In an effort to redeem myself from the cake debacle of last weekend, this weekend I attempted a tiramisu to share at our Easter celebration. I am happy to report that, despite having never made (and possibly never eaten) tiramisu prior to this weekend, I was able to turn out something that was not only edible, but actually delicious.
In searching for a recipe, I found that most tiramisu recipes call for raw eggs. I am not sure where I stand on the raw egg debate-are they ok to eat or not? I mean if it’s in raw cookie dough or cake batter that I am eating alone, bring it on. But, in a dessert I have never made before that I am going to be serving to a large group of people, ehhh, I was more than a little hesitant. Therefore, I meshed a few recipes together to come up with this one for tiramisu without raw eggs.*
Because this was for a family celebration, I had the privilege of having more than one taste tester. My usual taste tester raved about the taste and the tiramisu expert taste tester also approved wholeheartedly. The only critique I received was that it did not have much of a coffee/booze taste, but this was done purposefully to make the dish more appealing to a larger crowd.
Personally, I thought the texture was a bit heavy and could have been more light and fluffy. This is due to a mistake I made in combining the egg yolks and whipped cream to the marscarpone, which I have remedied in the recipe instructions.
Sadly, this cannot be called a “true” Italian tiramisu. According to one recipe I read for a “true” Italian tiramisu, the marscarpone should be whipped by hand. If you’re not familiar with the texture of mascarpone (I wasn’t) this might not seem so ridiculous. But go ahead and take a look at mascarpone, then tell me if you think it can be whipped by hand. Go ahead-I’ll wait.
Not to be defeated by some random internet person, the taste tester stepped in to do the heavy whipping. He assured me that this was “the best arm workout I’ve ever had.” Even after he whisked for several minutes, I still had to use the electric mixer to actually combine the mascarpone and cream cheese. Therefore, this cannot be called a true Italian tiramisu. But on the plus side I still have both of my arms attached, so I guess you can decide which you value more-arms vs. authentic-ness.
- ¼ c. strong coffee or espresso, cold.
- ¼ c. Kahlua
- 3 egg yolks
- ¾ c. granulated sugar
- ¼ c. whole milk
- 4 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
- 3 c. mascarpone cheese
- ¼ t. vanilla
- ½ c. heavy whipping cream
- 24 ladyfingers (optional: halve them lengthwise*)
- ½ c. dark chocolate chips
- ½ c. heavy whipping cream
- 1 dark chocolate bar, grated
- Combine coffee/espresso and Kahlua in small, shallow bowl. Chill.
- In a metal bowl, combine egg yolks, sugar, and milk. In a small saucepan, heat a few cups water to boiling. Reduce to simmer and place metal bowl over simmering water. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Keep the water, you will use it again later. When finished, whisk egg mixture to ensure sugar is fully dissolved. Cool completely in refrigerator.
- Meanwhile, in a very large bowl, use the whisk attachment on an electric mixer to beat cream cheese until soft. Add mascarpone and vanilla, whisk until combined.
- In a separate bowl, again using the whisk attachment, beat the cream until it forms stiff peaks (that means it looks like whipped cream).
- Slowly and gently fold the whipped cream and the egg mixture into the mascarpone mixture. If you pour all of the egg and cream in at once, it will require too much mixing to combine and you risk curdling the cheese. Therefore, fold gently in phases, working from bottom to top to retain as much volume as possible. Once combined, place the mascarpone mixture in the fridge while you prepare the ganache.
- Combine chocolate and cream in metal bowl. Heat water to boiling again and reduce to simmer. Place metal bowl over simmering water. Stir continuously until chocolate is melted.
- Prepare an 8x8 or 9x9 pan by lining with parchment paper. If you want to remove the tiramisu to slice, place a cardboard cutout in the bottom of the pan and leave enough parchment paper that you can grab it at the top. This will make removing it a breeze and you can slice and remove all slices evenly, instead of demolishing the first slice.
- If you are using the halved ladyfingers, lay the first half of 12 ladyfingers in the bottom of the pan. Brush with coffee/espresso syrup, then spread a very thin layer of ganache on the ladyfingers. Brush the inside of the tops of the ladyfingers with syrup and place on top of ganache.
- If you are not using halved ladyfingers, just dip 12 whole ladyfingers in syrup, making sure they do not absorb too much liquid; you want them to stay firm. Place whole ladyfingers in an even layer in the bottom of the pan.
- Top ladyfingers with a slightly thicker layer of chocolate ganache.
- Layer half of the mascarpone mixture on top of chocolate layer.
- Repeat process with remaining 12 ladyfingers, top with ganache, then with remaining marscarpone.
- Using a cheese grater, finely grate chocolate bar on top of marscarpone.
- Chill for three hours or overnight.
- Serve chilled.
*If you are looking to omit eggs all together, I would start by doubling the whipped cream in this recipe and blending the sugar with the mascarpone/cream cheese before folding in the whipped cream. You could also try doubling both the cream cheese and the whipped cream, I am really unsure which one would achieve the best texture. I have NOT tried this variation and therefore this is only a suggested starting point.
I had the pleasure of spending Easter with you and I can tell you this tiramisu was delicious. I thought this was a hard dessert to make but you nailed it. This is one of my favorite desserts and I have ordered this in several restaurants and yours is just as good if not better. I just hope you bring this to our next holiday.
Thanks so much for the nice comment! I am so glad that you liked it! I will definitely be making this again and again!