Did you know that today is the Tiramisu Day? Apparently on March 21st we celebrate Tiramisu, so if you need an excuse to skip a day (or two) of diet this is the perfect one. Tiramisu is a timeless creamy dessert base on Mascarpone cheese, eggs and espresso-dipped Ladyfingers and this easy recipe will make you love it even more. So run to the groceries and grab all the ingredients, the weekend is coming and you need this Tiramisu in your life! But please, please, please, read everything, many important information for this classic tiramisu are added in the text between the main recipe card 🙂
Tiramisu Ingredients
- Mascarpone: Tiramisu doesn’t have whipped cream in it, but Mascarpone cheese. Try to find an Italian brand because it tends to be more creamy than the others. If you cannot find an Italian brand, use a local one, I’ve done it in both cases and it comes out excellent either way, so no worries.
- Fresh Eggs: Tiramisu has raw eggs in it, so make sure to use fresh organic eggs (if you want to pasteurize them read the question at the end of the post to know how to do that).
- Sugar: regular caster sugar, do not use brown or other type of sugar.
- Coffee: this is the bitter part that will balance the sweetness of the Tiramisu, so it’s better to use black coffee like espresso. In this case I used my Moka pot to make the coffee, or very strong Nescafe.
- Ladyfingers: also in this case I tend to use Italian brands like Bonomi, but again, use the brand you can easily find at your local grocery store. We don’t want to make this Tiramisu a treasure hunt!
Tiramisu Easy Recipe
Course: DessertCuisine: ItalianDifficulty: Easy9
servings30
minutes5-12
hoursTiramisu Ingredients
500g Mascarpone
100-110g Caster Sugar
4 Eggs (very fresh)
About 300ml Espresso Coffee or other very strong coffee
Ladyfingers (Savoiardi) 300g (one box of Savoiardi Bonomi is 200g so make sure to by 2 boxes)
Few spoon of Cocoa for dusting
Directions
- Prepare the coffee. You can either make it with a Moka pot (macchinetta del caffè) or you can use regular Nescafè, but in this case it needs to be quite strong – the bitter the better. As said before, the coffee will balance out the sweetness of the ladyfingers and the Mascarpone cream once finished. So don’t add any sugar to it, otherwise the Tiramisu will get too sweet!
Let the coffee chill down before dipping the ladyfingers. You don’t want to ruin the mascarpone cream with hot espresso-dipped ladyfingers. - Separate eggs’ white and yolks in two different bowls. Using an electric mixer whisk together egg yolks and sugar until well blended, after about 4-5 minutes the mixture will get pretty creamy and it will double in size. Add Mascarpone and gently continue to whip until well combined. Doing this step gently is really the key for a fluffy mascarpone cream, because it can happen that the mascarpone looses its creamy consistence if whisked too strongly. So don’t rush it. Start gently with an electric mixer whisk and continue with a spoon or a spatula.
- In another bowl whip the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff peaks form (until they will look like whipped cream).
Add the whipped egg whites into the mascarpone mix stirring gently from bottom to top. After folding all the egg whites in, you will get to the final mascarpone cream mixture. - Layer the Tiramisu. Spread few spoons of the mascarpone cream on the bottom of a baking dish. Dip each half of the ladyfingers in the coffee for not more than 1 second. Ladyfingers are very porous, therefore they soak up lots of liquid pretty quickly and they break easily if left inside the coffee for too long. So, dip the ladyfingers into the coffee quickly and place them onto the mascarpone layer. Spread them all over the mascarpone cream until you get to an even layer. You can break the ladyfingers in half if you need to fill in empty spaces. Spread half Mascarpone cream onto the ladyfingers’ layer and continue until you finish all the ingredients. The tiramisu top layer should always be the mascarpone cream layer.
- Dust Tiramisu’s top layer with unsweetened cocoa powder and let it rest in the fridge for at least 5h – the longer the better (but not too long). You can dust the Tiramisu with cocoa also right before serving it.
Can I prepare Tiramisu the day before?
Yes, you can make this Tiramisu the day before, but I recommend to make it the night for the lunch of the day after. The thing with Tiramisu is that the longer it sits the the softer the ladyfingers get, so prepare your Tiramisu the morning for the evening, or the night before, but don’t wait more than 12h before serving it.
Which Cheese should I use for Tiramisu?
You should use only Mascarpone, the classic Tiramisu recipe doesn’t have any whipped cream in it. There is also no need to add whipped cream, because you will get the typical airy texture of Tiramisu from egg whites and the Mascarpone mixed together.
Which Coffee is preferable in Tiramisu?
When you prepare Tiramisu the coffee is as important as the other ingredients, so use a good quality coffee. Preferable espresso, but if you don’t have the Italian Moka pot to easily prepare it, just make strong black coffee. Do not add any sugar into the coffee, as the bitterness of the coffee should balance the sweetness of the cream and ladyfingers.
Should I cook the egg yolks with sugar?
Here there are different approaches. In general I do not cook the egg yolks with sugar, but you can definitely do that. In this case you will make sure to cook the egg with indirect heat. This means that you won’t place the egg yolks into a pan on the fire, but you will use a double boiler: place a pot with some water on the stove and bring it to a boil. Now, place a heatproof bowl with the egg yolks on top of the simmering water (the bowl doesn’t have to touch the water) and mix the eggs for a few minutes. Then let it cool and after add it to the mascarpone and proceed as describe in the recipe.
Tiramisu Decoration
While the classic tiramisu recipe uses cocoa powder, you can choose to add grated chocolate on top instead.
Tiramisu Meaning
Literally Tiramisu means “pick me up”, which is the perfect name for an Italian dessert that has both coffee and chocolate in it 🙂
