Tiramisu
This traditional Tiramisu is unlike any you’ve ever tasted, and many readers have declared this the best they’ve ever tried! It’s a classic Italian dessert and authentic no-bake recipe made with espresso soaked ladyfingers layered with a light and airy mascarpone cream, and dusted with cocoa powder to finish.
Most of us have had Tiramisu plenty of times in our lives, but probably not like this. It wasn’t until a trip to Italy years ago that I realized how incredible it can be. The Tiramisu there tasted SO different from any tiramisu I’d ever tried. And I really wanted to know why.
If you take a look at some of the tiramisu recipes on the internet, you’ll see a huge variation in ingredients. And therein lies the issue. An authentic Italian tiramisu only uses a small handful of ingredients, and they are:
- eggs
- mascarpone
- espresso
- ladyfingers
- a touch of sugar
- a touch of alcohol (I like amaretto or spiced rum)
- a dusting of unsweetened cocoa powder on top
The airy, light texture of true Italian authentic tiramisu comes primarily from whipped eggs. It’s what gives the tiramisu an ethereally light and creamy quality.
I see so many people using heavy whipping cream in tiramisu, or even cooking and thickening the filling in a double boiler almost like a pudding. This is not how this Italian no bake dessert is traditionally made, and to me, none of these versions compare to the traditional method.
They simply aren’t as good, and I say that as someone who loves all things heavy cream and whipped cream. But not here!
There is also no need to add vanilla extract here. This is a coffee-flavored dessert, and adding additional flavors prevents you from tasting the nuances of the espresso or coffee you’re using.
Why This Recipe Is The Best
Incredibly airy, light texture and creaminess – We achieve this by using the classic method of whipping eggs, which giving the dessert a light mouthfeel and creaminess.
Only 7 ingredients – You don’t need a million ingredients to make tiramisu, and in fact, I think that makes it worse. This version is elegant, minimal, but with an incredible flavor and deliciousness.
Customizable to different serving styles – I have made this both in single serving ramekins and also in one big dish. I share below how you can customize the serving you prefer, and the pros and cons of each.
The most divine, pure flavor – This is the best tiramisu because it has such a clean, fresh flavor. The sweet and rich mascarpone really allows the flavor of the espresso to bloom on the palate. It’s so, so good.
Overall, this is easily in my top 5 favorite desserts of all time, only tied up with this Rice Pudding, Baklava, Peanut Butter Pie, and Millionaire’s Shortbread.
Since first posting this recipe in 2012, I have since updated it with the option of making the tiramisu in individual ramekins (or you can do the 8×8 dish). Over time I’ve come to prefer the individual cups for guests.
While you can cut the tiramisu into slices (as shown in my photo above), it is very delicate. It takes a lot of practice plus building the structure properly with sturdy ladyfingers, plus a thorough chilling so the mascarpone is as firm as possible.
I’ve also noticed that storebought mascarpones vary in terms of thickness, which can affect the end result. You don’t have to worry about all this when you do the individual ramekins.
Brands Vary
Since first posting this recipe, I have tried several brands of mascarpone, and I have been absolutely astounded by how much they vary. For best results, I recommend using Belgioso brand.
Whole Foods’ brand of mascarpone is way too thin, and Vermont Creamery’s mascarpone in my opinion has a chalky texture.
In this post, I will show you how to make tiramisu both ways, in a square 8×8 dish, and in the cups. The choice is yours.
Tips for Best Results
Use really fresh eggs – This is not the time to use old eggs from the back of the fridge, not only because they’re not as fresh, but because the yolk will be more likely to break, and we need to separate the yolks and whites cleanly for proper whipping.
Use packaged ladyfingers – I almost always say homemade everything is better when it comes to food, but I’ve found that packaged store-bought ladyfinger cookies actually work best here because there’s absolutely no moisture in them. I’ve made homemade ladyfingers many times, and while delicious, I always found them to be inferior as an ingredient for tiramisu because they’re so much more trouble to get right.
Make at room temperature – For the best mixing and texture, you’ll want to use room temperature ingredients here, especially the mascarpone.
Step by Step Overview:
To get started, separate 6 eggs, and place 3 of the egg whites in a medium sized bowl, and 6 egg yolks in a separate large bowl. The remaining 3 egg whites are not needed here, and may be saved for another recipe.
Make sure there’s no yolk in the white
As you separate the eggs, make sure that absolutely no egg yolk gets into the raw egg whites bowl, or else the egg whites will not whip properly. It may be safest to separate the eggs in a different bowl one by one so that if a yolk breaks, it doesn’t ruin the whole batch. Older eggs are more likely to break.
Add 3 tablespoons of granulated sugar to the egg white bowl:
Use an electric mixer to whip the egg whites to stiff peaks (you may also use a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment). At first, with about 30 seconds of whipping, the mixture will look foamy (left photo), but after a couple minutes of whipping, the egg whites will start to thicken (right photo).
You’ll know the egg whites have reached stiff peaks when the mixture has a fluffy consistency, and when you pull a beater out of the mixture, a little peak sticks straight up, like this:
Do not overwhip
If you’ve never whipped egg whites to soft or stiff peaks before, make sure you take care not to over whip the egg whites. After stiff peaks, the egg whites will curdle and you’ll have to start over again. If you’re using a stand mixer, it’s especially important not to walk away while it’s whipping.
Set the stiff egg whites aside, and switch over to the egg yolk bowl. Now add 3 tablespoons of granulated sugar to the raw egg yolks:
Whip this mixture for a couple minutes, until the mixture goes from bright yellow (left photo) to a pale yellow color (right photo):
It should be thick, and you can see that the egg mixture piles on top of itself when you let it drip from the beater.
Are raw eggs safe?
You are more likely to get sick from the lettuce in your salad than raw eggs, as lettuce is actually the most common food linked with food poisoning.
The risk of salmonella from raw eggs is minimal. If you Google ‘how many eggs have salmonella,’ you will see articles (like this one from Slate) that discuss this risk, and it’s estimated that about 1 in 20,000 eggs has salmonella. That number is small enough that I just go ahead and normally eat raw eggs when the situation comes up. Ultimately, this is a judgment call, and you will need to use your own discretion based on your health.
Now it’s time to add the mascarpone, which is a mild and creamy Italian cheese that typically comes in small tubs. It’s one of my favorite ever ingredients, and the base for this incredible Strawberry Tart and my favorite Peanut Butter Pie. Mascarpone is often compared to cream cheese, but the flavor is SO different, and the texture is much nicer in my opinion. You can see how creamy and smooth it is here:
The flavor of mascarpone is unlike anything else, and it’s essential for this recipe. Fortunately, it is widely available and should be easy to find.
Mix in the mascarpone with a hand mixer until incorporated, then gently fold in the stiff egg whites, 1/3 at a time, taking care not to deflate the egg whites too much as you fold.
Now it’s time to build the tiramisu!
Espresso vs Coffee
Espresso is the superior choice for tiramisu over coffee, though you may use strongly brewed coffee if you prefer. Since there are so few ingredients, the quality of the tiramisu is dependent on the quality and freshness of the ingredients, so make sure to use fresh espresso here, and not an instant espresso powder.
If you don’t have an espresso machine or the equipment to make your own, stop by a coffee shop to get some (some grocery stores even have coffee stands inside). You’ll need the espresso to come to room temperature anyway, so it will be fine for the car ride home.
In a small bowl, combine room temperature espresso with a couple tablespoons of amaretto or spiced dark rum. Those are my two favorite choices, but marsala wine and brandy are also commonly used if you prefer those instead. Also, feel free to omit the alcohol if you don’t want it, but it does enhance the flavors.
To dip, I like to place the espresso mixture (or coffee mixture) in a flat and small shallow dish, so the entire ladyfinger soaks evenly:
The ladyfingers only need a quick soak, about 1-2 seconds.
What ladyfingers are best?
Look for dry and crunchy Savoiardi ladyfingers, and not the soft and spongy cake ladyfingers. I’ve tried many brands of ladyfinger biscuits, and have also made my own. I find that the best kind of ladyfingers to buy are the smaller and thinner ones. My go-to brand is Natural Nectar, which I find at Whole Foods.
Whole Foods also sells their own brand of ladyfingers imported from Italy, but they’re twice the size of the others (they’re in the photo below), and I think thinner layers taste better (I used Natural Nectar for the glass ramekins).
As far as making your own, I’ve concluded that it’s not worth the trouble, and often times the homemade ladyfingers are not as dry, and won’t soak up the espresso as well.
As you soak the cookies, place them in a 8×8 square dish in an even layer:
Then pour over a layer of the mascarpone cream to cover, and repeat:
You can also make the tiramisu in small glass ramekins, like below. Just break apart or cut the ladyfingers to fit the glass.
I like making tiramisu this way because the single-serving portions are really nice, and it looks pretty!
And now comes the hardest part…letting the tiramisu sit in the fridge for a good 4-6 hours, covered tightly in plastic wrap. This chill time lets the layers soak into each other and lets the flavor meld. Additionally, if you’re making the 8×8 pan, the tiramisu must be chilled close to the 38 degree range in order to hold when cut into squares. This lets the mascarpone cheese and everything else firm up.
Then you can dig into the ramekins with a spoon, or cut squares from the 8×8 pan.
How to Serve
Serve with a dusting of cocoa powder on top of the tiramisu. I use this dusting wand (affiliate) and it gives the most even layer on top. I find it’s best enjoyed the same day, but the next day is okay too. The eggs will deflate a little bit by the next day, but it still tastes great.
This classic tiramisu recipe can be fun to serve with Caramel Macchiato for sipping, or even The Best Homemade Hot Chocolate Recipe.
Enjoy! And there’s a full video below the recipe on how to make the tiramisu, if you’d like more guidance. Check out all the Dessert recipes in my recipe index.
Recipe FAQ and Tips:
I wouldn’t keep this longer than a couple days, because the egg whites start to deflate.
Unfortunately I don’t recommend it. It will be so inferior compared to making it fresh.
If you do a Google search, you’ll see that the CDC estimates 1 in 20,000 eggs to have salmonella. That’s a small enough risk that I take my chances (and haven’t had an issue). If you prefer, you can purchase pasteurized eggs for this recipe, and there are also tutorials online for pasteurizing eggs yourself.
Once you assemble the tiramisu, it needs 4-6 hours to properly chill anyway, so it has to be made ahead, to a degree. I recommend making it no more than 1 day in advance.
Did you enjoy the recipe? Please leave a 5-star rating in the recipe card below and/or a review in the comments section further down the page. Or, follow me on Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest!
Tiramisu
Ingredients
- 3 egg whites*
- 6 egg yolks*
- 3 +3 tbsp sugar
- 8 oz mascarpone cheese at room temperature
- 1 cup freshly pulled espresso cooled to room temperature
- 2 tbsp amaretto or spiced rum
- 3-4 dozen ladyfingers storebought or homemade**
- cocoa powder for dusting
Instructions
- In a clean bowl, whip the egg whites and 3 tbsp of sugar together with a hand mixer, for about 3-5 minutes until the egg whites hold stiff peaks.
- In a separate bowl, whip the egg yolks with the remaining 3 tbsp sugar for 2-3 minutes until the egg yolks are thick and pale yellow in color.
- Add the mascarpone to the egg yolks and whip until combined.
- Gently fold the stiff egg whites into the egg yolk mixture and set aside.
- In a small flat dish or bowl, combine the espresso and amaretto.
- Dunk each ladyfinger fully into the espresso mixture for 1-2 seconds and place into the bottom of a 8×8 dish, or into individual ramekins. Don’t let the ladyfinger soak so much that it falls apart, just a quick dunk to let it absorb a little bit of espresso.
- Once the ladyfingers have formed a single layer in the bottom of the dish, spread 1/2 of the mascarpone mixture over the ladyfingers.
- Arrange another layer of espresso soaked ladyfingers on top, and spread over the remaining mascarpone cream.
- Cover the top of the dish with plastic wrap and let the tiramisu refrigerate for 4-6 hours.
- Serve cold, with a light dusting of cocoa on top. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition is estimated using a food database and is only intended to be used as a guideline for informational purposes.
148 Comments on “Tiramisu”
Mike and I talked about this after I posted and we pinpointed that all the good food we had in the Florence area was actually in Pontassieve which was a 30 minute train ride away. Maybe try staying at a B&B outside Florence or Rome and ride the train in to town. Train is super cheap and the B&B folks generally know some good places to eat. We couldn’t think of a single place within Florence or Rome where the food was impressive and it was generally overpriced.
I loved the food in Italy more than Paris. I loved how fresh, simple and delicious everything was. The tomatoes were to die for. I have to say your tiramisu looks perfect. I’ll have to try your recipe. I’d love a bite right now. I’m starving!
It has been so many years since I have been in Italy. I look forward to going back soon! I love Tiramisu and made some a couple of weeks ago!
Whatever your food experiences in Italy, this tiramisu looks amazing. It’s such a classic and wonderful dessert.
I am going to echo what Mike has said. When we go back to visit family in Italy, we usually stay a couple of days in Rome or elsewhere before going to stay with them and have disappointing meals at the tourist traps. But once we are with them, we eat like kings whether we eat in or out because they know all the wonderful places to go and they are never in a main centre. We usually have to travel half and hour or more away from the tourist areas and then find marvelloous food experiences. It is very tricky for tourists to eat well in Italy unfortunately.
Hey Suzanne, really good to hear your thoughts. As I mentioned with Mike, this helps solve the mystery a bit. Next time we are in Italy we will venture out into the small towns.
An oldie but goodie…it looks fabulous…Next time in New York…it’s dinner at my home….
Hi, wonderful website!
However I think you were misguided by well-known restaurants instead of real italian food. Although I find their pastas a bit too blend (they don’t use much salt, if any, unlike us portuguese people), they eat pasta as a part of their meal and not as a main course. Their normal meal will include an antipasto, a pasta/risotto/gnocchi dish, a meat/fish with sides dish (main course) and then desert. They’ll sometimes serve their salad after the meat/fish dish and serve this one with plain rice/potatoes.
Did you try any main courses? For example, I just love “pollo sotto accetto” as a main dish. There is also “parmigiana” which is an eggplant based main dish. As for their “primo piatto” most risottos are amazing. As for the pasta, did you try the spaghetti al aglio e olio? There isn’t much in it (just olive oil and garlic) but it’s really, really good.
All in all I’m sorry Italy disappointed you :/
Hi Sofia, thanks for your comment! Well, I wouldn’t go as far as saying Italy disappointed me, because I still loved it and ate great things. But I guess it wasn’t what I expected (definitely had high expectations). There are some other interesting comments here and it sounds like the better food is had in the smaller towns.
Maybe that’s some of it too 🙂 I lived in Torino, which is less popular than Rome and Firenze, and most of the time I ate at the places for students or places my friends would take me, so they were not-so-turisty places.
I meant disappointed as the food disappointed you. I’m sure Italy (the country) can’t disappoint. It’s beautiful! 🙂
Hi! It’s always interesting to see other Americans take on Italy, and this one gave me and my wife a few things to chew over. We’ve lived here for the past couple of years and I think I can answer why your food experience was less than pleasant: you ate in the tourist traps! It’s hard to reconcile that with Paris, as Paris is also a huge tourist trap, but yet everywhere you turn is a great place to eat. Major Italian cities pretty much cater to tourists and the food is rather subpar, as you found out. For authentic Italian cuisine, you need to travel at least 30 mins outside the cities. It’s rather astonishing the difference in quality between a small trattoria, or agriturismo, in a little town outside a city, and a “well reviewed” place inside the city proper. I hope you get a chance to visit again and write the post you originally intended. 🙂
Hi Mike, I really appreciate your comment, I feel like you’ve given me an answer to the mystery that’s been in my head, because my husband and I just didn’t understand what was going on! haha. One day I will return and I will follow your advice, and hopefully we can go out to the smaller towns.
Oh, the tiramisu looks heavenly — and I have a hard time not ordering it constantly, too! I’ll confess to also being underwhelmed by the food while in Italy. We visited Rome, Florence, Venice and Lake Garda — and I was hungry most of the time. Hungry — in Italy. It just . . . it doesn’t even make sense. Can’t believe I’m typing it.
But the facts remain: the food we had wasn’t in “American”-style (read: large) portions, and the pizza was often greasy and lacking in deliciousness. It’s hard to even put my finger on it, but I remember coming home and wanting to sink straight into a cheeseburger at home in D.C. And I don’t even eat cheeseburgers! (That often, anyway.) But the gelato? The pistachio gelato was killer. So awesome. I dream about it.
That’s one of the biggest adjustments Americans typically have to make: portion size. Italians (Europeans in general) don’t eat nearly as much, at a single serving, as Americans do. I see that you visited Lago Di Garda! What towns did you visit?
Hey Meg, Good to know I’m not the only one with this impression. There are some interesting comments below about the food in Italy…I wonder what the food is like outside the major cities!
We currently live in Italy. We’ve been underwhelmed by the food often too but sometimes it’s really great. Now gelato and tiramisu is always good. My husband learned to make it from a local. So good. Better than what you can get at most restaurants. I’ve found that going to their houses to eat what they make and learn from them is way better than dining out. Rome tends to be too…touristy? Trendy? Something. Some of the agriturismos in Tuscany and northern Italy? Now that’s good food.
You know, I think you’re on to something. I didn’t enjoy the restaurant food much when I lived in Spain but my hostmom cooked the most AMAZING food and to date is one of my biggest cooking inspirations. I definitely could see it being the same way for Italy.
Nothing like a cross country move and then intl travel! Glad you have no grass growing under your feet and thanks for the amazing images and gorgeous tiramisu!
LOL! Let’s just say I have a lot of work to do…but it was all worth it!
alternative: We always put the liquor in the coffee mixture…and use a bit more of it with a combo of kahlua, brandy and/or rum. Yes, potent. And delicious! Thanks for the great pictures and the great recipe!
That sounds great! Will try that next time.
Welcome to CT. It’s a beautiful state. Will you be writing a blog or two about food you eat at local restaurants?
Thanks Lia! I haven’t been too impressed with any of the restaurants in the area, so probably not. Where do you live and are there any restaurants you love? We will venture out to other parts of CT soon.
We live about 30 minutes north in a town called Plainfield. There is unfortunately not much to offer in northeastern CT although The Vanilla Bean in Pomfret and 85 Main in Putnam are really good. You should check them out. TVB would be a great warm weather trip as rt 169 is a beautiful drive and you can eat outside. Happy eating.
Lia
You are so close to Rhode Island. Providence has some of the best restaurants around! Take a ride up for Water Fire over the summer and enjoy dinner in down town.
Joanne, what part of CT did you move to? I travel there frequently on business. I am not a big fan of winter, I moved south 3 years ago and never want to live any where that I can’t wear flip-flops year round 🙂 I will admit tho it’s hard to find good pizza!
Joanne, I have made tiramisu a couple times but this actually sounds better and easier than my previous attempts. I also enjoyed looking at your pictures from Italy!
Your tiramisu looks amazing, that is one of my favorites also.
Italy is wonderful, it has too many places to visits, so we have to be prepare to spend a los of time ther.
Hi,
I love reading your blog and today the name Tiramisu reminded me of my uncle making this and when ever i visit him, i ask him to make this for me. I always wanted to try this but we dont have mascorpaone cheese easily available here. is there a substitute for this? I would really love to try this.
Hm, I’m not sure of a substitute for mascarpone. Some like cream cheese but I find it has a very strong flavor. You might be able to make your own mascarpone with this recipe though I’ve never tried it: http://www.food.com/recipe/mascarpone-cheese-make-your-own-substitute-114797