Tiramisù

Coffee, Mascarpone and Sponge Finger Dessert, after Le Beccherie

Six ingredients: egg yolks, sugar, mascarpone, sponge fingers, coffee and cocoa. The original has no cream, no egg whites and no alcohol, and is none the worse for it. The name means pick me up.

According to the Italian magazine report read, the dessert was created at Le Beccherie in Treviso in 1972 by Alba Di Pillo and the pastry chef Roberto Linguanotto, growing out of a local restorative of egg yolk beaten with sugar. The restaurant's recipe uses 12 yolks, 500 g of sugar, a kilo of mascarpone and 60 sponge fingers, with coffee and cocoa, and no egg whites.

The Accademia del Tiramisù, founded in 2003 to protect the Treviso recipe, lists the same six ingredients.

Ingredients

Ingredients

  • 4 large egg yolks
  • 165 g caster sugar
  • 335 g mascarpone, at room temperature
  • 300 ml strong espresso or moka coffee, cooled, unsweetened
  • About 20 savoiardi (sponge fingers), roughly 200 g
  • Unsweetened cocoa powder, to finish

Method

  1. Beat the yolks Beat the yolks with the sugar using an electric whisk for 5 minutes, until pale, thick and tripled in volume.
  2. Add the mascarpone Stir the mascarpone briefly to loosen it, then fold it into the yolks a third at a time until smooth. Do not overbeat or it may turn grainy.
  3. Layer Dip half the sponge fingers in the coffee for 1 second a side, so that they are moist but still firm in the middle, and lay them in the dish in one layer. Spread over half the cream. Repeat with a second layer of dipped biscuits and the remaining cream.
  4. Chill Cover and chill for at least 4 hours, or overnight. Sift cocoa generously over the top just before serving.

Food safety

This dessert contains raw egg yolk. Use British Lion-marked eggs, which UK food safety advice considers safe to eat raw or lightly cooked. Keep it refrigerated and eat within 2 days.

A quick dip is enough. Soaked biscuits leak coffee into the cream.

The restaurant recipe is sweet. The sugar can be cut to 120 g without harm, though that departs from the source.

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