Tiramisù

Ingredients – serves 6–8

• 5 eggs
• Up to 16 teaspoons sugar
• Coffee, about 3 cups (ideally freshly brewed, not instant)
• 2 packs ladyfingers (sponge biscuits) — buy 3 to be safe
• 500 g mascarpone
• Cocoa powder

Preparation

Coffee

• Start by making the coffee. Sweeten it to your taste while it’s still hot, then set aside to cool.

Cream

• Separate the eggs, placing yolks and whites in two clean bowls.
• Using an electric whisk, beat the egg yolks with about 10 teaspoons of sugar until pale and thick.
• Add the mascarpone in several additions, incorporating it fully each time. You can do this with the whisk or with a spoon if you fancy some arm work. With a whisk, allow around 5–10 minutes. The mixture should look like a smooth, yellow yoghurt.

Egg whites

• Whisk the egg whites with an electric whisk until stiff peaks form. They’re ready when you can tilt the bowl and nothing moves.
• Under-whipped whites will be loose and watery; over-whipped ones will collapse on themselves after a while. Keep checking by gently tilting the bowl until they hold firm.

Combining

• Gently fold the egg whites into the mascarpone cream.
• Scoop some whites into the cream bowl and, using a spatula or wooden spoon, fold with slow, circular movements, wrapping the cream around the whites rather than stirring aggressively.
• The final consistency should be like firm yoghurt: spreadable, but not runny. Too loose and it won’t hold; too stiff and it becomes hard to work with.

Assembly

• Spread a first layer of cream on the bottom of your dish.
• Dip each ladyfinger briefly into the coffee until well soaked but still intact, a bit like dunking a biscuit into tea.
• Arrange them in a tight, even layer, side by side, without crushing them and without leaving gaps.
• Continue layering cream and soaked ladyfingers until you run out of space or ingredients.
• Finish with a generous dusting of cocoa powder (use a kitchen strainer)

Resting

• Refrigerate for at least a few hours. Ideally, make it the day before serving so it can set properly and the coffee flavour can diffuse and tie everything together.

A note on alcohol

• You’ll notice there’s no alcohol in this recipe. Traditionally, Marsala or another dessert wine is added to the cream. I don’t miss it, but feel free to include it if you’re a purist.