Tiramisu

Fail.

Pretty, but fail.

The first time I made tiramisu, I used Giada's recipe. It was pretty good. My second attempt at tiramisu, I screwed up Debi Mazar's recipe from Extra Virgin.

Before I get to that, I tried half with the soft lady fingers from HEB and the other half with hard lady fingers (savoiardi) that I have to get from World Market. If you use the soft ones, you have to brush them with the coffee. They get mushy if you dip them in the bowl of coffee. They taste fine, but I do prefer the hard lady fingers because they are denser, so it tastes more authentic. 

Everything was going fine until I added my mascarpone to the mixture. It became clumpy and curdled. The more I mixed, the more it became cottage cheese. This did not happen to me before. Puzzled, I read online that tiramisu can "break" if your mascarpone is cold and and the egg mixture is warm. All ingredients need to  start at room temperature. I waited 30 minutes for it to come to room temperature, mixed it again, and added alittle flour, but it still didn't come together.  

In the end, it was not fluffy or creamy. I'll have to try it again some time, but now I'm tired of tiramisu.