Tiramisù is the quintessential Italian dessert. Its name hints at its energizing effects, despite sounding slightly risqué in Italian. It is celebrated for its energizing ingredients and is considered a flavor explosion. Some also believe it has aphrodisiac properties, aiding in romantic endeavors. Despite Italy’s love for coffee, tiramisù is unique in traditional desserts for incorporating it. This dessert features layers of coffee-soaked savoiardi biscuits and a creamy mixture of mascarpone cheese, eggs, and sugar. Marsala wine is an optional addition. A dusting of cocoa powder completes the dish. Understanding this dessert’s allure requires a glimpse into its relatively recent history.
A bit of history of tiramisù
There are people who trace the origin of the tiramisù to the visit of the Grand Duke of Tuscany Cosimo III de ‘Medici in Siena in the 17th century. It seems that all the city’s pastry chefs have decided to pay homage to him with a cake made especially for him. It was called “duke’s soup” and it was a dessert made with mascarpone and coffee. As much as it is a romantic and poetic story, it is very difficult to think that in such a distant time savoiardi and mascarpone could be found in Tuscany. According to another version, it was born in Treviso from the evolution of the “sbatudin”, a poor and energetic dessert made starting from yolk mounted with sugar, destined above all to children, elderly and convalescents.
At the end of the Sixties, then, the actor, director and gastronomist Giuseppe Maffioli published a book La cucina trevigiana describing the Venetian custom of tasting zabaione together with whipped cream and dry biscuits called baicoli. It was Maffioli himself who wrote about the birth of tiramisù on the first issue of Vin Veneto, the magazine that he founded in the 80’s: “A dessert was recently born, just over two decades ago, in the city of Treviso, the Tiramesù, which was proposed for the first time in the Alle Beccherie restaurant, a famous haunt of the good middle class, by a certain pastry chef named Loly Linguanotto who, by chance, came from recent work experiences in Germany.
The origin of name
The dessert and its name “tiramisù”, as a very nutritious and restorative food, immediately became very popular and resumed, with absolute fidelity or with some variation, not only in the restaurants of Treviso and the province, but also throughout the great Veneto and beyond, in the whole Italy. By itself it is basically a “coffee soup”, but it was not yet “Tiramesù”, and it must be admitted that the “name” has its own prestigious importance “. Furthermore, the first codified recipe is in a 1983 cookbook. According to this version, a pastry chef who had worked in Europe invented it.
For others, the origin of tiramisùshould come fromFriuli-Venezia Giulia and specifically in Pieris,a town in the province of Gorizia. It seems that here, near the Vetturino restaurant, there was already a chef who was serving this cake in the Thirties to the Savoys on their yacht. Whatever the origin of this dessert, however, it soon became the must for the end of a meal. Tiramisù, like pizza, is a brilliant dessert in its simplicity, which is why it has become famous all over the world.
The recipe of tiramisù
Ingredients
- 300 g savoiardi biscuits
- 6 Eggs medium size (about 350 g), as fresh as you can
- 500 g mascarpone cheese
- 230 g sugar
- 4 full cups of coffee
- Bitter cocoa powder for the top
Preparing time 30 min
Serves 4
How to cook a perfect tiramisù
- First of all, to prepare the tiramisù start from the fresh eggs (fresh organic). Separate accurately the egg whites from the yolks. With the electric whips mix properly firstly the yolk adding half of the total amount of sugar you having
- As soon as ready will be lighter and fluffy, then, always using the electric whips, add the mascarpone cheese gradually
- Once all the mascarpone cheese is properly mix with the fluffy yolk you will have a dense and compact cream. Now it’s time to save it: you will use later
- Clean properly your electric whips because you have to mix the egg white with the other half of the sugar. The result will be firm, till moving up and down the bowl the cream will not move!
- Now, gradually spoon by spoon, add the white egg cream with the yolk cream made earlier, mix properly softly from top to bottom
- Once ready, get a generous spoon of cream for the base of your tiramisù, baking dish size around 30×20 cm would be perfect
Coffee and savoiardi
- Soak for few seconds the savoiardi biscuits both sides into the coffee already, cold and sweet as you prefer (we add only one coffee-spoon for cup)
- Now distribute the soaked savoiardi on the top of the cream, all in the same direction. Level it so you are making the first layer of your tiramisù
- Similarly, add again the cream at the top, and then the savoiardi, as you have done before. Keep going at the same way, step by step, making all the layers that you want
- Pay attention to the last cream layer, because he should be the first one of yourtiramisù, its presentation. Last will be the bitter cocoa powder to put on the top as you wish
- Finally, keep the tiramisù at least couple of hours into the fridge
Enjoy your fresh homemade Tiramisù!
(credits: Freepik)
