How To Make Perfect Tiramisu

Tiramisu is Italy's most famous dessert for a reason. We'll begin by making our mascarpone. This is the foundation of our cream filling in the tiramisu. Over low heat, we'll whisk some cream until it reaches 185 degrees Fahrenheit, then we'll add in the juice of one whole lemon, give it a quick mix to fully combine, and then monitor that temperature to bring it back up to 185 degrees Fahrenheit again, and immediately set a timer to hold it here for 10 minutes, constantly adjusting your flame as needed to keep it right in that sweet spot. You can use store-bought cheese if you want, but I prefer making my own mascarpone because it's half the tiramisu, and what we're making What we're making now is fresher, Sweeter and silkier than anything that's been sitting in a tub on a grocery shelf for weeks. After 10 minutes, we'll let this cool, at which point it'll have separated into curds and whey. You can't see much now, but if I lift some up, that right there is fresh mascarpone. My dad likes to make this every Christmas. I never understood for a long time why it took him several days to make tiramisu, but you're about to understand why. I'm gonna strain this off through some cheesecloth. Try to pour it low. All those clumps like to jump around and make a mess. And this goes into the fridge to drain overnight. For the ladyfingers, those light finger-shaped Sponge biscuits. We'll add a few egg whites to a mixing bowl, and then, fitted with a whisk attachment, we'll whip them on high until a nice meringue begins to form. Once it begins to look fluffy like a cloud, turn down your mixer and slowly incorporate all your sugar, one spoonful at a time, until it's eventually thick enough that you can hold your mixing bowl upside down over your head. You don't have to try this, but I will, just because of how confident I am in this meringue. Now, combine a few egg yolks with some vanilla extract and a pinch of salt, then whisk until fully combined, then gently add it to your meringue along with some sifted flour and cornstarch. Fold it all together. Now, dust each finger with icing sugar. This first layer is actually going to dissolve into the ladyfingers. And after waiting five minutes, add on a second dusting. This second layer of sugar is what's going to give us the signature ladyfinger look with that pearled, crackled crust. These go into the oven to bake, rotating partway through the cooking process, and when they're done, turn the oven off and allow them to cool and dry overnight. It's time to take that mascarpone we made earlier and turn it into a filling. We do this by making a double boiler, to which we'll add a few egg yolks as well as some sugar, and whisk, over just very low heat, because I don't want to scramble my eggs. As you can see, there's not that much steam coming out of this. While traditional tiramisu uses raw eggs, cooking them makes them safer and gives a silkier consistency. Once it turns light and almost fluffy like this, set it off to the side to cool. And bring in a new bowl for your egg whites. We'll add our egg whites and sugar and begin to mix, with the goal of making a nice, light, and fluffy meringue, just like we did with the ladyfingers. To be clear, this process looks the exact same if you're not worried about raw eggs. You'd still be whipping the yolks and the whites to make them nice and light and fluffy for your tiramisu. I'm doing this over heat to make sure the eggs are extra safe. We'll set this off to the side to cool, before eventually combining all three together into one filling. To combine, we want to keep things cool, so I'll set my egg yolks over a bowl of ice water. Then I'll add my drained mascarpone, then using Using an electric hand mixer, we'll mix until combined and thick. The reason we keep things cool here is so the mixture doesn't split. The final step is to add half the meringue, folding gently so as to not break all those air bubbles. This is when that filling is going to start to get lighter and fluffier. And once that's been fully incorporated, we'll fold in the rest of the meringue to finish it off. We're left... With a beautiful, velvety, silky mascarpone filling, with eggs that you would never know were cooked, this tiramisu's gonna be good. Now all that's left is making our coffee, and then we can assemble. In Italy, tiramisu is made with espresso, usually from those little stovetop mocha pots that seem to be in every Italian kitchen. So, we're pulling a few shots of real espresso, and then stretching it with a bit of hot water to tone down the intensity, giving us full espresso flavor, but not so much that we destroy the entire tiramisu. And we also can't forget about the Marsala, a sweet Sicilian wine that rounds everything out. The first layer is coffee-dipped ladyfingers. Drop each one into the coffee, then wait one second and roll, and after one second more, immediately transfer it to your dish. If you wait too long and it gets too soggy, skip it and move on to the next one. As I do this, I'm realizing that it's best to first dip them upside down so that they end up right side up to easily put over into your dish. This first layer is extremely important. It's the foundation of your entire dish. If anything's ever too long, trim it and then keep on moving. Once your first layer is done, add on a layer of your mascarpone filling. In Italy, they traditionally do just two layers of base. Biscuits and two layers of cream, but my family always liked doing three layers, so I'm going to do it that way here. In many ways, I guess it depends on your baking dish, too. And now, for the second round of biscuits, we rotate 90 degrees and stack them up to go the other way. Like I said, I could never understand why it took my dad so incredibly long to make one dessert. It wasn't until I actually made it for myself the very first time that I realized it takes a while. By now, I think you get the idea, so I'm going to finish this up and smooth out the top, and after one last overnight rest in the fridge, it's ready for a dusting of cocoa. I understand you may not want to wait for that overnight. But just know that tiramisu is never made on the same day it's eaten in Italy. You need to give all those different layers some time to become friends overnight. Dusting on the cocoa powder is my favorite part of tiramisu. It must be done from nice and high up like this. You'll have to accept a little mess in your kitchen right around the baking dish. And the goal is to get a nice even layer of cocoa. Just enough that you can no longer see that layer of cream and it hides any imperfections. I also like to finish mine off with a few chocolate curls. And then it's time for the moment of truth. All I can say is it's just the way my Italian great-grandmother would have made it. It's a labor of love, but like I said, it's Italy's number one dessert for a reason. Oh, God. Still got a cocoa powder in my throat.