Tiramisu
Tiramisù·(tee-rah-mee-SOO)
Chapter 5 — Desserts & After-Dinner
Let’s get one thing straight: Tiramisu isn’t some ancient Roman relic. It was invented in Northern Italy in the sixties, but the minute it hit American shores, neighborhood joint guys realized its true potential, swapping raw egg whites for heavy cream and spiking it with enough booze to kill a horse. This is the dessert you want waiting in the fridge after you’ve spent four hours simmering Sunday gravy, an unapologetic, massive slab of comfort that tastes exactly like the place with the red-checkered tablecloths on Arthur Avenue.
Ingredients
- strong espresso or dark roast coffee2 cup
- Kahlua or coffee liqueur1/4 cup
- dark rum or Marsala wine1/4 cup
- granulated sugar2 tbsp
- egg yolks6 large
- granulated sugar3/4 cup
- Kahlua or Marsala wine2 tbsp
- mascarpone cheese16 oz
- heavy whipping cream1 1/2 cup
- vanilla extract1 tsp
- crisp Italian ladyfingers48 med
- unsweetened cocoa powder1/4 cup
- dark chocolate block4 oz
Method
- 01
Brew and booze the coffee.
Mix your cold coffee, a quarter-cup of Kahlua, the rum, and two tablespoons of sugar in a wide, shallow bowl until dissolved.
- 02
Rig the Dutch oven double boiler.
Fill your Dutch oven with two inches of water and bring it to a gentle simmer over medium-low heat to create a safe heating station for your eggs.
- 03
Whip the yolks to pasteurize them.
Place the egg yolks and three-quarters of a cup of sugar into a heatproof bowl set over the simmering water, whisking constantly for 7 to 10 minutes until pale, thick, and hitting 160°F on an instant-read thermometer.
- 04
Flavor and cool the custard base.
Remove the bowl from the heat, whisk in the remaining two tablespoons of Kahlua or Marsala, and let the mixture cool completely.
- 05
Fold the mascarpone mousse together.
Use a spatula to aggressively fold the mascarpone into the cooled yolk mixture until perfectly smooth, then gently fold in the heavy cream and vanilla that have been whipped to medium peaks.
- 06
Soak the ladyfingers fast.
Dunk each hard ladyfinger into the coffee mixture for exactly one second per side, no lingering, then arrange them snugly in a single layer across the bottom of your sheet pan.
- 07
Build the slab.
Spread exactly half of the mascarpone cream evenly over the soaked cookies, dust lightly with cocoa powder through a fine mesh sieve, and repeat the process for a second layer of soaked cookies and the remaining cream.
- 08
Chill the sheet pan overnight.
Wrap the pan tightly in plastic wrap and leave it alone in the fridge for at least eight hours so the hard cookies absorb the moisture and transform into tender cake.
- 09
Garnish with the box grater.
Right before serving to your loud guests, hit the dessert with another heavy dusting of cocoa powder and run the dark chocolate block down the coarse holes of your box grater to shower the pan in rustic curls.
From Cook Red Sauce at Home.