Tiramisu Cups

Tiramisu!  It's rolls off the tongue beautifully and is hands down, absolutely, positively my favorite dessert of all time.  I can't recall when I first had it... I think it was about the time I discovered my love for coffee.  Which was during our engagement, when my head was spinning all things wedding 24/7, I somehow started drinking coffee just out of the blue.  I can't tell you exactly how it happened, oddly enough.  But now 4ish years later, I can't go one day without my Pikes Place coffee.  Oh do I love coffee about as much as I love my red wine and tiramisu!  Give me coffee for breakfast, tiramisu for lunch and a good cabernet for dinner and I'm one happy camper.

There is some sort of formality about tiramisu I love.  The light fluffy mascarpone layers, the delicate chocolate chiseled on top, the coffee soaked cake.  It just melts in your mouth and no matter how full I am, I always have room when tiramisu is on the menu!

On my bday a few years ago, Aaron surprised me with a whole pan of tiramisu.  Then my parents showed up with a whole tiramisu cake.  HOLY TIRAMISU!  Well tiramisu just doesn't sit up long, it must be ate within a day or so.  The thought of letting any of it go to waste would just be incomprehensible   And no I did not eat 2 large pans of tiramisu in a 2 day period.  Don't tempt me though.  I ended up buying single serving containers and froze them into individual servings and let me tell you, I celebrated my bday for months to follow, not one slice went to waste.  I ate pretty much every. single. piece.  Sometimes I shared a few bites with Aaron, others times I ate it in secret because I'm just not too keen when it comes to sharing at times.

Have I mentioned I love TIRAMISU!?!?!  :) :) :) :)  (insert one hundred more smiley faces here).

So what's a girl to do but try making it.  And it turned out darn good.  And I made enough to share.  Lucky husband and friends I have!

I'm not too much into difficult recipes.  Making tiramisu from scratch is WAY beyond my skill set.  So I found this recipe that has a lot of shortcuts and gets the job done to my satisfaction.

Yep, I could eat all of these ingredients completely individually, spoon please?  

Don't try shaving a chocolate bar unless over a sink, I made a huge mess!

Never had it with raspberries before and it made for a pleasant addition

Hello delicious goodness!



INGREDIENTS: Red notates specifically what I used

1

tub  (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese Spread (Mascarpone cheese with coffee added, found in gormet cheese section)

2

cups  cold milk

1

pkg.  (3.4 oz.) JELL-O Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding

1-1/2

cups  thawed COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, divided

1

pkg.  (10.7 oz.) prepared pound cake, cut into 1/2-inch cubes (Sara Lee, frozen section)

1/3

cup  brewed strong Coffee, cooled (Starbucks VIA for simplicity)

1

oz.  Semi-Sweet Chocolate, coarsely grated (Ghirardelli Chocolate Bar)

1

cup  fresh raspberries

make it

BEAT cream cheese spread in large bowl with mixer until creamy. Gradually add milk, then dry pudding mix, beating well after each addition. Gently stir in 1 cup COOL WHIP.

PLACE half the cake cubes evenly in 8 jars or dessert dishes. Drizzle 1 tsp. coffee over cake in each jar; top each with 1/4 cup pudding mixture and a sprinkle of chocolate. Cover with remaining cake cubes, coffee, pudding mixture, chocolate and COOL WHIP. Top with raspberries.

REFRIGERATE 2 hours.

Source: http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/tiramisu-in-a-jar-143306.aspx