Tiramisu Recipe – How to Make Tiramisu – The Classic Italian Dessert

There are some dishes that I roll around in my head, itching to make but never do. It’s a weird thing, I know. Tiramisu was one of them. For the longest time, I told myself I’d make them if I could get good ladyfingers in Singapore. The truth is, I never went out and tried to get them. Turns out they are quite easily available in Cold Storage.

Also turns out that I didn’t need to make the tiramisu myself. I have this friend, Darshini. She made bread upma for me eons ago when we both lived in Hyderabad. Then she moved cities, I moved cities, and after a few years of just staying in touch over pings and emails, the stars aligned magically and she landed in Singapore.

She also happened to turn up for dinner with the most delicious tiramisu ever! I saved some for the next day just for pics before TH and I attacked it.

Classic tiramisu is not that hard to make at all. In fact, Darsh managed to whip this up with very basic kitchen tools and it still turned out fab so this is really not a fussy recipe at all.

Note: Classic tiramisu contains raw eggs so try to get the freshest egg you can lay your hands on. If you are not comfortable with this or you are pregnant, then this recipe is not for you. Please don’t ask me for a substitute! Mascarpone cheese is another essential ingredient and I am really not sure if a substitute will work for that either.

For other easy dessert recipes, check out my eggless Oreo cheesecake recipe, this homemade chocolate ice-cream recipe, and my 5-minute mug cake recipe.

Classic Tiramisu Recipe

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Serves 4-6

Ingredients:
1 tsp of instant coffee powder
1/2 cup of hot water
2 tbsp of icing sugar or powdered sugar
2 egg yolks
1 egg white
2-3 tbsp of cocoa powder
250gm of mascarpone cheese
About 15 ladyfinger biscuits

How to Assemble the Tiramisu:

1. Mix the instant coffee powder with the hot water and beat lightly for a minute with a spoon. Set aside to cool to room temperature.

2. Add the icing sugar (or powdered sugar) to the egg yolks and beat well with a fork. Add the cheese and beat well again. If you have an electric beater, use that.

3. Whip egg white until stiff. You can use your electric beater (use a clean dry one) or just your fork or whip which will take much longer. Fold this gently into the cheese-yolk mixture.

4. Dip the ladyfingers in the coffee and layer them at the bottom of a square cake tin. Sprinkle cocoa powder over this generously.

5. Layer half the egg-cheese mixture over the biscuit layer. You can add some berries at this time if you wish. On top of the mixture, layer biscuits (dipped in coffee) once more and top off with some more cocoa powder and the rest of the cheese-yolk mixture.

6. Freeze overnight or at least 8 hours. Once it has set, sprinkle more cocoa powder or powdered sugar on top and serve chilled.

Notes:

– the ladyfingers get soft very quickly so dip in coffee and layer immediately, don’t linger.
– you can spike the coffee with rum or cognac, or (and I want to try this myself) use Kahlua to dip the biscuits
– it may be a good idea to move the tiramisu to the refrigerator for an hour or so before serving but getting clean pieces will be tougher