Last week was Mother’s Day in Canada. So I wanted to spoil myself, and I really wanted a Tiramisù. I know that the internet is full of recipes and that the fashion is to be creative with new recipes, but I like traditional Tiramisù. I am very demanding with Tiramisù. I’ve ventured to try it in restaurants, but I was always disappointed, often too heavy, too compact, too sweet… In short, the Tiramisù I like is this one. This recipe comes from a friend of my mother’s, and it’s the recipe that has been unanimously adopted, unchanged for more than 20 years.
Emblematic of Italian cuisine, I discovered it when I arrived in Italy. Did you know that I spent several years of my childhood in Rome? I have a real love for this city, this country, this culture and of course, this cuisine. I don’t often share Italian recipes, and yet they are part of my daily life. I make homemade pizza every week, pasta obviously and many others…
Tiramisù (literally “pull me up”), apart from being delicious, is also very simple to make. You don’t need to be a whiz in the kitchen, and you just need a few basic ingredients. However, you need the famous ‘mascarpone,’ this creamy cheese from the north of Italy is used a lot in cooking, especially in desserts. It is now easily available in most grocery stores. Of course, the better your mascarpone, the better your Tiramisù will be.
So apart from waiting a few hours to enjoy it, you shouldn’t encounter too many difficulties, maybe just for the service. If you receive people, it is best to prepare it in individual portions to save yourself the torment of service, it is often quite difficult to cut it cleanly, and it tends to drip. But hey, if you have your fingers full of delicious cream, well lick all that and treat yourself ?
TRADITIONAL TIRAMISÙ
Ingredients
- 500 g of mascarpone
- 4 eggs white and yellow separated
- 100 g powdered sugar
- 200 g lady finger biscuit (handmade or store-bought)
- 1 teaspoon of soluble coffee for the cream
- 2 teaspoon of soluble coffee to soak the cookies
- 1 tablespoon coco powder for dressing
- 1 bowl of milk lukewarm
- amaretto (or rum)
Instructions
- Beat the egg yolks with the sugar and rum.
- Add the mascarpone.
- In a very small amount of hot water (about 1 ml), dissolve 1 teaspoon of instant coffee. Add it to the mascarpone cream.
- Beat the egg whites until stiff. Gently fold them into the cream. Set aside.
- In a bowl with the warmed milk, dilute 2 tbsp. coffee and 1 tbsp. cocoa.
- Now you will soak the ladyfinger cookies with the milk/coffee/cocoa mixture. Dip the cookies in the mixture and take them out immediately. If you let them soak more they will become completely crumbly, besides bringing the liquid to the cream that will make it softer and it may lose its consistency.
- Place your cookies in the bottom of the dish you have chosen, covering the entire surface.
- Then pour cream until the surface of the cookies is completely covered.
- Repeat the process, alternating layers of cookies and mascarpone cream until all are finished. As for the cookies in the layers, I don't cover the entire surface with them because I think it's too much. I space them out and spread them evenly. However, if you like it, you can make complete layers.
- Put it in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours (I usually prepare it the day before).
- Sprinkle it all over with cocoa before serving.
