Product Review: Russo’s Gluten Free Gourmet Tiramisu – $5.99+
Oh, great and wonderful and powerful (because you keep drawing me in) Raisin Rack natural food store in Columbus, Ohio. I love you. I love you in so many ways I can’t even begin to count them. And one of the many reasons I love you is that your extensive gluten-free section offers me A LOT of options I can’t get here in Louisville, Kentucky…or anywhere else for that matter. Seriously…there are some items I have never even heard of…and then I head up to Columbus to visit my friend Jenn…and BAM…I am educated on products that are out on the market that I didn’t even know existed.
After making about 10 laps of the gluten-free aisles and filling up my basket (actually, I behaved and didn’t fill it up…no need to Tetris anything this time)…I made one final decision before checking out. And that was for dessert. After all, Cathy, Jenn and I were cooking Italian that night (gluten-free pasta with gluten-free foccacia), so I figured…despite having made a delicious homemade buttermint ice cream…we might as well keep with the Italian theme. So…I went back to the freezer section and pulled the Russo’s Gluten Free Gourmet Tiramisu from the shelf. Into the basket. Up to the register. Into a bag. Back to Jenn’s. I put it in the fridge to let it thaw…and dinner time came and went and I was so ready to dive into dessert. I mean…I don’t get to have tiramisu that often. In fact…I never get to. So this was indeed a nice treat and one I was looking forward to.
I had pulled the box out of the refrigerator to let it thaw the rest of the way while we ate dinner. And when dinner was appropriately devoured…it was time to work on dessert. And I was super excited about the Russo’s Gluten Free Gourmet Tiramisu, which was suddenly on the menu. And I was not alone. Jenn is Italian…and she knows good tiramisu. And I couldn’t wait to get her thoughts on this. Cathy doesn’t do tiramisu too often, so she’s sort of a non-entity in this review…because Jenn is an expert and I’m a fan. So…after clearing the table…I opened up the box, removed the container with the tiramisu…and eagerly and carefully popped the lid.
And…the entire top layer stayed on the lid. Well…crap.
Oh well…I went to Jenn’s silverware drawer and pulled out a knife to see if I could salvage that layer of dusted cocoa. I gave it my best shot, so, the top of the tiramisu isn’t as pretty as it should be…however…as Jenn always says…it still tastes the same. So…I just sort of incorporated the cocoa dusted layer over the fluffy mascarpone cheese layer as best I could…then split the delicate dessert into thirds. This dessert is actually meant for two people, but there were three of us…so we had ice cream with it. HA!
Anyway…the layers were soft and light as my butter knife sliced through it. The dessert itself was easy to lift out of the little plastic container it had been frozen in. A little messy…but workable. Desserts are good to be messy. It’s just means more opportunities to lick the plate clean. We all settled in with our forks and plates with the layered dessert of ladyfingers dipped in coffee, mascarpone cheese and cocoa…and took our first bites.
Cathy, as I said, is excluded from this review of the Russo’s Gluten Free Gourmet Tiramisu as she isn’t a tiramisu person. That being said, she loved the fluffy layer of mascarpone cheese. She said she could take or leave the ladyfingers. EH. Whatever. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Jenn, however, is a tiramisu expert. And both she and I hoovered this slice of gluten-free Italian dessert heaven without so much as a breath, I think. We both agreed that the ladyfingers were moist and soft and good. The mascarpone layer was so light and fluffy, whipped up to perfection. The espresso flavor was sort of lost…we both said that we were sort of looking for that coffee flavor, but overall, Jenn said she never would have guessed it was gluten-free if she hadn’t found it for me in the freezer. HA!
There you go. I’m a huge fan. And now I want to try more and more from Russo’s Gluten-Free Gourmet. And it seems like they have quite a few items I might consider next time I’m at Raisin Rack.
Let’s talk about what goes into Russo’s Gluten Free Gourmet Tiramisu, shall we? The ingredients are gluten-free lady fingers (made from rice flour, corn starch, rice extracts, tapioca dextrin, and xanthan gum) mascarpone cheese, whole eggs, sugar, cocoa powder, espresso, and cognac. Simple ingredients for sure. And I recognize each and every one of them. That’s a plus. Interestingly enough, this is a family owned and operated company that dedicates itself to gluten-free products with exceptional quality. They are certainly doing their job right. This was fantastic.
A serving size of the Russo’s Gluten Free Gourmet Tiramisu is 1/2 of the container (or 4 ounces). A proper serving will provide you with 160 calories and 11 grams of fat. Yeah…it’s worth every gram. You will also be taking in 85 mg cholesterol, 30 mg sodium, and 9 grams of sugar. I’m impressed by the sugar count, as I thought it would be higher for such a decadent dessert. But…it’s actually in a decent range. Finally, you will be consuming 1 gram of fiber and 4 grams of protein.
Honestly, this was one very rich, moist, light, amazing dessert. I am beyond impressed with my introduction into the lineup of products from Russo’s Gluten Free Gourmet. This more than solidifies the fact that I will pick up other items by their company and try them out next time. I’m already thinking dinner will be gluten-free mozzerella sticks. And pizza bites. Yep. Both. Because…why the hell not? Beyond enthusiastic. Beyond surprised. Just…totally blown away by this dessert. Add a bit more of that coffee flavor and it would be absolute tiramisu perfection.
Well done, Russo’s Gluten Free Gourmet. Well done!
The Celiathlete 
Like I said, they need bigger containers! =D