A lot of us cannot imagine starting our day without coffee. Without that shot of espresso or that cup of iced coffee to start the day, the rest of the day just feels like a really bad nightmare. Coffee is that picker-upper that we need to help us face deadlines, emails, and coworkers we don’t really want to talk to but have to.
Some of us love coffee so much that we’ve started taking it outside of our regular cup of joe. Take the Italians for example. They’re quite well known for creating exquisite cups of coffee, but they are also famous for creating what is perhaps the most famous coffee dessert, tiramisu. While the name sounds Japanese, it was actually the Italians who made this delectable mixture of creamy filling with coffee-soaked biscuits and introduced it to the world.
Ingredients
- ½ cup of brewed coffee at room temperature
- ¼ cup of dry Marsala wine
- 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
- 3 eggs
- ¼ cup of granulated sugar
- 1¼ cups of Mascarpone cheese
- ¾ cup of heavy cream
- 12-14 Italian ladyfinger biscuits
- 1 ounce of dark chocolate
- 1 ounce of cocoa powder for dusting
Directions
To create the coffee mixture, combine half a cup of coffee (use Death Wish Coffee for that extra caffeine kick), two tablespoons of dry Marsala wine, two teaspoons of vanilla extract and a tablespoon of sugar in a bowl. Set aside.
Next, make the filling. Take three eggs and separate the egg whites from the egg yolks. For this recipe we will only be using the egg yolks. Mix in two tablespoons of dry Marsala wine and three tablespoons of sugar to the egg yolks in a bowl.
Placing the bowl in a saucepan of barely simmering water, whisk it for 5 to 8 minutes or until the mixture has tripled in volume. You can use a handheld mixer to make this step easier. Remove the bowl from the heat, and add eight ounces of Mascarpone cheese. Beat until they are combined.
In a separate bowl, whip three quarters of heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Gently fold half of the whipped cream with the yolk-Mascarpone mixture. It is important to fold gently to keep the mixture light and airy. Fold in the remaining half of the whipped cream into the mix until it has been fully incorporated. Some deflation will happen, but that is okay.
Line the square dish with Italian ladyfingers soaked in the coffee mixture. Spoon half of the filling over the ladyfingers and spread it evenly. For an extra pop of flavor, grate some dark chocolate over the filling.
Create more layers by alternating coffee-soaked ladyfingers, cream filling, and grated dark chocolate. Finish with a layer of the cream filling. Dust the top of the dessert with cocoa powder and refrigerate for at least six hours.
Before serving, dust the top of the dessert with additional cocoa powder. Tiramisu can be kept at room temperature for 20 minutes before it deflates, and will keep in the fridge for 2 days before the ladyfingers become too mushy to hold the structure.
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