I don’t know if I can pick a favorite dessert. If I was held at gunpoint and HAD to make a decision, that would be an awfully long hold up.

Some days I think chocolate cake is the most fantastic thing my taste buds have ever come in contact with. Other days it’s a Banana Cake, red velvet cupcakes, classic chocolate chip cookies, brownie ice cream sundae, or bread pudding might be deemed as my favorite. And of course anything with peanut butter. Or dark chocolate. Oh, and pecan pie, good grief I LOVE pecans! The list could go on and on… But there is 1 dessert that I am a SUCKER for… tiramisu! My favorite part about tiramisu is the zabaglione. It’s rich and creamy, yet it’s light, airy and elegant.

One of the many great things about zabaglione is how versatile it is. You can use a wide array of wines and liqueurs to flavor the yolks and sugar to create a flavor that appeals to your palette. My palette, on this particular day, wanted chocolate and berries, in 1 luxurious dessert. I did, however, contemplate using kahlua, then bourbon, then muscat. But I couldn’t get the idea of using a super sweet, almost syrupy, raspberry red wine, out of my head. It’s from Trader Joe’s, and I have no idea where else to buy it.

Given my love for zabaglione, I was stoked when I read that the recipe this month for the Burwell General Store recipe swap was zabaglione for 2 from a restaurant in Chicago called The Imperial House. There are around 20-30 of us food bloggers from all over the world in this recipe swap. We all start with the same recipe, but after we each make adjustments, the end results are so different, and amazing! I love the recipes that are chosen, and I love that we can make adjustments. In fact, we HAVE to make adjustments to the original recipe, it’s part of the recipe swap ‘rules.’

Here’s the original recipe:

And here are the changes I made (exact recipe is below):
1. I used raspberry red wine in place of all 3 liqueurs.
2. I added a chocolate ganache.
3. I folded in whipped cream to make it SUPER airy and creamy.

Optional changes
4. I froze the final product. You can eat the zabaglione warm or chilled, but I wanted to try it frozen. Instructions for all 3 are below.
5. I doubled the recipe. This really should be mandatory because you’re gonna want seconds, truuuuust me!

Chocolate Red Wine Zabaglione
Serves 4

Ingredients
1/2 c heavy cream
3/4 cup dark chocolate chunks

6 egg yolks
3 tbsp sugar
3/4 cup raspberry dessert wine (or any really sweet dessert red wine)

1/2 cup heavy cream

To make the ganache, warm the 1/2 cup heavy cream in a small saucepan. Don’t boil. Once it starts to bubble around the edges, turn off the heat and pour in the chocolate chunks. Allow it to sit for 3-5 minutes then whisk for about 1 minute, until the chocolate has melted into the cream and it’s a nice shiny finish. Set it aside to cool slightly.

To make the zabaglione, add the egg yolks, sugar and raspberry red wine to a double boiler. Whisk constantly for 5-10 minutes. The mixture will just about triple in size, and start to thicken towards the end. It will seem like it’s taking forever, but all of a sudden towards the 10 minute mark, it starts to achieve the desired consistency. Remove the top part of the double boiler, and set aside to cool slightly. Then whisk in the slightly cooled ganache.

Set aside the combined mixture and make the whip cream.
*Both the ganache and the zabaglione don’t have a particular temperature they need to be before you combine them. Just not piping hot or completely cooled. Somewhere in between. I know, how precise, right?!?!
*The zabaglione thickens as it cools too.

Whip the heavy cream until it forms stiff peaks. Fold the cream into the cooled chocolate zabaglione.

At this point you have 3 options for serving:

1. Spoon the mixture into dessert glasses and serve it right away, slightly warm.
2. Spoon the mixture into dessert glasses and chill it in the fridge until ready to serve.
3. Spoon the mixture into a container and freeze the container for about 12 hours. Scoop (with a spoon or ice cream scoop) into dessert glasses and serve.

No matter how you choose to serve it, add fresh berries! They add a freshness that takes this over the top!

The texture is a little different depending on how you serve it.

Warm: it’s almost like a slightly runny pudding. This is what’s pictured.
Chilled: a cross between a pudding and mousse. An elegant dessert, but not heavy.
Frozen: not ice cream, but not mousse, somewhere in between. This might be my favorite way to eat this zabaglione. Maybe because it’s been 80 degrees outside, in January. But it is simply divine!