Tiramisu – Olivia's Kitchen

Tiramisu is my son’s favorite dessert , yes it is Italian dessert . The good thing about this is that it is practically no bake dessert . The ingredients are pretty much easy to get and it tastes super delicious . It is also one of my favorite sweets . If you like coffee stuff , this probably would suit your taste .

There are the raw egg yolk version out there , but this one is actually my older recipe , and it has no raw egg yolks , instead i used custard , which is made from yolks too . Just like when making the filling for eclairs , pastry cream . pretty much the same . Except in this one you mix it up with mascarpone cheese , and later on with whipped cream .

The base of this cake is made by soaking lady finger cookies , i bought Savioardi , which is the preferred type / kind to make tiramisu . Always good to have an extra package just incase you have some leftovers , of you have to waste some to make them all fit . You know it all depends on the shape and size of your dish you use .

Make sure you have a strong coffee or espresso , i used strong dark coffee for this . So when you make coffee in the morning , brew some extra , made 2 or 3 cups extra of coffee that you would later use . Don’t use hot coffee obviously , room temperature is perfect .

The mascarpone cheese , i usually use the brand Belgioioso , i like their mozzarella cheese too . Mascarpone cheese is a soft , creamy cheese , they usually come in a tub , about 8 oz size .

The next thing you need is heavy cream , just make sure your bowl and whisk and the cream all cold . The cream obviously you would store in the fridge , so i would place the mixing bowl and whisk in the fridge for at least an hour or something before whipping this . You will need it to reach stiff peak .

That’s pretty much about it .

So here goes ..

One day ahead or the morning before you make this dessert , make the egg custard .

6 egg yolks ( large eggs )
3/4 cup of sugar
2/3 cup of milk , i use 1% milk

In a saucepan , whisk your egg yolks and sugar together . Add the milk , whisk well . Place it on stove , medium low heat be very careful and keep whisking , the real yellow yolks will grow in volume and it will get thicker and paler , it will take good 10-15 minutes , boil 1 minute , becareful not to stop whisking . Speed up your whisking when you see little tiny bubble , and take it off the heat and keep whisking and pour into a bowl . Cover with plastic and chill in the fridge .

The whipped cream , make sure everything is chilled

1 1/4 cup of heavy cream
2 tbsp of powdered sugar
1 tsp of vanilla extract
1/2 capful of marsala wine

Make sure the bowl and whisk is chilled before starting . Whisk in high speed and add the sugar and vanilla , and the wine change to the highest speed for few minutes until stiff peak is reached . Set aside , place it in the fridge .

The cheese mixture

1 lb of mascarpone cheese

Bring out the egg custard from the fridge , and add the cheese into this egg mixture . Use handheld mixer , mix until combined , probably take less than 1 minute to mix this by handheld mixer .

Once it’s done , bring out the whipped cream , add the cheese egg mixture into the whipped cream . Use the mixer , mix it again until it’s well combined . Set aside back in the fridge while you get the cookies and the soaker ready .

The soaker , i would make extra coffee in the morning because you need this to be in room temperature

about 3 cups of strong coffee
1 capful of marsala wine ( or mix with cognac , i just used marsala wine , you can add more if you like )
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 packages 7 oz each of lady finger cookies , savioardi

Using a rectangle deep glass dish , soak the cookie one by one about 5 seconds each time you soak . You want them wet but not too wet but not too dry either .

Let’s assemble it

Arrange the cookie that you soak in the dish , until it covers the dish . You can cut the cookie if it needs to .
Spread the cream egg mixture on the next layer , on top of the cookies .
Sprinkle with unsweetened cocoa powder ( optional )
Repeat the soaking cookie layer
Followed by the cream egg mixture layer
Sprinkle with cocoa powder
if you have extra left and deep enough dish , you still can layer it with cookies again
Your top / last layer should be the cheese egg mixture .
Chill overnight !