Tiramisu, Tico Style

Rusty's grandmother made crazy desserts. She'd mix leftover cakes, puddings, fruits, God-knows-what into a dish and call it dessert. We called it Granny Surprise. Almost 100% of the time, it was tasty. Almost. In any event, tiramisu reminds me of a Granny Surprise because it's simply a bunch of creams, puddings, and cake in a dish with some coffee. Does that tell you how easy this is? In fact, this is one of those you-can-start-it-a-day-ahead recipes. So what's the catch? You will need a mixer, or at least a good whisk to whip your crema de leche. Your ingredients are:

• Cold coffee, something easy to find here in Costa Rica. You'll want about 2 cups, depending on how much tiramisu you're making. And if you're conserving  your coffee and take cream and sugar in your morning Joe, just save the left-overs for a few days until you have about two cups. The cream and sugar in the coffee won't hurt a bit . . . might even make it better.
• Some lady fingers. What?! No lady fingers in Costa Rica? Purchase one of those little pound cakes (with the so-called strawberry ribbon on the top) or any other type of cake offered at any little store here in Costa Rica. Doesn't need to be fresh, doesn't need to be vanilla -- anything cake-like will work. Heck, you could even use pan dulce, graham crackers, or vanilla cookies. It doesn't matter because, be it cookie, cake, or lady finger, it's all going to end-up as a creamy mush in your dish. If you're using a cake, the size you'll want is approximately 2x2x7 inches (so it's not a large cake) . . . unless you making a barrel full of tiramisu.
• Milk, about 2 cups or 500ml. And yes, milk made with powdered milk (such as Nido) works nicely.
• A little box of crema de leche/dulce leche, which you'll find on the aisle/shelf with the boxes of milks and juices, not in the refrigerated dairy section.
• Some sugar. Get out all of your sugar, because you'll want to use enough to sweeten to your taste. Yes, artificial sweetener will work. 
• A packet of Flan, available in even the tiniest store in Costa Rica. See image below. It comes in a little papery-foil envelope. The directions are in Spanish, but the gist is: add two (2) cups of milk. And if you can find Jello brand or some other real pudding, go for it. Vanilla would be the typical choice, but chocolate would be superb.
• OPTIONAL: A tablespoon of liqueur (or more, hey, don't be shy), such as Baileys, Amarula, Triple Sec, Pernod or Sambuca, Cointreau, Kahlua, or a teaspoon of any other extract that you desire (such as vanilla or almond).

That's it, so let's begin.

Use the entire container of crema de leche, and whip it with your whisk or mixer until you have whipped cream. It isn't necessary to get to the stiff/soft peak stage, but you'll want it to clearly appear whipped. Now spoonful-by-spoonful, add sugar and continue whipping until your cream is as sweet as you like. Place your sweetened whipped cream into the refrigerator.

Now, about that flan, whose directions are in Spanish, which you may not understand. Pour that little pack of powder into a pot/pan/skillet, add two (2) cups of milk (and it needn't even be cold milk . . . it could be milk from powder that you just made with tap water). Turn on the heat and bring that junk to a serious boil, whisking almost constantly for about 5 minutes. Yes, this is the tedious part; and don't worry if it doesn't look like pudding or get thick -- it won't. Turn off the heat and allow it to cool to room temperature. If you'd like to add a bit more liqueur or flavored extract to the flan, now is the time, so go for it! I applaud you. Then pour that watery flan into a dish that will fit into your refrigerator and allow it to chill. 

Those first two steps can be done hours or even one or two days in advance . . . while you're accumulating your two cups of coffee. 

Next, pour that coffee (with or without cream and sugar) into a shallow bowl and add your liqueur or extract, if you're using those items. If you don't want any alcohol, worry not. It will still be yummy. Get out the dish into which your tiramisu will be made/layered. 

Cut your cake into about 1/4-inch-thick slices, about 1x2-inches in shape. Don't obsess about the shape or size. You could even crumble your cake. You can't goof-up this part. If you're using cookies, you already have a nice shape. Now one by one, dip half of 'em into the coffee, just quickly enough to absorb some coffee. You're not looking for a mushy morsel . . . but if something does get mushy, no worries. Now make your first layer of these coffee-infused cake-pieces/cookies in the bottom of your dish -- in other words, cover the entire bottom of your dish with coffee-infused cake/cookies. Note, the second layer of cake is shown below, thus that flan and cream visible below the coffee-infused cake.

Next comes the flan. Use half of the chilled flan. If your flan has really set-up, as a flan should, stir it around with a fork or a whisk so that it's more of a pudding. Spread half of that flan over the cake/cookie layer. Next comes your first layer of the whipped cream. Use half of your cream. You'll want the other half for the next layer.  Now repeat: cake/cookies into coffee and then into your dish; top with the remaining flan, then top with the remaining whipped cream. Bam! Tiramisu.

Should you desire, you can top the dish with sifted powdered sugar, sweetened cocoa powder (think Nestle's Quik), or part of a grated chocolate bar. Put the dish into the refrigerator for at least an hour . . . or not. 

NOTE: There are about 421,000 tiramisu recipes on the Internet. Most authentic recipes call for a non-cooked egg-custard instead of flan. Now in the U.S., I wouldn't hesitate to use an uncooked egg custard. But not here in Costa Rica,a thus the local, Tico flan. The choice is yours.