Homemade tiramisu

Tiramisu is a delicate, creamy dessert of soft biscuits, a silky cream and whipped cream dusted with cocoa. Although coffee is not a favourite in our kitchen, for a proper tiramisu we stand by coffee and rum; we use cocoa instead of coffee only in the children's version.

We used to make it with a powdered cream mix, but through trial and error we arrived at a combination of ingredients for a homemade cream that is much better than the shop-bought kind, and it is really easy to make. The dessert has just the right balance of sweet and tangy and is nicely moist, and so far everyone who has tried it has liked it.

Prep Time 30 mins

Cook Time 5 mins

Rest Time 120 mins

Total Time 2 hrs 35 mins

Cooking Method: no-bake

Cuisine: Italian

Courses: Desserts

Difficulty: Beginner

Servings: 10

Best Season: Suitable throughout the year

Dietary: vegetarian

Description

A creamy Italian dessert of biscuits dipped in coffee with rum, a homemade cream of mascarpone and quark, and whipped cream dusted with cocoa. Just the right balance of sweet and tangy, moist and simple to make.

Ingredients

Coffee for dipping

3 dl water
15 g ground coffee (about 3 tbsp)
2 tbsp rum

Cream

4 pc egg (fresh, medium)
100 g sugar (white or brown)
1 packet vanilla sugar
250 g mascarpone
250 g quark (Slovenian skuta, smooth (sieved); ricotta works)

For assembling

200 g savoiardi (ladyfingers (Slovenian baby piškoti))

Cream topping

3 dl whipping cream
20 g sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder (sweetened)

Method

1
Start by making the coffee: pour 3 dl water into a small pan, and when it boils, take it off the heat, add 3 tablespoons of ground coffee, stir and bring back to the boil. Leave to cool.
2
For the cream, separate the 4 eggs into yolks and whites, each in its own bowl. Add 100 g sugar and the packet of vanilla sugar to the yolks and whisk until foamy and increased in volume. Add 250 g mascarpone and 250 g smooth quark and mix with an electric mixer at low speed.
3
Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks and gently fold them into the yolk cream with a spoon.
4
Once the cream and coffee are ready, assemble the tiramisu. Pour the coffee through a sieve into a deep plate and add 2 tablespoons of rum. Dip each biscuit in the coffee and rum one at a time and lay them side by side to cover the bottom of the dish.
5
Spread about half the cream over the layer of biscuits, top with a second layer of dipped biscuits and spread the rest of the cream on top.
6
Whip 3 dl whipping cream with 20 g sugar and spread it gently over the tiramisu. Smooth it with a spoon, or pipe it with a piping bag to create a nice pattern. Dust with cocoa powder, using a sieve so that the layer is even.
7
Cover the finished tiramisu with aluminium foil and put it in the fridge, ideally overnight or for at least a few hours, so that the flavours soak through nicely. Use a cake slice to serve it.

Note

As the dessert contains raw eggs, keep it chilled and serve it as soon as possible.
For a children's version, use cocoa instead of coffee.
For a nice pattern, pipe the cream with a piping bag and dust the cocoa through a sieve.