frangelico tiramisu
I seriously love tiramisu. It might just be one of my all time favourite desserts. I mean, what’s not to like? Coffee, alcohol, chocolate, creamy custard and soft sponge, it’s got everything!
Traditionally, tiramisu is made with marsala. But, I like to add a little spin on it to add something else I love into the mix. Frangelico. If you haven’t tried it, it’s a delicious hazelnut liqueur that just works so well with all of these ingredients. I swap out 2/3 of the marsala for Frangelico, but you can do whatever makes sense for you. Keep it traditional with marsala, turn the caffeine up a notch with a coffee liqueur, whatever you’re feeling.
I also opt to use dark chocolate shavings rather than cocoa powder for this recipe. You can make these shavings by grating a bar of chocolate on the small-holed side of your cheese grater. I think it makes a superior tiramisu, but you can stick to cocoa if that’s your vibe.
This is one of those recipes that benefits from being made ahead of time. Try, if you can to leave it in the fridge for at least 6 hours or, preferably, overnight. The lady fingers will continue to absorb the liquid and soften up more and more. The longer you leave it, the more all the ingredients will come together.
for the tiramisu
30 lady fingers (depending on the size of your dish)
50ml frangelico
25ml marsala
4 eggs
120g mascarpone
75g white sugar
175ml espresso (or, very strong coffee)
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g dark chocolate (85%+)
method
Start by making your espresso. if you aren’t able to get espresso, make sure you make very strong coffee as this will make up the bulk of the flavour. If your coffee is weak, your tiramisu could be watery and flavourless.
Add your alcohol to the coffee and give it a taste to make sure you are happy with the kick that it gives. Feel free to scale up the coffee or the alcohol here, to your tastes.
Put a layer of lady fingers in the bottom of your dish and use a spoon to evenly coat them with half of your coffee mix. The sponge should soak up everything that you pour, so make sure to pour it as evenly as possible.
To prep for later, grate your chocolate. You can use the small-holed side of a cheese grater for this.
Next, get yourself 2 large bowls and split your eggs so that yolks are in one bowl and whites are kept in the other.
Add the sugar to your yolks and whisk to the point where they are pale and have puffed up a little.
Add the vanilla and 1 tablespoon of the mascarpone and whisk until smooth. mix in the rest of the mascarpone, one spoon at a time, until it is completely incorporated. Keep whisking until the mix starts to grow a little in volume.
Put this yolk mix aside and, using a clean whisk, whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form. This is the point where you can create little mountains in the whites that hold their shape on their own.
Add a third of your egg whites to the yolk mix and, using a spatula, fold in as gently as you can. Once that is fully incorporated, add the rest of the whites and gently fold everything together. The aim here is to have everything fully mixed together without losing any of the air you’ve worked into the eggs.
Pour around half of the mix onto your soaked lady fingers and gently smooth out.
Dip another layers worth of lady fingers, one by one, in the remainder of your coffee mix and gently lay them out on top of the custard in your dish.
Pour the other half of your custard on top and gently smooth to the edges.
Layer your chocolate shavings on top.
Wrap the tiramisu in cling film and let it sit in the fridge for at least 6 hours but, preferably, overnight. The longer it sits, the more the lady fingers will absorb and the softer they’ll become.
Serve straight from the fridge, in big portions, with no regrets!
