Whenever I see tiramisu on the menu at a restaurant, I order it. No questions asked. It’s one of those desserts that’s just amazing to cap off a great dinner - especially if you’re sharing.
Just a few bites of tiramisu takes the edge off a meal perfectly. It leaves you tastefully buzzed. You walk back to your car after the meal feeling full in the best way. Nourished. You feel like you’ve been given a little treat yet there’s zero regret. You don’t feel like a glutton. You feel alive.
However…
The caveat is that the tiramisu has to be made right. No slathering cream on top. No shortcuts. Just authentic tiramisu the way it was meant to be. This is the anatomy of real tiramisu.
The Crown: Cacao
Anyone who slathers a dollop of heavy cream on top of their tiramisu deserves the 95 years of bad luck from those junk emails in 2014. The only acceptable crown for tiramisu is a thin layer of cacao powder.
Love
It’s the secret ingredient nobody talks about. Tiramisu made with love just hits different. There’s a reason grandma’s tiramisu hits the best. Don’t you dare forget.
The Structure: Savoiardi
In their past lives, each piece of savoiardi was a corinthian column of the Great Roman Empire. Without Savoiardi, there is no tiramisu. It all falls apart. It should not taste soggy. Nor should it taste crispy. It should taste like the softest sponge in the whole world.
Oh, Beautiful Mascarpone
The quality of mascarpone makes or breaks your tiramisu. Every layer must be carefully constructed with beautiful mascarpone that melts in your mouth. Most underrated cheese.
Caffeine
Tiramisu is not tiramisu without caffeine. Each bite must leave you tastefully buzzed.
Egg Yolks
Not only are they extremely nutritious, but folding in your mascarpone with egg yolks is essential to creating that custard-like architecture.
Sugar
Ties it all together. You deserve a little bit of sugar (as a summer treat).
Tiramisu is definitely an S-tier dessert. Top 3. Some would say Top 1.
Tiramisu literally translates to "pick me up". It's the perfect dessert. Takes the edge off your meal. Indulges that sweet tooth. Leaves you tastefully buzzed. Cacao. Egg yolk. Mascarpone. Sugar. Savoiardi. Every spoonful feels like a painting in your mouth. S tier dessert.
What’s your favorite tiramisu recipe? Friends don’t gatekeep 🥂
Food is love
We honor God’s creations
❋ HISTORY OF TIRAMISÙ: TRACING THE ORIGINS OF ITALY’S FAMED DESSERT
Slowly rotating the plate to inspect the layers, I quell my impetuous niece who’s ready, spoon raised, like a cat about to pounce on its prey. I explain that this is the original, legendary tiramisù, which warrants our attention before being devoured.
We are at Le Beccherie in Treviso, an elegant city in Veneto, 50 kilometres, or about 30 minutes by train, from Venice. Perched on stools at a high table near the pass, the only available seats in the busy restaurant, I grab my iPhone and snap away. After several protests and “hurry ups”, we each take a spoonful before harmonising our “mm-mmms” a cappella. Their classic tiramisù is luscious and light, silky yet textured, with a good coffee hit, and a dusting of bitter cacao that’s balanced with the sweet mascarpone cream. Treviso’s traditional tiramisù is made with six specific ingredients: bitter cocoa, coffee, mascarpone, savoiardi or ladyfinger biscuits, egg yolks (no whites) and granulated sugar.
Le Beccherie is widely accepted as the inventor of tiramisù because, in 1972, the restaurant claims it was the first to list it on a menu. However, the origin of the well-loved dessert is somewhat trifled. One legend has it that it was served at a brothel in Treviso after “the act”, to give an energy boost to customers before returning home to their wives. That brothel was called Tre Scalini, which closed in 1958, and it’s said that the salacious nature of tiramisù was a deterrent for any public association. Another is that in Veneto, a version of tiramisù was fed to pregnant women, nursing mothers and sick children to help build up their strength. In the mid-1950s and 1960s, this is what led Le Beccherie to develop the classic tiramisù we know today, and it’s the reason it never contains liqueur.
❋ NO-KNEAD EVERYTHING BAGEL FOCACCIA
If you’ve been to New York, it’s not unlikely that you’ve eaten in one of the many bagel joints dotted over the city. You’ll find plain, poppy seed, or onion bagels – and a rather curious, delicious number called an everything bagel. This topping is iconic in NYC, and consists of a combination of poppy and sesame seeds, garlic powder and sea salt. In this case, caraway and fennel seeds have been added into the mix. It’s a versatile seasoning that’s easy to throw together, and particularly moreish atop this squishy, easy-to-make, no-knead focaccia (where most of the work is done in the overnight rising process). Pile pastrami or smoked salmon into two halves of the focaccia for a speedy lunch.
These Mini Orange Flan Cakes are my new favorite dessert. The combination of the creme caramel and the orange fluffy chiffon cake makes this dessert really special. There are three important steps to making this zesty, sweet, custardy cake – Caramel, Creamy Custard and Fluffy Chiffon Cake.
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A cozy kitchen tiramisu is beautiful.
Alison Roman’s classic Tiramisu on NYT cooking is my favorite so far. I always make homemade lady fingers to go with. Last Thanksgiving I mixed a little pumpkin into the cream and it was divine!