Recipe: Tiramisu Three Ways

When my brother and his housemate J helped us to move house, we thanked them with a big lamb shank dinner plus tiramisu.

J wanted to learn how to make Tiramisu, so I’ve compiled three recipes, ranging from Easy to Effort.

The “Oh No’s” were something I made up, the Medium one is probably a basic one found all over the internet, and the Effort one is from a lovely Italian cookbook (will post an edit later for a proper credit). 

Leave a comment if you’d like me to email you the neat little A4 PDF document…I’m not sure what blogspot will do to my neat little tables...

I wish I had a photo, because they always present really well, but they always disappear too quickly to be photographed!! 

Bill Granger does an ice cream version in the latest issue of Delicious mag…I’m not sure how I feel about it yet…any volunteers to come guinea pig with me? ;)

 

Easy.   I call these “Oh No’s” because if you forget that someone is coming over for dinner (oh no) you can whip these up really quickly. 

 

Ingredients: 

Custard:

300 ml thick cream

250 g mascarpone

¼ cup icing sugar

 

Base:

1 packet biscuits

100 ml Kahlua or Cointreau

100 ml strong coffee

 

Topping:

Drinking chocolate

Chocolate curls

 

Method:

Make custard – beat the cream and sugar till stiff; fold in the mascarpone and 1/3 the liqueur.

Make base – combine the rest of the liqueur with the coffee and brush onto the biscuits (or dip the biscuits in the liquid but be careful not to make them too soggy).

Fill your trifle dish / wine glasses with alternating layers of base and custard, finishing with a layer of custard. 

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least two hours and up to 24.  Just before serving, dust with chocolate.    

 

 

Medium.  Involves eggs, minus the cream. 

 

Ingredients: 

1 C mascarpone

3 egg yolks

¼ C castor sugar

2 T liqueur mixed with

2 T coffee

 

12 biscuits

2 T liqueur mixed with

2 T coffee

 

Drinking chocolate

Chocolate curls

 

Method:

Beat egg yolks in bowl with the castor sugar until smooth, and then add the liqueur and coffee and beat again.   Brush the biscuits with coffee and liqueur as you use them, layer in a bowl and chill.    

 

 

Effort.  Involves whole eggs.   The Italian cookbook says tira mi su means ‘pick me up’ and that the dessert started as a ‘nourishing dish’ to be eaten when feeling low. 

 

Ingredients:

 

5 eggs, separated

¾ C / 170 g castor sugar

300 g mascarpone

1 C / 250 ml cold strong coffee

3 T liqueur

36 sponge fingers

80 g dark chocolate, finely grated

 

Method:

Beat the egg yolks with the sugar until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is light / fluffy. 

Add the mascarpone and beat till smooth. 

Whisk the egg whites (in a clean dry glass bowl) until soft peaks form.

Fold into the mascarpone mixture. 

Mix the coffee and the liqueur in a shallow dish; dip enough biscuits to cover the base of your dish (say 10 inch square).  Arrange biscuits in one tightly packed layer in base. 

Spread half the custard mix over, another layer of coffee-dipped biscuits, then finish with the custard, smoothing top neatly. 

Chill, dust with chocolate before serving.   

 

 

General Tiramisu Notes:

The recipes tend to serve at least four (or two hungry boys).  ‘Biscuits’ = sponge finger or lady’s finger biscuits.  You can also substitute a plain French vanilla cake recipe for the biscuits to make a tiramisu cake instead.  Make your coffee early; hot coffee results in soggy biscuits (eww).  At a pinch, you can substitute the 1 cup mascarpone with 1 cup cream cheese beaten in with 2 tbsp castor sugar.  Liqueur – some recipes call for brandy or sweet Marsala.  You can make a fruity version by using Framboise and pureed raspberries instead of the other liqueurs and coffee.  The topping can be drinking chocolate (easiest), cocoa sifted with icing sugar (substitute), or just cocoa, grated chocolate or chocolate curls (use veggie peeler and a block of 80% Lindt dark).