Chocolate Tiramisu

fork going into a slice of tiramisu on white plate.

This chocolate tiramisu has layers of espresso or hot chocolate soaked lady fingers, light and creamy mascarpone cream, chocolate ganache, finished off with adjusting of cocoa powder. The mascarpone cream is made the traditional Italian way, for the silkiest, richest tiramisu! Our tiramisu is made with no alcohol and can be made with or without coffee!

Course All Desserts

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 20

Total Time 6 20

Servings servings

Calories 454

Author In Fine Taste--Alyssa

Ingredients

Mascarpone cream

8 ounces mascarpone high quality
½ cup sugar (100 grams)
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 large eggs separated and room temperature

Chocolate Ganache

1 cup chopped semisweet chocolate or chocolate chips (160 grams)
¾ cup heavy cream (180 grams)

Coffee Mixture (or use Coffee-Alternative below)

1 ½ cups espresso or strong coffee (12 fluid ounces) cooled
1 tablespoon cocoa powder (6 grams)

Hot Chocolate Coffee-Alternative (see notes)

1 ½ cups hot water (12 fluid ounces)
3 tablespoons cocoa powder (18 grams)
3 tablespoons sugar (38 grams)

For Layering Tiramisu

7-8 ounces lady fingers cookies 24-30 cookies also called pavesini or savoiardi biscuits
1-2 tablespoons cocoa powder g (6-12 grams) for dusting

Instructions

Prepare your coffee mixture or hot chocolate coffee alternative. Whisk the coffee and cocoa powder together until smooth in a bowl—the cocoa powder incorporates easier into hot drinks, but make sure the mixture is cool before using. If using the hot chocolate alternative, heat the water for 90 seconds in the microwave and then whisk in the cocoa powder and sugar. Let it cool before using or your lady fingers will get too soggy.
Make the mascarpone cream. Separate the egg yolks and whites into two separate bowls, making sure there is no trace of yolk in the whites. Add the yolks and sugar to a stand mixer (or use a hand mixer) and beat on medium-high for 7-10 minutes until the color of the of the yolks is almost white.
Add in the vanilla and mascarpone and mix on low until the mixture is completely combined and smooth. Don’t over mix or you run the risk of the mascarpone splitting.
Pour the egg yolk mixture into a separate bowl and set aside. Clean and dry the bowl before adding the in the egg whites. Use a whisk or whisk attachment to beat the egg whites until you have stiff peaks.
Take half of the egg yolk mixture and gently fold it into the egg whites. Once it is most of the way incorporated, add in the remaining egg yolk mixture, gently folding the two together. You will want to keep as much air as possible. Set aside for now.
To make the ganache, heat the cream in the microwave for 60-90 seconds until hot. Place the chocolate in a bowl and pour the cream over top. Let it sit for a few minutes before whisking together until smooth. Let it cool for a few minutes while you work on the other layers, you do not want the ganache to be warm when you pour it over the cream layers.
Begin Layering. Take an 8x8 or 9x9-inch pan. Quickly dunk your lady fingers in your coffee or hot chocolate on each side and place in the bottom of your pan. Line the dunked cookies next to each other completely covering the bottom of the pan. Feel free to break the cookies down if they don’t fit in the pan nicely.
Spread half of the mascarpone cream on top of the lady fingers in an even layer. Then pour half the of the ganache over top. I used an off-set spatula to spread the ganache evenly over top.
Repeat the layers: lady fingers dipped in coffee/hot chocolate, mascarpone cream, and ending with ganache.
Refrigerate. Cover the pan and refrigerate for at least 6 hours, ideally overnight. Right before serving, dust the tiramisu with cocoa powder liberally.

Notes

Coffee alternative: You can also use Pero, a chicory a drink made from malted barley, chicory, and rye that has a coffee-like flavor. Take 1 ½ cups hot water and mix it with 4 tablespoons of Pero and 1 tablespoon cocoa powder cool before using.

Using Whipped Cream. While, I highly recommend the recipe version above using eggs, if you’d like to use whipped cream in the mascarpone cream instead, follow the following instructions:

Take 1 ½ cups of chilled heavy whipping cream and whip it on high with the white sugar and vanilla until you reach stiff peaks.
Take the mascarpone and gently mix it with a large spoonful of whipped cream until the mixture is smooth. Take the remaining whipped cream and gently fold it into the mascarpone until there are no streaks.

Why did my chocolate ganache split?

Chocolate ganache can take on a grainy texture if it is heated too quickly. If the chocolate is heated directly, it often gets too hot and seizes up. This is why we heat the cream by itself before pouring it over the chocolate to make the ganache.

If your ganache is grainy, try using an immersion blender or pouring the mixture into a food processor or high speed blender to try to bring it back together. Alternatively, you can try placing the ganache in a double boiler, also called a bain marie, and gently heating it and whisking to until it comes back together. If neither of these options works, you may need to start over on the ganache.

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