Tiramisu

Hello again! I’ve been sharing Italian recipes lately and today I’m going to finish out with a classic Italian dessert: tiramisu!

I’ve been wanting to make tiramisu for a while, and so Italian night with my cooking club seemed to be the perfect opportunity to finally do it. I’d heard it could be a little tricky, but I remembered my brother-in-law bringing a delicious tiramisu for a family dinner several years ago, so I figured if I was going to try it, I should ask him about it first. He was kind enough to send me his recipe and some of his own advice on the trickiest part of the dessert, which I’ll get to in a minute.

Tiramisu

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups strong black coffee, room temp

1 1/2 Tbsp. Instant espresso powder

9 Tbsp. rum

6 large egg yolks

2/3 cup sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

1 1/2 pounds mascarpone cheese (cold)  

3/4 cup heavy cream (cold)

14 ounces lady fingers (crunchy, not soft) 

3 1/2 Tbsp cocoa powder

1/4 cup semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, grated

*****

Stir coffee, espresso, and 5 Tbsp rum together in a bowl and set aside. 

In a standing mixer, whisk the egg yolks, sugar, and salt on med-high speed until they turn a pale yellow. Be sure and stop to scrape the bowl a couple of times. Add the remaining 4 Tbsp rum and beat until combined. Add the mascarpone and beat at medium speed until smooth. Again, stop to scrape the bowl a couple of times during the mixing. Put this mixture in another bowl and set aside.

Beat the cream in the mixer until whipped. Fold the whipped cream into the mascarpone mixture and set aside. 

You’ll need to set up an assembly station with the following components:

the lady fingers and coffee mixture,

… the mascarpone mixture. 

…and the cocoa powder and grated chocolate.

Here is my assembly station below, complete with spelling book. Ha! I was calling out Incredi-Boy’s spelling words while working.

You’ll quickly drop and roll the lady fingers in the coffee mixture and then take them right back out, one lady finger at a time. Ok, this is the part my B-I-L warned me about. The amount of time the lady fingers are in the liquid is going to make or break the end result. Yes, sad right!? But true. They should only be in the liquid for 2-3 seconds or the will be oversoaked, so work quickly!

Layer the dipped lady fingers in rows in a 9×13 dish. Just break them to fit on that last row.

Then spread half the mascarpone mixture on top of the lady fingers. Sprinkle with cocoa powder and then grate some of the chocolate on top.

Repeat layers of dipped lady fingers, mascarpone mixture, cocoa powder, and grated chocolate. Wipe the edges of the dish.

The recipe says you can prepare this up to 24 hours in advance, but next time I will prepare it at exactly 24 hours in advance. Our cooking club dinner was at 6:00 and I made this dessert that morning. It was good that evening, but wow, the next day it was SO GOOD!!

Just as Country Girl and I we’re about to begin a science lesson the next day, we remembered the leftover tiramisu in the fridge. So we broke out some dessert plates and served it up with a Tuesday morning study of kingdoms Monera, Fungi, Plantae, and Animalia. Homeschooling at its finest!

So, now I’ve shared recipes for caprese tomatoes, Bolognese pasta, and tiramisu—a complete Italian meal!

Buon Appetito!