If you have ever seen the Wind and Willow display at a specialty shop or local market, you can imagine what we went through when trying to choose a cheeseball mix for our dollhouse miniature club meeting! How can you choose with such mouth-watering flavors as Tuscan Olive or BLT? Or for the sweet tooth, Key Lime Pie or Creme Brulee. Since this was going to be "officially tasted" by our group, we decided on something a tad more impressive: Tiramisu, a mysterious treat usually reserved for a fanastic-little-Italian-restaurant dessert.
For the simple, straight-forward, cheeseball recipe on the back of the box, the mix requires cream cheese and butter or magarine (at room temperature). We were definately going to try to impress the group, so we decided to give the intriguing recipe for "Quick and Classic Tiramisu" right below the cheeseball recipe a try. After all, it said "quick and classic"!
Following the recipe/directions was easy! We used the Tiramisu mix, bakery lady fingers (although the box says you could also use pound cake), and, of course, butter. We also opted for Mascarpone cheese, found next to the cream cheese at the market, because it is less salty and sweeter than cream cheese. For quick encoporation with a hand mixer, we had all of our dairy products, including the whipped topping, at room temperature. Athough you can dip your lady fingers/pound cake in coffee, as the recipe suggests, we placed our first layer of lady fingers in the dish (use a glass dish to show off all of the pretty layers!) and poured about 3/4-cup cold coffee on top, then waited for the coffee to soak in before proceeding. We did likewise for the second layer of lady fingers. For the last step, we did as suggested and sifted more cocoa powder on top.
Wind and Willow mixes are available at fine merchants nationwide. To find Wind and Willow bread, soup, dip, and cheeseball mixes, as well as recipe ideas using the mixes, and retail locator (by zip code) visit www.windandwillow.com . And good luck choosing a mix for yourself!
The Tiramisu earned a "thumbs-up" from everyone! In fact, they have asked for it again (and again!). Good thing it is quick, classic, and delicious!
