I like to bake and I like to cook which are two things you can’t really do while living in a dorm. I lived in on-campus housing for the entirety of my college career so I learned to get creative. Tiramisu is delicious but it’s also a pain-staking process that takes hours and hours to prepare. Many restaurants make their tiramisu a day in advance. It can also be very expensive depending on what ingredients you use. Time and money are difficult things for college students to procure. And if you don’t even have a kitchen, you’re screwed. So I have devised a cheap, dorm-friendly, and relatively quick version of this yummy dessert. Once again, I’m posting two versions, a normal one and a healthy one:
PREP TIME: 15 min (plus 3 hours refrigerating)
Ingredients:
1 package of Jell-O Instant Pudding (either vanilla or cheesecake flavor)
1 pre-made shortcake pie crust
1 1/2 cups of cold milk
2 cups Nilla Wafers
1 container of thawed CoolWhip (the tub not the can)
1 box Nescafe Clasico Instant Coffee Sticks (or any other brand)
2 tablespoons Nesquik (or other powdered chocolate drink)
Directions:
Beat dry pudding mix and milk in medium bowl with whisk for 2 min. Let sit for 2 minutes. Once firm, stir in 1/2 the tub of Cool Whip. Pour in 2-3 coffee packets. You can add more or less depending on how strong you want the coffee flavor to be. Put to the side.
Now for the crust, I like to make a glass of the instant coffee (just mix it with water) and lightly drizzle some on the crust. The original tiramisu recipe calls for ladyfingers soaked in french-pressed coffee or expresso. Due to the liquid nature of this pie, you don’t want anymore liquid than necessary but a little sprinkle won’t hurt.
Next, take your pudding mixture and pour into the pie crust. Take your Nilla Wafers and cover the top of the pie with them until it is covered. The Nilla Wafers will become soft and soak up some of the pudding and whipped cream = faux lady fingers (you can even dunk the Nilla Wafers in the instant coffee you prepared earlier for more flavor). Spread the remainder of the Cool Whip on top. Garnish the whipped cream topping with Nesquik to finish it off and add more Nilla Wafers if you like. Refrigerate for 3 hours.
Low Sugar/Low Fat Version:
1 package of sugar-free/fat-free Jell-O Instant Pudding (either vanilla or cheesecake flavor)
1 pre-made shortcake pie crust (some stores will have a low-fat version but it’s rare)
1 1/2 cups of cold fat-free milk
2 cups low-fat Nilla Wafers
1 container of thawed CoolWhip LITE
1 box Nescafe Clasico Instant Coffee Sticks (or any other brand)
2 tablespoons Nesquick (or other powdered chocolate drink)
Batir We Go 