In celebration of my new diet (i.e., never again for a month or more) I made tiramisu for the very first time... and it actually looked and tasted like tiramisu! Granted, it sort of fell apart when I served it, but that's probably because we couldn't wait three hours for it to fully set. At least, that's what I think the reason for the soft-set might be. Here it is:

The recipe, eh, I'd like to say it was handed down by grandma or something, but it's off the package of ladyfingers and the plastic container the mascarpone Italian sweet cream cheese came in. Virtually the same recipe, only one is half the quantity of the other. Here's the smaller one (and OK, yeah, I added the part about Kahlua, but it seemed like a good idea; I think I ate some with Kahlua in a restaurant once and it was extraordinary):

Tiramisu:
3 large eggs, separated
1/2 cup sugar
1 pkg lady fingers (going to need 10-12 of these to cover bottom of small serving dish)
1 cup espresso or strong coffee, cooled
2 TBS brandy or cognac
8 oz mascarpone cheese -- or approximation above
powdered cocoa (like 2 TBS)

Uses: two bowls
electric hand mixer
small (pie pan size or a little less) serving dish

In larger bowl, combine 3 egg yolks, 1 TBS espresso, 1/2 c sugar (minus 1 pinch), and 2 TBS brandy or cognac. Beat 2-3 minutes. Add mascarpone and beat 3-5 min until smooth.

In another bowl, combine 3 egg whites with a pinch of sugar. Beat on med-hi until stiff peaks form. Gently fold into the mascarpone mixture.

Quickly dip each ladyfinger into remaining espresso (or use Kahlua if adults-only) and layer on bottom/sides of small serving dish. Sprinkle with some of the cocoa. Spread mascarpone mixture over the top and sprinkle with the rest of the cocoa. Refrigerate at least 3 hours before serving. Serves 6.
*****
Now for the useful geeky part. We noticed that the mascarpone, which can be challenging to find, tastes sort of like an unholy crossbreeding of cream cheese with unsalted butter. So we used the nutritional info on all three items to figure out exactly how much butter we'd have to "breed" with the cream cheese to get an acceptable mascarpone substitute. Turns out the ratio is 6 parts cream cheese to 1 part butter, or in the sizes one usually encounters in supermarkets:
8 oz. Mascarpone cheese (italian sweet cream cheese) may be approximated with a mix of:
2.6 TBS butter (unsalted if possible, softened)
8 oz cream cheese
(it's really a 6:1 ratio of cream cheese to butter to get the right fat content of 12 gm/oz)
You'll have to scoop out a couple of TBS of this if you only want 8 oz. IMO a little extra mascarpone substitute will not hurt anything. Happy tiramisu-ing, and send me comments if you have suggestions about this recipe or if you try it out!