Classic tiramisu with coffee, mascarpone & chocolate

The best recipe for tiramisu is the simplest and most authentic. Use its original ingredients: real espresso or moka coffee, Italian mascarpone cheese, homemade or good quality store-bought lady fingers. Please avoid instant coffee, cream cheese or store bought sponge cake, they simply don’t belong to tiramisu.

Tiramisu is based on zabaglione, a frothy custard made of egg yolk whipped with sugar and fortified with wine or coffee. In the past, zabaglione was a popular dessert and administered almost as a medicine to energize soldiers, lovers and those with fragile health.

Surprisingly, tiramisu is a relatively modern recipe.The world had to wait until the  1970-1980s for Loli Linguanotto, chef of a restaurant in Treviso near Venice, to bring the tonic effects of the zabaglione to new heights with the invention of tiramisu.

In Italian, the meaning of the word tiramisu is “pick me up” or “cheer me up”, in other words “make me strong” or “make me happy”. Don’t you think this is most fitting to such a fantastic dessert?

Loli layered lady fingers dipped in espresso with a mixture of zabaglione and mascarpone cheese and sprinkled it with cocoa powder.

The now world-famous Tiramisu had been invented, became an instant success and it surely has cheered up armies of adoring fans. As a matter of fact, Tiramisu is known and appreciated all over the world probably way more than Loli would have ever anticipated.

Recipe

• 2 egg yolks
• 4 tablespoon /50 gr. sugar
• 1/2 pound / 250 gr.   mascarpone
• 2 cups/ 500 ml chilled whipping cream
• 2 cups cold espresso coffee
• 1/3 cup dry Marsala or other dessert wine
• 40 Italian ladyfingers
• unsweetened dark cocoa powder for dusting

Beat egg yolks and sugar in a metal bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water using a whisk or an electric mixer until smooth and fluid. Add 3 tablespoon Marsala and whisk thoroughly for another minute or so. Remove bowl from heat and let it cool. Add the mascarpone until just combined.

As an alternative, whisk the egg and sugar in a glass bowl, add wine and pasteurize in the microwave for 30-40 seconds until slightly thickened and steaming. Check every 15 seconds to avoid scrambling the eggs. Cool and add to the mascarpone.

Whip the cream in a separate bowl until it holds stiff peaks. Fold it gently into the mascarpone mixture.

Add the rest of the Marsala to the coffee and transfer into a flat bottomed bowl which must be wider than the length of the ladyfingers.

Now work quickly. Dip both sides of each lady finger into the coffee mixture for a few seconds. The cookies absorb rapidly and will disintegrate if left in the coffee. Line the bottom of a baking pan with one layer of ladyfingers, making compact rows.

Lightly spread a 1/2  inch/ 1 cm layer of  the mascarpone filling on top. Don’t press the mascarpone cream as it will deflate. Repeat layers of cookies and filling, ending with the mascarpone cream.

Cover the pan with clingfilm and chill for at least two hours and up to 2 days.  Before serving dust with cocoa which looks prettier and fresher than dusting before chilling.
Serves 8-10