Easy Traditional Tiramisu
Whip up a delicious batch of easy traditional tiramisu in mere minutes – no baking necessary. Create your own Italian “cheer me up” delicacy at home!
Things have been a little heavy on the sweets side lately, so I originally planned on sharing a savory dinner-friendly post this week.
Don’t get me wrong; I love to bake and baking posts are my favorite to write. However, (wo)man cannot live on pie alone, so it’s nice to offer some real-food alternatives once in a while.
But then my mother texted me this evening to say that she offered to make tiramisu for a friend’s birthday, but Food Network’s website alone lists over 70 recipes.
Wait. What’s that I hear? The sound of someone who needs some baking advice? Sound the alarm! Activate the bat-signal! I’ll be right over!
Okay, so technically this doesn’t even involve any baking, making tiramisu one of the easiest desserts out there.
Finding the ingredients is the hardest part but since my husband does the grocery shopping around here, this is basically the easiest homemade dessert in the world from my point of view.
And! It just so happens that I actually had photos ready to go of the last time I made tiramisu back in January, so I could actually share my recipe for easy traditional tiramisu here on Bunsen Burner Bakery within mere hours of my mother’s text. How’s that for service?!
Now for the hilarious part: when I told my mother I’d write the post tonight so she could find the recipe tomorrow (hi, Mom!), she responded by saying that she’s surprised I have a tiramisu recipe because she knows I don’t drink coffee, so she didn’t think I would make it.
Except… the last time I made this tiramisu… it was for her. In December. I brought it to my parents’ house for the holidays. My mother loved it and said it was just as good as any tiramisu from an Italian restaurant. And she apparently had no memory of this.
Yes, I realize sharing this vignette probably isn’t the best publicity, because when I tell you how delicious this easy traditional tiramisu is — creamy and smooth, rich and decadent, just a hint of kahlua and the perfect dusting of deep dark cocoa powder — you might think “But Julie! Your mother didn’t even remember that you made the tiramisu!”
I assure you, it’s not the tiramsu. After all, my mother didn’t earn the nickname Goldie, a reference to her 10 second long goldfish-esque memory, for nothing. But we may need to rethink that nickname, since recent research now indicates that goldfish can remember things for 5 months — so perhaps that goldfish would actually remember eating this.
And if he did, I promise he would rave about it.
What Is Tiramisu?
So let’s talk about the tiramisu, shall we? Let’s start with the basics: what the heck is tiramisu? Because my mother loves it, I grew up ordering it for dessert at Italian restaurants. But maybe you didn’t. So let’s start with the basics.
Tiramisu is an Italian dessert, made from layers of dried ladyfinger cookies soaked in coffee (and usually often a liquor) with a creamy layer of mascarpone cheese and a dusting of cocoa powder.
How to Make Tiraimsu
The hardest part of making this easy traditional tiramisu is finding the savoiardi — dried ladyfingers. If you have access to a grocery store with a large international section or a specialty market, you should find them easily.
But if you can’t, substitute in Stella d’Oro Margherite cookies (the vanilla cookies that look like an S). Just let them soak up the coffee a little longer (and remember, the key to perfect tiramisu: roll through the liquid, don’t dunk!).
Dried ladyfingers are, indeed, dried, so they can soak up a lot of the coffee very quickly. The Margherite cookies need a little longer, so do a quick test, starting with the 2 seconds suggested in the recipe and building up until the cookie is soft but not so saturated that it crumbles and falls apart (I found around 5 seconds to be ideal).
The cookies are soaked in a coffee-espresso-kahlua mixture and sandwiched between layers of a mascarpone and whipped cream mixture. Then, we’ll go ahead and dust the entire top with cocoa powder. Deee-licious.
No bake, super easy, and you can make it a day in advance. Does it get any better than easy traditional tiramisu?! Tiramisu literally means “cheer me up” in Italian – I can’t think of a better way to brighten your day!
Recommended, but not required: a tiny little tirami-sous chef to assist in the kitchen (note the mascarpone mixture in the mixing bowl). Have I mentioned how much I love a good pun? At least my baby still finds me hilarious!
Easy Traditional Tiramisu
Whip up a delicious batch of easy traditional tiramisu in mere minutes – no baking necessary. Create your own Italian “cheer me up” delicacy at home!
Ingredients:
- 2 1/2 cups coffee, room temperature
- 1 tablespoon instant espresso powder
- 6 tablespoons Kahlua
- 6 egg yolks, room temperature
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 pounds mascarpone
- 3/4 cup heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 14 ounces ladyfingers
- 4 tablespoons Dutch process cocoa
Directions:
- Combine the coffee, espresso, and 4 tablespoons of kahlua in a small baking dish until the espresso dissolves.
- Using the whisk attachment of a mixer, beat the egg yolks at low speed until combined. Add the sugar and salt and increase the speed to medium, whisking until the egg yolks are pale yellow, about 2 minutes. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of kahlua and whisk until combined. Add all the mascarpone and continue to beat until no lumps remain, 30 to 45 seconds, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Transfer this mixture to a large mixing bowl.
- Beat the heavy cream at medium speed until frothy, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the vanilla, then increase the speed to high and continue to eat until the cream holds stiff peaks, an additional 2 minutes longer. Using a rubber spatula, slowly fold half of the whipped cream into the mascarpone mixture to lighten it; then gently fold in the remaining whipped cream.
- Roll each ladyfinger into the coffee mixture, ensuring all sides have soaked up a bit of coffee but the cookie does not get soggy (roughly 1 second per cookie). Place the soaked cookie in a 9×13-inch baking dish. Repeat with half of the ladyfingers. Arrange these cookies in a single layer in the dish.
- Spread half of the mascarpone mixture over the ladyfingers, using a rubber spatula to spread this mixture to the sides of the baking dish. Dust 2 tablespoons of cocoa over the mascarpone.
- Dip the remaining ladyfingers into the coffee mixture and build a second layer over the mascarpone. Spread the remaining mascarpone mixture over the ladyfingers and dust with the remaining cocoa. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 6 to 24 hours before serving.
Recipe adapted from Cook’s Illustrated
