# I made my very own tiramisu from scratch!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-made-my-very-own-tiramisu-from-scratch/136331>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [November 11, 2002, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-made-my-very-own-tiramisu-from-scratch/136331 "2002-11-11T23:33:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\
**Post date:** [November 11, 2002, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-made-my-very-own-tiramisu-from-scratch/136331/1 "2002-11-11T23:33:52Z")

</div>

And I won’t be doing it again soon. Fancy pastry-making is a pain in the butt. However, the tiramisu was intoxicatingly delicious, as it was laced with brandy and 151 rum. Here’s the cook’s rundown:

Step 1: Make ladyfingers. Choose a good spongecake recipe, spoon the batter into a pastry bag, and pipe 4" sticks onto a buttered, floured cookie sheet. Bake at 300 degrees for 20 minutes. Cool on racks and sift powdered sugar over them.

Step 2: Make mascarpone cheese filling. Whisk 3 eggs in a double boiler until they are just over 150 degrees and fluffy, like a zabaglione. Whip 1/3 cup of cream until stiff. Beat 8 ounces of mascarpone until softened, and fold the eggs and cream into it, along with 1/3 cup sugar. Add 2 tablespoons of good brandy.

Step 3: Make espresso solution. Make about 1/2 cup of espresso or very strong coffee. Sweeten it with 2 teaspoons of sugar and add 1/4 cup of 151 rum.

Step 4: Assemble. Dip a ladyfinger in espresso, and put it into a standard-sized breadloaf pan, and repeat until you have a single layer on the bottom. Slather on about 1/3 of the mascarpone mixture. Repeat until you have used up one or the other of the ladyfingers or the cheese mixture; the top layer may be composed of either. Sift some unsweetened cocoa over the top. Refrigerate it for at least an hour; this step is important, or the ladyfingers won’t get all soft and spongy with the rum/coffee mixture.

Step 5: Devour.

::drool:: This tasted way better than any I’ve ever eaten in an Italian restaurant – and we still have half of it left for dessert tonight.

N.B.: Ladyfingers are great all by themselves, served with espresso for dipping (with or without 151!).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![fizgig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f04885/32.png) [@fizgig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fizgig)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2002, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-made-my-very-own-tiramisu-from-scratch/136331/2 "2002-11-12T00:22:12Z")

</div>

That sounds wonderful! Kudos for being ambitious enough to make it, much less from scratch! There’s a cafe here that serves the most amazing tiramisu. Now of course I’ll need to stop by there. /drools