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This mouthwatering traditional tiramisu with sweet Marsala wine yields an iconic Italian dessert that gets its subtle flavor profile from both strong coffee and sweet liquor. It’s a light, refreshing dessert that takes just 8 ingredients and 15 minutes of prep time. You’ll want to make this for any special occasion or holiday, no matter what time of year it is!
If you love showstopping but easy desserts, don’t miss these recipes for Irish Guinness beer cake and apple cheese Danish.
Quick Look: Traditional Tiramisu Recipe
- ⏲️ Prep Time: 15 minutes
- ⏲️ Cook Time: 20 minutes
- ⏲️ Total Time: 9 hours 35 minutes (including 9 hours of chilling time)
- 👨👩👧👦 Servings: 9 servings
- 🌽 Cuisine & Heritage: Italian
- 🍽️Calories: 356 calories per serving (more nutritional info in recipe card)
- 🥦 Dietary Info: Vegetarian; can be made Gluten Free
- 🟢 Difficulty: Easy
- 🔥 Cooking Method: Stovetop (for making meringue mixture)
- 🌶️ Flavor Profile: delightfully creamy, light, and refreshing with a coffee flavor.
- 🔑Top Tip: Cut pieces with a chef’s knife rather than a serrated one, and wipe the blade with a damp towel between slices.
- 🍷 Drink Pairings: Consider hot espresso with a pony of amaretto or Sambuca with just some fired coffee beans afloat. For wine, try a sweet wine such as Chateau Climens Barsac or Chateau Coutet Sauternes-Barsac.
- ❄️ Storage: Use plastic film to cover any leftover portions of tiramisu and store under refrigeration up to two days.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Made with 8 Simple Ingredients: This easy recipe takes just a handful of easy-to-find ingredients that combine to make an astoundingly delicious treat.
- Needs Just 15 Minutes of Prep Time: You don’t need a lot of time to prep this dessert! It comes together quickly and can be enjoyed later.
- Perfect Make-Ahead Dessert: Tiramisu needs at least 9 hours of chill time, so it’s the perfect thing to make even 1 day in advance.
“Perhaps the GREATEST dessert creation in the history of the world!!! Thanks for posting such a wonderfully authentic recipe for Tiramisu!! Just seeing this recipe “picked me up” this morning!!!”
Table of Contents
Ingredients
Since there are so few components to this dessert, the freshness and quality of its ingredients are paramount to a tiramisu’s success. Let me tell you about the key ingredients.
- Espresso or Strong Coffee: An authentic recipe will specify strong coffee. Unless you have an espresso machine (or a moka pot), I recommend hitting the drive-thru at Starbucks. Espresso adds an intensely aromatic flavor that cannot be substituted. You’ll need 1½ cups, so you may need to order several, or go for the Venti Americano. Allow the coffee to cool to room temperature before using.
- Sweet Marsala Wine: Sweet Marsala wine is the traditional choice, but replacing it with a quality Cognac, rum, or even Kahlua won’t automatically deem this Italian tiramisu recipe a guise. You will taste the liquor you select, so make it a good quality choice.
- Mascarpone Cheese: If you’re wondering if you can substitute mascarpone cheese with cream cheese, the answer is ‘no.’ If you prefer to use cream cheese, finding an alternate recipe on the internet would not be difficult.
- Ladyfingers: Most store-bought varieties vary from soft and spongy to hard and crunchy, and any ladyfinger you select will work. If you purchase the soft and spongy kind, forgo the coffee dip and opt instead for brushing the coffee onto a layer of cookies with a pastry brush. This keeps them from becoming soggy.
- Unsweetened Cocoa Powder: You’ll need a touch of cocoa to top the tiramisu, which complements the coffee, cream, and ladyfingers beautifully.
See recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
Variations
- Double Batch Tips: I recommend assembling it in a 9×13-inch straight-edged cake pan IF you have one. (I use this one from my Entenmann’s copycat coffee crumb cake.) With upright sides, you won’t have anything wiggling around. If you do not have a pan which resembles this, use two 9×9-inch pans, two springform tins, or one very large (or two medium-sized) trifle bowls.
- Raspberry-Almond Variation: Flavor the tiramisu with a teaspoon of raspberry or amaretto liqueur to the mascarpone mixture and the coffee mixture. Serve it with fresh raspberries, chocolate curls, sliced almonds, or fresh roasted apricots. (If you’re a raspberry fan, try this unique green tomato and raspberry pie!)
How to Make Traditional Tiramisu
Scroll down for the full printable recipe or stick around for the step-by-step breakdown with photos to walk you through every delicious detail.
1
Combine Coffee & Marsala
Pour the coffee into a pie plate. Add 2 to 3 tablespoons of the sweet Marsala to the coffee. I go 3 tablespoons, but if you’re not sure you’ll be keen on the flavor of the Marsala, go 2 tablespoons. Set aside.
2
Whip Up the Mascarpone Mixture
In a metal mixing bowl, combine the raw eggs, sugar, and more sweet Marsala. Set the bowl atop (but not in) a pot of simmering water, much like you’d set up a double boiler. Use an electric hand mixer to beat the mixture until it reaches 160°F and has doubled in volume. Remove from the heat.
This is the basis for our mascarpone cream. The process may take as many as 10 minutes, so focus on the temperature and the volume, as there’s no skipping ahead here.
3
Finish Whipping the Cream Mixture
Turn your attention to whipping heavy cream into stiff peaks. Then, use a wire whisk to whisk the mascarpone cheese into the egg mixture gently. As it’s incorporated, the mascarpone will melt. Now, fold in that peeky whipped cream.
4
The Final Assembly
Set up a kind of assembly line for yourself: ladyfingers, coffee, then baking dish. If you’re using hard and crunchy ladyfingers (ones similar in hardness to biscotti), dunk each cookie in the coffee and arrange snuggly side by side in the bottom of the baking dish. If however, using soft and spongy ladyfingers, arrange them side by side in the bottom of the baking dish and use a pastry brush to brush the coffee mixture over each cookie.
Follow with an even layer of half the mascarpone mixture over the ladyfingers, then repeat beginning with the ladyfingers again, then remaining mascarpone mixture. The whole dish then gets a dusting of a tablespoon cocoa powder…or three. Use plastic wrap to cover the baking dish tightly without allowing the wrap to actually touch or rest on the tiramisu itself. Now the hard part of this recipe – THE WAIT!
5
Chill & Serve
Chill in the fridge for at least 9 hours (or overnight) before serving. This is a crucial step, as it allows the ingredients to get really cold and the flavors to meld.
Cut in pieces with a sharp chef’s knife and enjoy within 1-2 days. Serve with a sidecar cocktail for a refreshing end to your dinner.
Traditional Tiramisu FAQs
Some will read this and giggle…doesn’t EVERYBODY know what Tiramisu is? I have learned the correct answer to this question is ‘no.’ So, to first define, an authentic Italian Tiramisu is an iconic dessert oftentimes referred to as a cake, though better described as a creamy coffee and liquor-spiked dessert that looks like something in between a trifle and a Napoleon. Because there are so few components to this dessert, the freshness and quality of its ingredients are paramount to a Tiramisu’s success.
This recipe in particular may be ready in as few as 9 hours. No sooner. Cutting into it sooner will result in the walls of your layered masterpiece collapsing in on themselves.
Personally, I make this 24 hours in advance of serving it. The longer it has to set up and the longer those silky liquor-spiked layers have to marry, the better.
Assembling a full day ahead also ensures that you will get nicely defined slices of Tiramisu. Use a chef’s knife to make cuts and use a damp cloth to wipe the blade after every pass. I do NOT recommend a serrated knife.
The whole idea behind this fabulous dessert is time–time to make, time to set up, time for the flavors to marry. As I referenced above, I prepare 24 hours in advance of serving. Any fewer than 9 hours chilling/setting time will result in collapsing layers. Tiramisu is among the most popular make ahead, no-bake dessert recipes.
Serving Suggestions
I make tiramisu for so many occasions: Christmas, Valentine’s Day, a warm summer night…the occasion makes no difference to me because this dessert is so fantastic.
If you’re serving tiramisu during the holidays, consider serving this along with my Christmas Beef Tenderloin Roast and Whipped Horseradish Creme. If you’re enjoying this on a warm summer night instead, maybe try it alongside an easy Chicken Francaise or eggplant napoleons with whipped ricotta.
Expert Tips
- This recipe must be made ahead by between 9 and 24 hours prior to serving.
- Cut pieces with a chef’s knife rather than a serrated one, and wipe the blade with a damp towel between slices.
- Use plastic film to cover any leftover portions of tiramisu and store under refrigeration up to two days.
Other Easy & Elegant Desserts You’ll Love
Traditional Tiramisu
Equipment
- 9×9-inch baking dish or trifle bowl or springform 9-inch pan
- double boiler or large metal mixing bowl and medium sized pot that the bowl can rest atop but not in
- fine mesh sieve for dusting
Ingredients
- 1½ cups Americano or espresso coffee, at room temperature
- 3 large eggs
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup sweet Marsala, divided
- ½ cup heavy whipping cream
- 8 ounces mascarpone cheese
- 24-30 ladyfingers
- unsweetened cocoa powder
- fresh fruit to garnish, optional
- semisweet chocolate bar for chocolate curls or shavings, optional
Instructions
Making the Mascarpone & Cream Mixture
- Pour coffee into a pie dish or wide shallow bowl with 2 tablespoons of the Marsala. Combine eggs, sugar, and remaining ⅓ cup Marsala in a large double boiler only half full of simmering water or a metal bowl set on top of (but not in) a pot of simmering water. Use an electric hand mixer to beat the eggs until mixture doubles in volume and reaches 160°F on a thermometer. This process may take up to 10 minutes and several tests using an instant read thermometer.
- Remove mixture from heat and allow to cool slightly. Clean and dry beaters. In another bowl, use the electric mixer to whip heavy cream to form peaks. Set aside.
- Gently whisk the mascarpone cheese into egg mixture. I find it helps to break up the mascarpone into large spoonfuls versus simply emptying the whole container into the egg mixture. The mascarpone will slowly melt as it's whisked in. Fold in the freshly whipped cream.
Assembling the Tiramisu
- If you're using hard and crunchy ladyfingers (similar in hardness to biscotti), dunk each cookie in the coffee and arrange snuggly side by side in the bottom of the baking dish. If, however, using soft and spongy ladyfingers similar to angel food cake, arrange side by side in the bottom of the baking dish and use a pastry brush to brush the coffee mixture over each cookie.
- Evenly spread half of mascarpone cream over the moistened ladyfingers. Dip or brush remaining half of ladyfingers in coffee and repeat layering with cookies and mascarpone cream.
- Use a fine mesh sieve to sift a layer of cocoa over the entire top so it infuses the mascarpone cream. Wrap dish with plastic film, making sure the plastic does not touch or rest upon the tiramisu. Refrigerate at least 9 hours and up to 1 day.
- To serve, sift another layer of cocoa over top and cut into squares. Arrange on plates with fruit, chocolate curls, or chocolate shavings if desired.
Notes
- I recommend just picking up the coffee at a local coffee shop or Starbucks to ensure you’ve got a good and strong coffee.
- This recipe must be made ahead by between 9 and 24 hours prior to serving.
- Cut pieces with a chef’s knife rather than a serrated one, and wipe the blade with a damp towel between slices.
- Use plastic film to cover any leftover portions of tiramisu and store under refrigeration up to two days.
- Assemble in a trifle dish for an exquisite presentation. Alternatively, this may be assembled in a springform pan or a pretty 9×9-inch baking dish.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Can I double this recipe
David, yes! This recipe is EASILY doubled but with a caveat – because of the nature of the ingredients, I recommend assembling in a 13 x 9 straight-edged cake pan IF you have one. I use this one from my Entenmann’s copycat recipe.
Why? Stability. Also, because the sides of this style pan are nearly at a 90° angle, meaning the distribution of wet to dry means nothing is going to shimmy or move around. Now, if you do not have a pan which resembles this, I recommend doubling the recipe and assembling two 9 x 9’s, two spring forms, or one VERY LARGE or two medium-sized trifle bowls.
I am planning to re-shoot this recipe this coming month of September to share with out-of-state company coming in and will use two trifle bowls to showcase how gorgeous these layers are! One bowl on either end of the table with a large autumn fruit selection in the middle to accompany (sliced figs, red currants, champagne {Zante/Corinth} grapes, blackberries, persimmons, and quince apples) because I want to be a showoff 😉
Please let me know how your recipe is enjoyed! I welcome photos to jenny@notentirelyaverage.com! Jenny
Perhaps the GREATEST dessert creation in the history of the world!!! Thanks for posting such a wonderfully authentic recipe for Tiramisu!! Just seeing this recipe “picked me up” this morning!!! Making it very soon!!!
Kenya, I couldn’t agree more! It intimidated me for years, but this method puts all that to bed! I hope you will make this Tiramisu and I hope you will come back and let me know your thoughts! X – Jenny