Hayes Barton - Tiramisu - Raleigh, North Carolina

Last Friday night I was on a mission for tiramisu. Hayes Barton Cafe and Dessertery seemed the best place to find it, but because it's a small space, the wait is too long to only get dessert. (They don't welcome the dessert-only crowd, either.) So I took it to go.

The best tiramisu I've had was served in a large glass. Here's my theory for why it was so good: Tiramisu is a delicate dessert that will quickly lose it's most important qualities (alcohol flavor--Kahlua and/or Baily's Irish Cream--and juiciness) if left exposed to the air. This leaves a too-sweet cake tasting of warm milk. But as a single dessert in a glass, the important surface area (the sides) are protected, allowing it to keep longer.

The proportion of ingredients should be about equal. There should be a sopping-wet layer of ladyfingers, then a layer of mascarpone, then ladyfingers, then mascarpone, all topped with cocoa. As a sloppy dessert without inherent physical structure, it seems logical to serve it in a glass rather than in a cake, but I've only seen it that way once. Layered in this way, the alcohol from the ladyfingers explodes in the mouth dissolving the mascarpone, so the bite disappears, transformed into a creamy drink.

The Hayes Barton version was $7 for a massive slice; expensive, but I think they intend it to be split between two people. The alcohol flavor (Bailey's Irish Cream) was present but it wasn't juicy enough. There's nothing like dry ladyfingers to kill a buzz. While there were at least two layers of everything, they over did the mascarpone; too much, too rich. I was not fond of the hardened chocolate drizzle garnish, either. There shouldn't be anything hard in a bite of tiramisu for reasons stated above. But, though a bit disappointing, it satisfied my craving, for the moment.