How to Make Tiramisu Torte! | Bake Along w/ Anna Olson

Hello everyone, I am so happy to be back for another bake-along recipe and the theme is holiday desserts and this one is a real showstopper. I am making a tiramisu torte. Now we all love tiramisu, that classic Italian dessert, ladyfingers soaked in coffee, a rich mascarpone cream, a hint of chocolate, but typically you serve it in the dish you make it and you spoon it out and that is fine, but when you really want a dessert you can bring to the table and have people ooh and ah, this tiramisu torte is the one for you. So we're going to incorporate all those elements, the mascarpone cream, the ladyfingers, the coffee and the hint of chocolate flavor, but we're going to layer it in a sliceable torte. So I'm going to get things going with a sabayon. Now this is the base when you're making that mascarpone cream, you want to aerate it, you want it to be fluffier than just mascarpone cream, that it would be too heavy and rich all on its own. So yes, okay, it is still rich. I am using egg yolks, but I add my egg yolks to my bowl along with sugar and a sabayon is an aerated mixture of egg and sugar, but you always have to add a liquid to it and in this case because it's the holiday season and quite often there is a spirit layered into tiramisu. Some people use rum, some people use Marsala or Madeira, some people use a coffee liqueur. I'm using brandy here, so I'm adding my brandy and if you want to keep this free of spirits, you of course have the option to do so. Replace the brandy with coffee and build on that coffee flavor. You know, I've even done tea tiramisu tortes. I've done earl grey tea infused in the layers, so you have lots of flavor options that way if you'd rather not use the alcohol. Now I'm going to take this mixture over to my pot of gently simmering water and you want to mix quite vigorously as you do this whisking back and forth. This is stirring, so if you're using a whisk, try and avoid this circular motion. You actually want to go back and forth and then you can rotate your bowl to switch directions and this really adds volume to your sabayon. So I'm going to cook this until it's almost doubled in volume and I have my temperature probe. I love that you are such keen bakers and you ask for the temperatures of things. When you're making a sabayon, you don't have to guess if you'd rather not. You will cook this until it reaches between 150 and 160 Fahrenheit. That's when you know the egg yolks are fully cooked. The sugar and the brandy protect the eggs from overcooking. So you'll get the volume, it holds the volume, so it aerates that rich mascarpone cheese we're using in this tiramisu torte. Yeah, we've got a nice hot water. I know I try and use glass bowls whenever I can so that you can see through on the cameras, but really a metal bowl in this case is more practical. It conducts the heat very quickly and then it also, when you take it off the heat, cools down faster. Oh, we're getting some volume in there. Looking good. Sorry, I'm not facing the camera. I'm just paying attention to what I'm doing here. It doesn't take long, only a couple of minutes if your water is really steaming up. Let me check the temperature now. We're getting there. 136, so just a little bit more. Oh yeah, look at how that's thickening up. Almost, it looks almost like a lemon curd. I hit a 151 somewhere and just want it to be over 150. There we go, everywhere. And off the heat it comes. So look at how that thickened. It cooks out the brandy a little bit. Doesn't boil it, but it does cook it out so it mellows the flavor a little bit. So now I'm just giving this a stir so that the hot bowl, give it the bowl a chance to cool down a second. And now I don't want to work with this sauvignon right away because it's still hot and it would melt my cream. So what I'm going to do is set it aside to cool a little bit while I get my other elements ready for the tiramisu. I'm just going to turn off my heat. When it comes to tiramisu, those elements, you've got the ladyfingers. In this case, I've got a layer of cake too to go in between to layer the torte, the coffee soaking syrup. Take the time you need to get all of those elements ready because the easiest part is actually building the tiramisu. So let me get my coffee syrup going. I have my sugar and I've kept some coffee hot on my back burner here and I'll pour that in. You want it hot so that it dissolves the sugar. And in addition to that, you can at this point, add a little brownie, brownie, brandy. I'm looking at the coffee and I'm thinking chocolate. So it's up to you. If you don't, if you're not adding spirits to the recipe at all, just leave this out. There is no adjustment you need to make because you've already got the coffee flavor worked in. And if you want, this is optional, you can add a splash of vanilla. There we go. And so I'll set that aside. And that reminds me, I do add a little vanilla to my sabayon. So when it comes to a layered dessert, a trifle, really a tiramisu is a style of trifle where a traditional English trifle has the fruit and cake element. The Italian trifle has the cake and the cream element. But when you're layering, you want to layer the flavors so that really every bite is balanced in that combination of flavors. And you'll see that when I'm building the tort. So now, additionally, I want to get my mascarpone and whipped cream ready. So this is a full tub, 500 grams of mascarpone cheese. Some tubs are 450 grams. It depends on what brand you buy, where you buy it. If it's 450, don't spend the extra money to buy an entire tub of mascarpone just for that supplemental 50 grams. A tub will work 450 to 500 grams. And some mascarpone cheese can be really firm coming out of the tub. So I give it a little stir in a bowl just to give it a chance to soften up. And what I'm going to do now is I've whipped up two cups of whipping cream to a full volume. There's nothing in the cream whatsoever. Half of this I'm using for the topping of the tiramisu tort. The other half goes into the mascarpone cheese. So I'm going to add a little at a time. So this, it's really, you're creating an easy mascarpone mousse when you're making this traditional tiramisu base. The sabayon base and the mascarpone cream and whipped cream is a traditional tiramisu. So if you don't want to do the tort, you could assemble this just in a 9 by 13 dish if you wanted to. So I'm just making sure that mascarpone cheese is nice and smooth. And I'm going to save this whipped cream because that will be my topping. If you're making this tort ahead of time, you would probably save the whipped cream topping for the very end, close to the day you want to serve it. There we go. So nothing has been added to this. It's just the cream and the mascarpone cheese. Getting all my elements ready. The remaining whipped cream, I will add just a little bit of sugar to sweeten it. A little vanilla. And it's up to you if you want to add more brandy here. I don't, for the topping, I don't think you need it. Because it's so simple. But tiramisu typically has a whipped cream layer on top of it. I'm just sweetening that up a little bit. There we go. So the topping, the base. I have my ladyfingers here. And depending on the size of the ladyfingers, you will use anywhere between 16 and 24. And you'll notice what I did was just cut the flat side off of one side of the ladyfinger. So this will sit upright like a charlotte in your tart pan. And I want it to sit flat. I just use a serrated knife and it cuts easily without breaking the ladyfinger. So we have that. And I want to show you my cake layer. So to make this a tort as opposed to a traditional tiramisu, which is just the cream and the ladyfingers. I took my vanilla, golden vanilla cake recipe. You'll find the video right here on the channel. Just look up golden vanilla cake. It's from my spring favorite series. I top it with a fudge frosting. Different topic for a different day. But what you can do is make your cake layers. The recipe makes three 8-inch cake layers. You can freeze the other two. So that way you have that for a birthday cake later on. You just need one 8-inch layer. And then you cut that in half horizontally. And those are going to be the cake layers in this tiramisu tort. I'm very specific. I want you to make the 8-inch layer. So you have space building your tort in a 9-inch springform pan. So now in the time that I've assembled all this and talked about it, my sauvignon has cooled enough that I can add it to my base. Though you will see, again, it depends on the brand of mascarpone cheese you use. Some are very thick. Some are rather soft. You may find that your base, it turns a little fluid once you start stirring it. But that's because you're disturbing it, moving the cheese around. Once this gets put into your tort and has a chance to chill, it sets up beautifully. But it makes it easy to handle and easy to assemble. So we've already worked in the brandy and the vanilla into this cream layer. Oh, it's so decadent. Making that sauvignon, there are lots of cheater tiramisu recipes. You just whip cream cheese and add a couple of flavoring ingredients to it. But going through this process, especially for a grand holiday dessert, make the sauvignon, it just adds that level of richness and complexity. And it slices beautifully. So there we go. That is ready. Now we're all set to assemble. So I've got my pan. And the first thing I do is put one cake layer down in the bottom. And you can see how there's space around it because that's where the ladyfingers go. So you put the cake in first and it just holds the ladyfingers up. These are traditional size of Savoiardi ladyfinger biscuits. I do have a recipe for ladyfinger biscuits on this channel. I'll leave that up to you if you want to prepare them. It depends how close to the holidays it is and how much time you actually have. I don't know if you do that, but I always make my ambitious holiday wish list early in December. All the things I like to make. And then sometimes you don't get to all of them all at once. There we go. So nestled close together. And you'll notice I'm not dipping these fingers because as the torte sits over time, all that moisture in the center will soften the ladyfingers, but they won't fall apart. So that's why I'm not soaking them right now. And now what I need to do is brush a generous amount of this coffee syrup. This is how we're integrating the coffee flavor into the tiramisu torte by soaking the cake layers and nothing else. Almost half of the syrup goes on to the cake layer. Really give it a chance to soak in. Not just a little bit. This cake can take it. Oh, and I can smell that coffee. I'm sure you bakers have heard that tiramisu translates to mean pick me up. It's that little bit of coffee with the sweet treat. After a big, rich holiday dinner, nothing like a big, rich holiday dessert. Hey, it's the holiday. It's what we do, right? This also transports well. So if you're in charge of bringing dessert to someone else's house, so long as you can keep it cold, it is not a fragile, delicate cake. So lots of syrup. Now half of this cream gets spread over the cake. But typical to how you would do a tiramisu in a pan, you would put the lady fingers down, half the filling, another layer of lady fingers, and then the other half of the filling. Spread that. Now this will help secure those lady fingers even more. Put the cream in there. You don't have to worry about being fussy, perfectly leveling this filling. It's not buttercream after all, because you're going to put another, the second half of the cake goes right on top. And another good, and that presses everything in place. Another good brushing of the coffee, coffee syrup on the cake. So while I'm doing this, let's talk about the make ahead components. Fully make your cake layers, pop them in the freezer. If you really want to get ahead, just thaw your cake layer on the counter before you want to assemble. The mascarpone cream you'll make right before you want to assemble the torte, but this torte can be assembled, oh, a good two days ahead. You just wait on the whipped cream, the final whipped cream topping until the day you want to serve it. Lots of coffee, lots of coffee, there we go. Now the remaining cream. I realized I forgot to put chocolate on my first layer of cream. I'll get the chocolate in now. Chocolate is just an accent. It shouldn't dominate the flavor of a tiramisu anyhow. It's really even more than the coffee. It's about the cream first, then the hint of coffee, then a hint of chocolate. So imagine I grated a little chocolate over top of that first layer of cream, because I'm going to do that now to this layer of cream, like so. So just take a good quality bar of chocolate, dark chocolate, grate a nice little layer. You don't want to bite into pieces of chocolate in a tiramisu. You want a hint of it. If you prefer, if you want to make something a little more adult and stronger, you could do a dusting of cocoa powder. Just remember, cocoa powder is unsweetened, so it has a bitterness to it, as does coffee. All right, so if I was making this tort ahead of time, I would loosely cover it and put it in the fridge overnight. You could even make it two days ahead if you wanted to. I don't recommend freezing it, because then actually the liquids and the syrup inside would soak too much, and I think you would find it ends up falling a bit sticky. So prepare it fresh, but up to two days ahead. Then the day you wish to serve it, you've got your whipped cream, so I've added my little bit of vanilla and sugar already to this, and this goes on top. Get a clean spatula. You could stop at the mascarpone layer if you wanted to, but this is traditional to tiramisu, that final whipped cream layer, because when you cut into it, it is a different texture. The mascarpone layer, the cheese itself sets up, while still airy and light, it still has a different flavor and texture profile than just regular whipped cream. And then the finishing touch, a little more chocolate, and I do try and keep it in the pan. Just simply, you know how it is at holiday time. You've got lots of food coming and going in and out of the fridge, lots of people in and out of the fridge. In order to protect the tort, keep it in its pan until you're ready. To unmold it, and it does slide out easily. You'll notice I didn't have to line the cake with parchment paper, or the pan with parchment paper. That just ends up being harder to take off. This slides off the base of the pan easily because you have the cake layer at the bottom. There, that looks absolutely gorgeous. I'm so happy about this. So this, I'm ready to pop in the fridge, but so that I can slice into one, I've already got one ready to go here. So this, I made yesterday, so it's had a chance to set. Those lady fingers are softening just a little, but they're not losing their structure at all. And all the complexity, all the work has happened ahead of time. So there's nothing more you have to do to it, other than wait for congratulations. I'm sure you're doing an assortment of fantastic desserts, and I always love hearing from you. So let me know, maybe you'll add this to your dessert list over the holiday season. It would be great for New Year's, wouldn't it? But you could let me know what else you're making, because that is how I take inspiration. Or if you have questions of other traditional holiday desserts you'd love to see, I'd love to hear from you. So let me give this a little slice. Doing a more modest piece last time. I think the last cake I made, I did a gigantic portion. And you can see those layers. Let me cut a second slice, just so you can see inside the cake better. So you can see it's light and airy, just like tiramisu should be. And a little push from there. And there's the inside of the cake. And these gorgeous slices with the coffee soaked cake layers, the lady fingers on the outside, that beautiful mascarpone cream, the whipped cream on top. It is tiramisu in tart form. How perfect. Now I've got you set with another recipe for the holiday season. I love doing these bake-alongs, so you can see in real time how to assemble one of these desserts. I invite you to join me, Annette, again. Let me try that again. I invite you to join me again for another bake-along recipe. I've got lots more planned. I'll see you again soon. In the meantime, happy holiday baking season. That golden vanilla cake recipe really does suit this tart. It's just the right texture. There's that hint of coffee, hint of chocolate. How is it that something so decadent can disappear from your plate so quickly?