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In my family, all my life we have made traditional homemade Italian raviolis for dinner instead of turkey or ham. So for your Christmas dessert this year, I want to show you how to make Traditional Italian Tiramisu.
Now I have made a brighter/ summer version of this dessert but this is the traditional version.
Get the recipe here.
Let’s Break It Down
What is Tiramisu?
Tiramisu is a traditional Italian dessert with a sweet vanilla custard cream and ladyfinger cookies. Then the whole thing is topped with a light dusting of unsweetened cocoa powder.
The Vanilla Custard Cream
The vanilla custard cream or mascarpone cream for this classic Italian tiramisu is a mixture with mascarpone cheese or cream cheese,heavy cream, egg yolks and sugar. It is super simple but does require a double boiler to cook the egg mixture.
If you don’t have a double boiler, you could always use a large bowl that sits inside the bottom pot with your water.
The first thing to do is separate some pasteurized eggs. Once you have 5 egg yolks, add in your sugar. Beat your egg yolks and sugar until very light and fluffy.
Then add the mixture to a double boiler and cook until you can dip your finger until the mixture and you can feel no more grit of the sugar when you rub it in between your fingers.
Set the aside.
Now in another large bowl, add the mascarpone and the rum. Blend that up until smooth then pour in the heavy cream. Beat that until stiff peaks form.
Now lastly, just fold in the egg yolk mixture.
Double Boiler Trouble Shooting
If you’re using a double boiler or a bowl that fits on top of a pot, just make sure that the bowl of the top of the double boiler with your egg mixture, does not touch the water. It will scorch the eggs.
You also want to make sure that your water is simmering not boiling. That will cause your egg yolk mixture to cook rather than just melting the sugar.
How to Separate Eggs
When it comes to separating eggs, there are a tone of methods. My favorite however is just simply cracking the egg into a bowl and fishing the yolk out with your hands.
I do not like the method of cracking the egg and jigging the yolk between 2 halves of the shell. I don’t like this because the cracked shell is very jagged and can pierce the egg yolk and break it. Then you just have a mess. We aren’t afraid of mess around here but wasting ingredients is super frustrating.
Vegan/Egg Free Vanilla Custard
Since this tiramisu recipe has traditionally does have egg yolks, you can replace the with silken tofu or blended cashews. Just add these ingredients to a blender with the rest of your ingrediants.
As for the mascarpone and whipping cream, can use coconut cream and vegan mascarpone cheese.
Lady Fingers
In traditional tiramisu the necessary cookies are called lady fingers. To prep those, all you need is the lady finger cookies, coffee or espresso and rum.
There are many lady fingers brands but just try to get some that are straight, not in any cutsy designs. This will make it easier to space them firmly together. This is important especially on the bottom layor to establish a firm base.
If you can’t find any, that’s fine. As you can see from the video, all I could find was these S shaped ones. Just do your best.
Once your lady finger are picked out, just take your cooled strong coffee or espresso and rum and pour that into a shallow, wide dish. Then I just dipped each lady finger in the espresso mixture for 2 seconds a side.
This also depends on the lady fingers. If the cookie is softer it needs to be dipped quicker so that it doesn’t get too soggy. If it is harder it can get more saturated. The goal is to have the cookie be saturated all the way through the cookie but not be too soggy.
After you have an even layor of cookies on the bottom of your dish, just spread on half of you cream cheese or mascarpone mixture. Then just repeat these steps until you get to the top. Cover with plastic wrap and place it in the fridge for about 4 hours to firm up.
Cocoa Powder Dusting
In a tiramisu recipe there is a dusting of unsweetened cocoa powder. But to maintain freshness, make sure that you do this right before serving. You could go extra fancy and add some grated chocolate on top but I like to go traditional.
Do I Have To Use Alcohol in My Authentic Tiramisu?
Classic Italian Tiramisu does traditionally have alcohol such as rum or amaretto. However, if you don’t like to use alcohol in your desserts, you can always just use vanilla extract in both the mascarpone cream and the coffee.
If there are any question, please let me know but and that’s pretty much it! That’s how to make Traditional Italian Tiramisu
Thank you so much for joining me today. These are tons of other christmas recipes to try out on this blog as well like these Christmas Tree Brownies. There are a lot more recipes on my main menu as well. Just go to the search bar and type in “Christmas” or “Holiday”. You are sure to find something you love.
Leave me a comment for any questions that you might have or any suggestions for anything you want to see next. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, pinterest, twitter and snapchat to see what I’m up to next.
Remember, don’t be afraid to “bake” a mess and Ill see you next time. Bye.
Traditional Italian Tiramisu
A layored dessert with a vanilla custard and coffee soaked lady fingers topped with a dusting of cocoa powder.
Ingredients
Vanilla Cream Custard
- 2 Cups of Heavy Cream
- 16 oz of Mascarpone Cheese
- 5 Large Egg Yolks
- 3 TBSP's of Rum
- 2/3 of a Cup of Granulated Sugar
Other Ingredients
- 16-20 Lady Fingers
- 2 Cups of Cooled Black Coffee
- 3 TBSP's of Rum
- Cocoa Powder For Dusting
Instructions
Vanilla Cream Custard
- Seporate the egg yolks into the top of a double boiler along with the granulated sugar.
- Fill the bottem pot of the double boiler with about an inch of water and bring to a simmer over medium low heat.
- Cook the egg mixture stirring constantly for 3-5 minutes until the sugar has dissolved and you can no longer. feel any granuals when your rub a small amount between you fingers. Take off the heat.
- In another larger bowl add the mascarpone and the rum and whip until smooth.
- Add in the heavy cream and whip until stiff peaks form.
- Add the egg mixture in in stages and gently fold until you see no more streaks.
Assemble
- Add the coffee and rum to a shallow dish.
- Prepare your serving dish for the tiramisu by spraying it with nonstick spray.
- Start by dipping enough lady fingers to cover the bottom of the pan the coffee mixture. Lay them on the bottom of the pan.
- Top with half of the custard mixture. Spread out to an even layor.
- Repeat steps 3 and 4 until the pan is full.
- Cover and chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours.
- Just before serving, sprinkle the top with a thin dusting of cocoa powder.
If you have any questions or comments please don’t hesitate to leave a comment down below, message me on instagram, facebook or leave me an email.