Tiramisù

I received this lovely recipe from my Italian friend Irene (thanks a lot once again!) and had to try it out immediately – safe to say it tasted amazing, so I kindly asked for permission to share it with you and here you go! (Unfortunately the pictures didn’t do it justice, I was in a rush :/ as soon as I make it again I will reupload better pictures!)

(please excuse my uneven coating of cocoa)

Ingredients

6 eggs (make sure they’re fresh!)
120 g of sugar and 2 teaspoons to sweeten the coffee
500 g of mascarpone
1-2 cups of coffee, espresso if you have
400 g of savoiardi biscuits (sponge fingers)
3 tablespoons of cocoa powder
 
Start off by separating the eggs. Whisk the egg yolks with 60 g of sugar until you obtain a light and creamy mixture. If you don’t want to run the risk of salmonella, simply do this over a waterbath, but you do need to make sure you are costantly whisking and that the waterbath is not too hot! Add the mascarpone to the yolk mixture. Whip the egg whites with a pinch of salt until they form soft peaks and then add the sugar and whip again until they form stiff peaks. Fold the egg whites into the egg yolk and mascarpone mixture carefully.

Soak the savoiardi in the coffee (make sure you let the coffee cool a little beforehand otherwise you might burn your fingers), making sure that they are not too wet (they shouldn’t melt!). Place them in your dish until they coat the entire bottom. Cover with the mascarpone cream. Add another layer of soaked savoiardi and then another layer of mascarpone cream. Continue doing so until you run out of mixture :) Irene told me to make sure that the cream layer is flat before placing the next layer of savoiardi on top and to alternate the direction of the savoiardi, i.e. one layer facing one direction and the next layer rotated by 90°. Finish it off by dusting the final layer with cocoa powder and leave it in the fridge for at least an hour before serving. Enjoy :)

I also added a bit of lemon juice to the mascarpone mixture and replaced a bit of mascarpone with whipped cream (as I didn’t have enough mascarpone), which worked really well. Also, if you use espresso, you may want to dilute it with water before you soak the biscuits.