CHERRY BERRY-MISU

Tiramisu is a lovely Italian dessert, now served all over the world. Despite this, it is a quite recent addition to the menu, possibly created by a chef at Le Beccherie, in Treviso, in the Veneto region of Italy, around the 1960s.

So creating a spin-off is not seriously endangering traditional Italian cuisine. 

These are easily available in supermarkets and Italian grocery stores and are traditionally used in this kind of recipe.

I had been reading about a mango-misu, and thought 'why not?' - and this is what I got. It's simple, relatively low in fat and sugar, a little boozy (like the original recipe), and coolly fits Australian hot Christmas Eve conditions. 

Serve it in a pretty glass bowl to show off its layers. FYI, this one is a heavy Krosno glass bowl, which I discovered last year in a thrift shop and couldn't resist its $8 price tag! It is probably worth ten times that.

1 cup pitted cherries

1 punnet strawberries, sliced

1 punnet raspberries

1 punnet blackberries or blueberries(or any dark berries)

750g thick Greek yoghurt

250g brandy (or Baileys) flavoured cream

1/3 cup icing sugar

dash of vanilla

1/2 cup cassis (or any berry liqueur)

juice 2 oranges

300g (or about 12) savoiardi biscuits (sponge fingers)

75g chocolate

1/2 cup cream

1 punnet raspberries

Keeping some of the other berries for decoration, put the remaining fruit in a saucepan over medium heat and stir for just a couple of minutes until they begin to release their juices. Sweeten if you like.

In a  large bowl, mix together the yoghurt, cream, icing sugar and vanilla.

Mix the liqueur and orange juice and put into a shallow bowl. Dip a third of the sponge fingers in the mixture  then layer in the base of a deep clear glass serving dish. Spread 1/3 of the berry mixture evenly over them, then 1/3 of the yoghurt. Repeat twice, finishing with the yoghurt. Cover and chill at least 2 hours.

Make this sauce if you like:

Melt the chocolate carefully, then stir in the cream, mixing until glossy. Stir in reserved raspberries and chill until needed. Gently reheat (or leave at room temperature for an hour if it is a hot day) until just melting, to serve.

To serve: top with reserved berries and chocolate raspberry sauce, if using. Sprinkle with edible rose petals if you have them.

Serves 10-12.

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For individual desserts: Put one savoidardi, cut in pieces in each serving dish. Soak with cassis and orange juice as above.

Then top with fruit and yoghurt-cream mixture in the same way, in layers. Dust with icing sugar.

These can be made ahead of time and kept, covered in the fridge until needed.

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(For a twist: use store-bought meringues instead of savoiardi. You can then call this Cherry-Berry –messu!)