder, shaved chocolate, or raspberries

Note: The sweetness in this dessert comes from the liqueur or coffee syrup. If you leave out that ingredient or if you have a sweet tooth or usually drink sugared coffee, add 1/4-1/2 cup of confectioners sugar to the cream when you beat it.

Make the coffee and set it aside to cool.

Beat the cream in a small bowl (adding any sugar you want to include) until it reaches stiff peak stage. Set the cream aside.

In a different bowl, beat the Mascarpone and the Kahlúa or syrup until the mixture is soft.

Fold the whipped cream into the cheese mix.

Assembling the parfait

Cut one ladyfinger in half or thirds, depending on the size of your glass. Dunk it quickly in the coffee, turning it once, and place one or two pieces in the bottom of the glass. Spoon a layer of the cheese mixture over the ladyfingers. Dunk another halved ladyfinger in the coffee and add it on top of the cheese mixture in the glass. Spoon on another layer of cheese. If you have really tall glasses, you may need to add other layers. Always end with the cheese on top. 

Repeat the assembly instructions for each parfait glass. Repeat the assembly instructions for each parfait glass. Refrigerate the parfaits for at least 4 hours. You can keep them in the fridge for as long as two days.  

Serve as is or, just before serving, top with sifted cocoa powder, shaved chocolate, or raspberries.   

 

Do you enjoy parfaits and what goes into your favorite one? 

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Maya Corrigan writes the Five-Ingredient Mysteries featuring café manger Val and her live-wire grandfather solving murders in a Chesapeake Bay town. Maya lives in a Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C. Before writing crime fiction, she taught American literature, writing, and detective fiction at Northern Virginia Community College and Georgetown University. When not reading and writing, she enjoys theater, travel, trivia, cooking, and crosswords.

The 9th Five-Ingredient Mystery, A Parfait Crime, comes out in October 2023 and is available now for preorder. 

A granddaughter-grandfather sleuthing duo take on a perplexing new case in the latest culinary cozy mystery, sure to appeal to fans of Diane Mott, Joanne Fluke, and Katherine Hall Page.

At the site of a fatal blaze, Val’s boyfriend, a firefighter trainee, is shocked to learn the victim is known to him, a woman named Jane who belonged to the local Agatha Christie book club—and was rehearsing alongside Val’s grandfather for an upcoming Christie play being staged for charity. Just as shocking are the skeletal remains of a man found in the freezer. Who is he and who put him on ice?

After Val is chosen to replace Jane in the play, the cast gathers at their house to get to work—and enjoy Granddad’s five-ingredient parfaits—but all anyone can focus on is the bizarre real-life mystery. When it’s revealed that Jane’s death was due to something other than smoke inhalation, Val and Granddad try to retrace her final days. As they dig into her past life, their inquiry leads them to a fancy new spa in town—where they discover that Jane wasn’t the only one who had a skeleton in the cooler . . .

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