Gingerbread Tiramisu
Tiramisu has got to be one of my all-time favorite desserts. Creamy, sweet, decadent, rich—is there a more perfect dessert than this?
Tiramisu is actually a very easy dessert to make. There are only two things that you need to pay attention to in order to make good tiramisu:
Using good quality ingredients. Use the thickest, creamiest mascarpone you can find, espresso made from fresh coffee beans, and high-quality cocoa powder.
Whipping the mascarpone and egg well, so you have light, airy cream that marries well with the spongy coffee-soaked savioardi (ladyfinger biscuits).
When I went to Italy for the first time and tried tiramisù (as we are talking about my time in Italy, let’s use the right Italian spelling here) at a local trattoria, I understood why the Italians are furious when non-Italians get “too creative” when cooking Italian food. I realized that I had never eaten the real tiramisù until my encounter with the real deal in Italy.
The recipe for today might trigger the Italians to do the “finger purse” gesture and scream, “Non ci provare!”—Don’t you dare! However, I can guarantee you that my gingerbread tiramisu recipe is a keep for your Christmas menu.
Instead of using ladyfinger biscuits, I used speculaas cookies. In the US and the UK, it is commonly known as biscoff, a shortened version of “biscuit with coffee”. Perhaps it’s easier to pronounce it than speculaas. You can definitely make the gingerbread mix in advance, and if there is leftover, you can use it for latte or eggnog topping.
I hope you enjoy this gingerbread tiramisu, and I’ll see you in the next newsletter. Buon appetito!
Serves 8-10
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes
Chilling time: at least 6 hours
Level of difficulty: 1/3
Keep for 2 days, refrigerated
Ingredients:
5 eggs
100ml/ ½ cup heavy cream
500g/ 2 1/3 cups mascarpone
125g/ ½ cup sugar
1½ tsp vanilla extract
2 tbs spiced rum (or normal rum)
400g/ 14 ounces speculaas cookies
360ml/ 1½ cups espresso, strongly brewed
Gingerbread spice mix
2 tbs ground ginger
2 tbs ground cinnamon
2 tbs ground allspice
1 tbs ground nutmeg
1 tbs ground cloves
¼ tsp ground black pepper
Steps:
Mix all the ingredients of the gingerbread spice mix. Store it in an airtight container. This can last for 1 month (as it’s made up of dry ingredients, it can definitely last longer, but the aroma will gradually diminish).
Separate egg yolks from the white. Put the yolks in a bowl of a stand mixer equipped with a whisk attachment together with the heavy cream, mascarpone, sugar, vanilla extract, and rum.
Whisk at a medium speed until you have soft peaks. Do not over-whisk, as you want a soft and billowy texture for the cream.
In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites for about 8-9 minutes until you have stiff peaks. Again, do not overwhisk them or the foam will actually start to collapse.
With a rubber spatula, fold in a third of the cream-mascarpone mixture into the egg whites until it is almost combined. Continue with another third, and fold gently again until it is almost combined. Then, finally, add the last bit of the cream-mascarpone mixture and fold until everything is well combined.
Now, let’s start assembling the tiramisu. Coat the base of your dish in a thin layer of the cream-mascarpone mixture. Soak a speculaas cookie in the espresso briefly and arrange it on top of the cream. Repeat until you have a layer of cookies covering the cream base. Spread the cream-mascarpone mixture on top of the cookies and repeat the process until you end up with a cream layer on top.
Cover the dish with a cling wrap and leave it to chill in the refrigerator overnight, or at least 6 hours. This allows the flavors to meld and the tiramisu to set properly.
To serve, dust the tiramisu with a thick layer of gingerbread spice mix. I recommend dusting it just before serving so the spice powder won’t melt in the mascarpone cream.