You’re likely to find tiramisu in a fancy restaurant, but it’s not so common to serve it at home unless it comes out of a box. Knock everyone’s socks off and look like a Michelin-rated chef with this easy tiramisu recipe.
It can be tricky to find the ladyfingers for this recipe so you may be wise to call the supermarket in advance. If you have a specialty market in town, try there first. Also check the freezer section of your local grocery store.
We’ve developed this recipe to be a little denser than regular tiramisu. This is because we opted out of the whipped cream in order to achieve fewer steps and fewer calories. If you prefer a lighter texture and you use your gym membership more than we do, go ahead and fold the whipped cream into the mascarpone mixture when making the dessert.
A word of caution before you get to cooking, though—be careful when executing the ‘double boiler’ portion of this recipe. When you hold the bowl over the steam, you’re heating the ingredients gently with steam. If the bowl accidentally touches the water, you’re likely to wind up with scrambled eggs instead of tiramisu, and no one wants that!
Easy Tiramisu Recipe
- 1 1/2 cup coffee, strong brewed, or espresso
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 2 Tbsp dark rum, or coffee liqueur
- 4 large egg yolks
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 16 oz mascarpone cheese
- 2 cups whipped cream, optional, dairy or dairy-free
- 24 ladyfingers
- cocoa powder, unsweetened, for dusting
- Stir together coffee or espresso, 1 Tbsp sugar and dark rum in a shallow bowl then set aside to cool.
- Heat a small amount of water to simmer in a medium saucepan. Whisk egg yolks and ½ cup granulated sugar together in metal bowl or glass heatproof bowl and position over the saucepan of barely simmering water (simmering water should not touch the bottom of the bowl). Whisk or use a hand mixer to continuously beat the egg yolk mixture as it heats (4−5 minutes), until the mixture has tripled in volume and becomes pale yellow in color. Remove the egg yolk mixture from heat, add mascarpone then stir until combined and no lumps remain. If using whipped cream, fold gently into mascarpone mixture.
- Collect components for assembling tiramisu (espresso, ladyfingers, mascarpone mixture, cocoa powder and an 8" square baking dish).
- Begin by dipping each ladyfinger in espresso mixture, dunking several times to allow time for coffee to absorb (about 3 seconds)—cookie should be wet and soft, but not soggy and saturated. Immediately transfer the cookie to the baking dish (work quickly, as the ladyfinger will become very soft when the coffee soaks in) and arrange in bottom of baking dish. You'll need 12 coffee-soaked ladyfingers to cover the bottom of the baking dish (2 rows of 6 cookies each).
- Spread half of the mascarpone mixture evenly over bottom layer of ladyfingers. Repeat soaking procedure with remaining 12 ladyfingers, arranging them on top of the mascarpone layer. Spread the remaining mascarpone mixture over the second layer of ladyfingers.
- Sprinkle the top of your tiramisu with cocoa or shaved chocolate. Cover and chill at least 2 hours and then serve and enjoy!
It only takes 20 minutes to put this dish together, but it needs a good 2 hours in the fridge so the flavors have a chance to meld together!
