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EveryCheese

Sweets and desserts

Tiramisu

Layers of coffee-soaked sponge fingers and mascarpone cream, dusted with cocoa and set in the cold.

Tiramisu is a chilled dessert of savoiardi biscuits dipped in espresso and layered with a cream of mascarpone, egg yolks and sugar, finished with cocoa powder. The name means pick me up. Mascarpone, a rich, soft cheese made by acid-setting cream, gives it body.

What goes in

Mascarpone: 37%37%Savoiardi: 26%26%Espresso: 16%16%Egg yolks and sugar: 16%16%Cocoa powder: 5%5parts
  • Mascarpone737%, Beaten until smooth.
  • Savoiardi526%, Sponge fingers.
  • Espresso316%, Cooled, for dipping.
  • Egg yolks and sugar316%, Beaten pale.
  • Cocoa powder15%, Sifted on top.

Rough parts by weight. The ring shows each ingredient's share of the dish.

Made step by step

Each drawing shows the operation for that step. Quantities and timings differ from house to house; this is one traditional way, in outline.

  1. Step 1: Knead Beat egg yolks with sugar until pale and thick.
  2. Step 2: Knead Beat in the mascarpone until smooth, then fold in whipped whites if using.
  3. Step 3: Layer Dip the biscuits briefly in cooled espresso.
  4. Step 4: Layer Layer biscuits and mascarpone cream in a dish, ending with cream.
  5. Step 5: Rest Chill for several hours until set.
  6. Step 6: Serve Dust with cocoa just before serving.
  7. Mascarpone: 37%37%Savoiardi: 26%26%Espresso: 16%16%Egg yolks and sugar: 16%16%Cocoa powder: 5%
    Finished Tiramisu, by share.

Treviso or Friuli

Tiramisu is a recent dessert. A restaurant in Treviso, in the Veneto, is widely credited with creating it in the late 1960s or early 1970s. Friuli Venezia Giulia disputes this and points to earlier versions in the mountain town of Tolmezzo. In 2017 the Italian agriculture ministry recognised tiramisu as a traditional food of Friuli, which has not ended the argument.

Mascarpone

Mascarpone comes from Lombardy and is made by heating cream and setting it with an acid such as citric acid. It is thick, sweet and mild, more like a very firm cream than a ripened cheese. In tiramisu it is beaten with yolks and sugar, and often folded with whipped egg whites or cream. Some versions add marsala or another liqueur.

Where it is used

After dinnerCelebration dessert

The cheeses in it

MascarponeThe cream at the heart of it.

More on EveryCheese

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Sources and further reading

About this page

Original text and drawings by the EveryCheese desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. The shares are a rough, illustrative ratio, not a recipe: every family and kitchen makes it differently. If we have something wrong, tell us.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

The weekly digest

Every Monday: seven cheeses you may not know, the cheese days of the week ahead, and one dish explained step by step.