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Fans of Italian desserts - this tiramisu recipe is a must. This boozy and indulgent pudding, created by the Chiappa sisters, will always impress your guests.

From the book

Michaela, Emanuela and Romina Chiappa

Introduction

There are hundreds of recipes for tiramisù and every Italian will have an opinion on what is the ‘right way’ to make this classic dessert. We love our version: super quick to prepare, it’s almost foolproof and can be made the night before a party and chilled in the fridge. A delicious, creamy, coffee treat! It looks really special if you make it in a glass dish, so you can see the layers.

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Ingredients

3 medium eggs, preferably freerange or organic, separated
3 tbsp caster sugar
250g mascarpone cheese
2-3 tbsp cocoa powder
250ml Marsala wine
250ml good-quality strong black coffee
1 x 200g packet of sponge finger biscuits

Essential kit

You will need a serving dish approximately 22cm in diameter and 10cm deep.

Method

Preparation time: 25 minutes
Chilling time: 1 hour, or preferably overnight

Beat the egg yolks with the sugar in a bowl or use a free-standing electric mixer until light and fluffy. In a large bowl, beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Add the mascarpone to the egg-yolk mixture and mix to combine, and then fold in the egg whites. Don’t over-mix, you want to keep this nice and fluffy.

Spread a thin, even layer of the mixture over the bottom of a serving dish approximately 22cm in diameter and 10cm deep. Using a fine sieve, sprinkle a little cocoa powder over the top.

Put the Marsala into a shallow dish, and do the same with the coffee in another dish. One by one, quickly dip each side of the biscuits first in the Marsala and then in the coffee. Don’t let them absorb too much liquid, as they can get rather soggy. Place a neat layer of the soaked biscuits on top of the cocoa powder.

Repeat this process, layering the creamy mixture, cocoa powder and soaked sponge biscuits, finishing with a layer of the creamy mixture. Each creamy layer should just cover the biscuits; don’t spread it too thickly. You ideally want 4 or 5 layers. Lightly dust with more cocoa powder and then chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour, and preferably overnight.

TIPS

We recommend that you use strong coffee for this recipe. We prepare ours in an Italian moka pot – when you use it the smell of coffee brewing is delicious.

Mum likes to make individual portions in jam jars so they can be stored in the fridge easily. You’ll need to crumble the biscuit layers so that they fit inside.

Please note this contains raw egg.

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From the book: Simply Italian: Cooking at Home with the Chiappa Sisters

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