AMARETTO WHIPPED TIRAMISU

Serving size: 4

People often ask me if there's anything I miss or crave as a vegan and my honest answer is only one thing — tiramisu. This is what led me on my quest to create the perfect recipe to fill that void and I now might actually even prefer my plant-based version.

MARSCAPONE LAYER INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups cashews (soaked)

• 6 tablespoons maple syrup

• 1/4 cup oat milk

• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1 teaspoon arrowroot powder

• pinch of salt

• 1/4 cup aquafaba

Aquafaba is the liquid reserved from a can of chickpeas. I know this sounds like the strangest ingredient to use but when whipped, it creates a fluffy foam that otherwise couldn't be created for plant-based recipes that need a light, airy effect.

CAKE & COFFEE LAYER INGREDIENTS

• 3 1/4 cups almond flour

• 1/4 cup arrowroot powder

• 2/3 cup maple syrup

• 6 tablespoons oat milk

• 2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 cup extra strong coffee

• 3 tablespoons amaretto

Amaretto is an Italian liqueur with the most wonderful characteristic almond aroma. The most popular and widely available brand is Disaronno that you can pick up at just about any liquor store. You can use any dark rum or coffee liqueur to make tiramisu but Amaretto is the clear winner for me personally. I don't drink any alcohol at all but I sure do love to cook and bake with it.

MARSCAPONE DIRECTIONS

After soaking your cashews for at least a couple hours, drain and discard the water. Add the cashews to a food processor, followed by the maple syrup, oat milk, lemon juice, vanilla, arrowroot, and salt. Purée the mixture until completely smooth.

In a separate large bowl, add the aquafaba and whip using a stand or hand mixer on high until it fluffs up. This can take anywhere from 4-10 minutes. Once you see peaks form, stop mixing and gently fold in the cashew puree from the food processor. Don't over mix this step, as it will cause the whipped aquafaba to deflate. Cover the bowl and refrigerate while you prepare the rest of the tiramisu.

CAKE & COFFEE LAYER DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Combine the almond flour, arrowroot powder, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Next, add in the maple syrup, oat milk, vanilla and stir to combine.

Line an 8 x 8 square cake pan with parchment paper and spread the batter out evenly in the pan. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes then allow to cool completely.

While the cake layer is in the oven, you can prepare your coffee mixture. In a small bowl, simply add the coffee and amaretto, stir to combine, and set aside.

Once completely cooled, remove the cake layer from the pan and cut in half lengthwise and widthwise leaving you with 4 squares of cake. Then, cut each of the 4 squares in half leaving you with a total of 8 rectangular cake pieces.

Line a 4.5 x 8.5 loaf pan with parchment paper and place 4 of the rectangular cake pieces along the bottom of the pan. They should fit perfectly if you used the pan dimensions I've mentioned above. Spoon the coffee-amaretto mixture over each of the cake slices to soak each piece (I use about 1 or 1 1/2 tablespoons per cake slice).

Remove the marscapone mixture from the fridge and spread a generous layer of it over the coffee soaked cake slices. Using your remaining 4 cake pieces, arrange them on top of the cream layer across the pan. Repeat the same step as above, soaking each of the cake pieces in the coffee mixture, followed by a generous layer of the marscapone.

Cover the pan with plastic wrap and store in the fridge for at least a couple hours. Once ready to enjoy, dust the top with cacao powder, slice, and serve.

Note: I did a slightly different variation in the tiramisu pictured here. I wanted something a little more unique than the traditional square slice of tiramisu and also wanted to create individual sized servings.

Instead of slicing the baked cake into square wedges, I used a biscuit cutter to cut out 4 circles from the pan (this will make 2 mini tiramisu). From there, I simply assembled the tiramisu the same way as above, soaking a circle with the coffee mixture, adding a layer of the cream on top, then another cake circle followed by another coffee soak and final cream layer.

Tiramisu will forever be my favorite dessert and I love that I can enjoy it with this recreation absent of all the unpleasant side effects that come with consuming dairy. If your'e impatient or are a tiramisu addict like me, you don't technically have to chill it before serving as long as the cake slices are completely cool but it will allow the coffee & amaretto to fully penetrate the cake layers and it does taste better cold. Believe me, I have eaten this before straight after assembling because I couldn't contain myself.