The Real Italian Tiramisù - Doesn't Get Any Better

I'm sharing a recipe for my favorite dessert - always home-made and with the perfect blend of cream and strong coffee to complement the sweetness and keep the tiredness after the meal away. The name says it all: Tiramisù means lift me up in Italian.

It all starts with a good amount of coffee, preferably made with moka. If you have an espresso machine, that will do as well, otherwise you can brew it in a pot but make sure to make it really strong and don't add any sugar. The cookies and cream will take care of the sweetness.

You'll need the coffee to soak up the savoiardi (or ladyfinger) biscuits.

Other ingredients are egg yolks, sugar and mascarpone cheese. If the yolks are big you can add one less than the recipe says. This way the cream will stay firm.

Add the sugar to the yolks and whip them well. Add mascarpone after.

The real tiramisù always has a drop of something strong - originally it's made with marsala, a type of Italian wine with about 15–20% vol. alcohol. It was a real struggle trying to find this one in Dubai so I stuck to the good old rum. It adds a nice flavor.

Once the cream is ready and the coffee is cold, you start soaking up the biscuits and stacking the tiramisu up in layers. You can do it in a larger dish or use glasses to make individual portions. Depends how keen you are on the dish washing. The process is really simple and there are only two things that really matter at this stage:

1. Make sure the coffee has really cooled down before you begin - you don't want the cream to get all liquid.
2. Don't soak the biscuits for too long or else they will fall apart before you get them inside the glass and the end product will lose the form.

After finishing, place it in a fridge to cool down.

The best tiramisù rests for a day before it's ready to be served - this way the biscuits soak up evenly to the centre and the cream hardens up.

Sprinkle it with unsweetened cocoa powder for the final touch and dig in.

Here's the list of all ingredients:

Mascarpone cheese 500 gr
Savoiardi (ladyfinger) biscuits 300 gr
Coffee (from the moka machine or espresso) 250 ml
Sugar 150 gr
Marsala, rum or similar 50 ml
3 egg yolks
Unsweetened cocoa powder

The photos were taken Nikon D5300 and NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8G lens. I finally upped the game. Stay tuned for more delicious recipes.

What's your favorite dessert? Let me know in the comments.