A tiramisù recipe from scratch!

Annamaria is sprinkling the finishing touches on her Tiramisù during our small
birthday party for Eliana in the TOEFL class. She shares her recipe below!

by Annamaria Malvolti

I would like to share with you a little history of tiramisù. In Italy, we have a lot of amazing desserts, but tiramisù is the one that is famous around the world as the most delicious and fancy Italian dessert. Its origin has been claimed by different Italian regions. However, it was "born" in 1970 in Treviso, in the north of Italy, from an idea of putting together simple and nutritious ingredients. Do you know what tiramisù means? It literally means "lift me up". Figuratively, it means "make me happy" or cheer me up.

These are the ingredients that we need to serve 8 people:

In EUROPEAN UNITS:
400 grams of ladyfingers
6 eggs
1 cup of espresso or coffee
120 grams of sugar
500 grams of authentic Italian mascarpone cheese
unsweetened cocoa powder

Two trays of tiramisù for Eliana's birthday!

IN AMERICAN UNITS:
400 grams of ladyfingers
6 eggs
1 cup of espresso of coffee
10 tbsp of sugar
2 1/3 cups of authentic Italian mascarpone
unsweetened cocoa powder

UTENSILS:
2 large glass bowls
1 whisk
1 soft spatula
1 deep pan casserole dish or aluminum tray for less formal occasions
colander

Now, let's get cracking and make it from scratch!

PREPARATION:

First of all, crack and separate 6 eggs, and put the yolks in one large glass bowl. Add half the sugar to the yolks and beat with a whisk until the sugar is completely dissolved. Now it is time to add the mascarpone cheese and stir it in till we have a creamy mixture of mascarpone and sugar.

In the other bowl, beat the egg whites vigorously with the rest of the sugar until it forms stiff peaks or a thick, white consistency. The result should be a white foamy mass. Now, delicately put the white foam into the bowl with the mascarpone mixture and gently mix everything together. (Remember, beating the egg whites with the sugar briskly is essential to end up with a dense consistency.)

Now, we can put together our tiramisù. We begin by briefly soaking the lady fingers in espresso and laying them in the serving dish to form a layer; you can soak the biscuits as long or as briefly as you want depending on how you like your tiramisù.

Laying the second layer of lady fingers.

Now cover the first layer generously with the creamy mixture and sprinkle cocoa powder on top. Continue with a second layer but be sure to lay the lady fingers perpendicular to the first layer. Spread the creamy mixture and add some cocoa powder as with the first layer. Add a third if you so desire and complete it by covering the last layer with abundant cocoa powder.

Now let it rest in the refrigerator for two or three hours; this way the layers will settle together nicely and cutting and serving the portions will be much easier.

Now it's time to enjoy it!!!

The finishing touch! A generous layer of cocoa powder is
sprinkled on top as we wait, mouths watering, eager to dig in!  

Annamaria, who hails from the north of Italy, is in our academic classes at NYLC. She's taken the TOEFL Prep class and Raise The Issues to continue working on her English. She's a trained architect who is taking a long sabbatical here in New York. Thanks for sharing your tiramisù recipe, Annamaria! :-)