Tiramisu
Back when The Wandering Chew was just at it’s very earliest stages in 2015, we served tiramisu at one of our pop-up dinners, An Italian-Jewish Feast. This dinner was special for Kat, whose background is Italian and Ukrainian. She grew up on the same street as many of her Italian relatives and next door to her family’s now-shuttered Italian bakery. Her godmother’s partner, Rosa, had the best tiramisu recipe and it was always a treat when she made it for family gatherings. Kat always went back for seconds and would try to take a piece of the luxurious dessert back home with her at the end of the night.
Since converting, Kat has felt an affinity with the Italian-Jewish community. Hosting this pop-up feast was a very meaningful experience for her and serving this tiramisu at the end of the meal was a special nod to Kat’s family.
Luckily for us, Rosa was gracious enough to share the secrets of her extra special tiramisu recipe. We hope you always go back for seconds and we advise maybe making two pans – you never know who will want to take some home with them at the end of the night.
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cup very strong coffee, cooled
- ¼ cup cognac, brandy or dark rum
- ¼ cup sweet marsala wine or sweet Madeira wine
- 1 cup chilled heavy cream
- 500g mascarpone cheese
- 6 egg yolks
- 4 Tbsp sugar
- 400g ladyfingers (about 30-35 cookies)
- Dutch-processed cocoa powder, for dusting
directions
In a large deep bowl, whisk together coffee, cognac, and sweet marsala wine. Chill until ready to use.
In a separate medium bowl, whisk heavy cream and mascarpone together until smooth. Set aside.
Fill a large pot with 2 inches of water and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. In a medium heatproof bowl, combine egg yolks, sugar, and 4 Tbsp water. Place the bowl with the eggs over the pot and reduce the heat to low so the water stays at a low simmer. With an electric mixer on medium (or a large whisk and some serious elbow grease) beat the egg mixture until it’s pale yellow and has tripled in volume. This should take about 5-7 minutes with the electric mixer, longer if you’re doing it by hand. Remove the bowl from the pot and set aside.
Using clean beaters, beat the cream and mascarpone mixture with an electric mixer until medium peaks form. Gently fold in the egg mixture with a spatula until no streaks remain.
Dip ladyfingers, one at a time, into the coffee mixture and fill a 13×9 inch glass or ceramic baking dish with one layer of soaked cookies. Spread one-third of the filling over the cookies. Repeat with remaining cookies and filling. You should be able to fill the dish with 3 or 4 layers, ending with the mascarpone mixture.
Cover the baking dish tightly with plastic wrap, making sure it doesn’t touch the top of the tiramisu, and refrigerate for 24 hours. When ready to serve, remove the plastic wrap, and sprinkle the top of the tiramisu generously with cocoa powder.
