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Italian Tiramisu with Madeira wine and chocolate

Tiramisu is a classic Italian dessert that everybody loves to bastardize. Heavily inspired by Tyler Florence’s recipe, our Tiramisu is traditional Italian and whimsically modern. Staying true to the classic, we combine zabaglione with mascarpone to make the cream. To elevate the cake to a whole new level, we substitute Madeira for Marsala and add…

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Course:

Dessert

Cuisine: 

Italian

Servings:

12

Wine Pairing Recommendations

This dish goes exceptionally well with Raspberry fortified wine.

Prep time:

20 min

Cook time:

40 min

Total time:

1 hour

Ingredients for cream:

  • 7 raw egg yolks
  • 8 oz Mascarpone cheese
  • 1 cup heavy whipping cream
  • ½ cup sugar. We use golden yellow sugar for this recipe but regular sugar will work too.
  • 1/3 cup full sweet Madeira wine

Ingredients for cake:

  • 1 ½ packs of ladyfingers biscuits, 24 count each
  • 1 ½ cup espresso coffee
  • 1 cup melting chocolate or melting chocolate wafers
  • 1/3 cup full sweet Madeira wine
  • ¼ cup cognac or brandy
  • Cocoa powder for dusting

Ingredients for chocolate-dipped lady fingers (optional):

  • 1 ½ cups melting chocolate or melting chocolate wafers
  • ½ pack lady fingers biscuits

Instructions

How to melt chocolate and make zabaglione over a bain-marie or water bath.

Bain-marie is not as scary or difficult as it may sound!

To get your bain-marie going, fill a pot with about 1 ½ inches of hot water. Bring it to a gentle simmer.
Add either zabaglione components or melting chocolate to a heat-proof bowl, large enough not to sink into a pot. Put the bowl with ingredients over the pot. Take great care that the bowl doesn’t have any contact with the boiling water. Mix or whisk ingredients as per instructions.

Method

Making the cream

  1. Prepare the bain-marie.
  2. Whisk sugar into the egg yolks and put the creamed mixture over the bain-marie. Start whipping the mixture with a whisk until the mixture looks homogenous, about 3 minutes.
  3. Whisk sugar into the egg yolks and put the creamed mixture over the bain-marie. Start whipping the mixture with a whisk until the mixture looks homogenous, about 3 minutes.
  4. Add Madeira wine to the creamed sugar and egg yolk mixture. Keeping it over the bain-marie, continue whipping the mixture until it reaches a cream-like consistency and doubles in size, about 10 – 15 minutes. This is called zabaglione.
  5. Take zabaglione off the bain-marie and gently mix with mascarpone cheese till smooth and fully incorporated. Set aside.
  6. Whip heavy whipping cream using an electric mixer.
  7. Combine whipped cream with the mascarpone-zabaglione mixture. Whisk till the mixture is homogeneous and all ingredients are well incorporated about 3-5 minutes. Store in the fridge while you prepare soaking liquid for ladyfingers.

Arranging the cake

1. Brew espresso coffee

2. Stir chocolate wafers, coffee, Madeira wine and cognac over the bain-marie till chocolate wafers are fully dissolved in the liquid, about 3 minutes. This is the soaking liquid for ladyfingers.

3. Dunk, don’t soak, ladyfingers, one by one, in a soaking liquid.

4. Arrange dipped ladyfingers in a single layer on a non-reactive dish.

5. Evenly spread half of the cream mixture on top of the first layer of dipped ladyfingers.

6. Arrange a second layer of dipped ladyfingers on top of a cream mixture. Spread the remaining cream mixture on top.

7. Gently dust with cocoa powder, you may also grate some chocolate on top (optional).

8. Refrigerate for two hours before proceeding to the next step.

Decorating with chocolate-dipped ladyfingers (optional)

  1. Melt chocolate over a bain-marie, about 2-5 minutes.
  2. Dip ladyfingers into the melted chocolate and gently attach to the sides of the cake
  3. Refrigerate for 6 hours or overnight before serving

Enjoy!

Recipe Tips

  • If you do not have an espresso coffee machine, brew a strong coffee instead. Use 6 tablespoons of ground coffee to make 1 ½ cup of the coffee required for this recipe.
  • The soaking liquid must be lukewarm before you begin dunking lady fingers into it. If it is too hot, let it cool down slightly. Simply leave it on the counter for a couple of minutes. Do not put it into the fridge, as the chocolate will begin to solidify, and the liquid won’t be usable.
  • The rule says that Tiramisu must have two layers of ladyfingers, each covered with a layer of cream. We made ours with three layers.
  • We used a springform cake pan (without the base) to give our cake a round shape. We then ran a knife around the sides of the cake and removed a springform.

Related post:

Elephant Island Fruit Wines. Tasting Notes & Food Pairing

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