Tiramisu

Tira Mi Su means "pick me up" in Italian. It is certainly the most famous Italian dessert.

Ingredients

5 eggs, separated

180g caster sugar

300g mascarpone

250ml cold strong coffee

3 tbsp Sweet Marsala

36 small sponge fingers (also called lady fingers)

80 g dark chocolate, finely grated

 

Instructions

Beat the egg yolks with the sugar until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is light and fluffy and leaves a ribbon trail when dropped from the whisk. Add the mascarpone and until beat the mixture is smooth.

Whisk the egg whites in a clean dry bowl until soft peaks form. Fold into the mascarpone mixture.

Pour the coffee into a shallow dish and add the Marsala. Dip enough biscuits to cover the base of a 25cm square dish into the coffee. The biscuits should be fairly well soaked but not so much that they break up. Arrange the biscuits in one tightly packed layer in the base of the dish.

Spread half the mascarpone mixture over the layer of biscuits. Add another layer of soaked biscuits and then another layer of mascarpone, smoothing the top layer neatly.

Dust with the grated chocolate to serve.

 

The flavours will be better developped if youc an make the tiramisu a few hours in advance or even the night before. If you have time to do this, don’t dust with the chocolate, but cover with clingfilm and chill. Dust with chocolate at the last minute or it will melt.