Chocolate tiramisu aka chocomisu combines two of my ultimate guilty pleasures in life; coffee and chocolate! If you’re like me, where you must start your day with a cup of coffee and end it with a bar of dark chocolate, then you must ABSOLUTELY try this chocomisu! I promise you, that after your first mouthful, you’ll be dreaming about it!
Well let’s dive right into the recipe;
Tips for the Perfect Chocolate Tiramisu
- Use the freshest ingredients you can get. If your eggs, cream or cheese are close to expiry – that can make or break your tiramisu
- You want all your ingredients to be at room temperature. This will ensure that they will incorporate well together
- Ensure your sabayon has cooled down completely before incorporating the mascarpone and whipped cream or it might cause your mixture to split
- Ideally, you want to let your tiramisu rest over night, but it you are in a rush a minimum of 4 hours will do.
How to make a Sabayon?
All classic tiramisu start with a Sabayon, which is basically an egg yolk and sugar mixture cooked over a double boiler (bain-marie). To nail your sabayon, ensure that:
- Your bowl should rest on the rim of your pot and the bottom of your bowl should NOT touch the boiling water. Simply use a bigger bowl than the pot and you should be fine.
- Continuously keep whisking the sabayon. This is crucial as you can end up with overcooked and scrambled eggs instead of a smooth and silky mixture. I find it more convenient to use an electric whisk.
- Do not under whisk your mixture. You want a thick, viscous and lemony colour sabayon.
How to whip up the perfect peaks for your chocolate tiramisu?
People often underestimate a good whipped cream. It is very easy to under whip or over whip heavy cream and end up with split cream or peaks that do not hold up.
The secret to the perfect stiff peaks is; to start whipping your heavy cream on low speed and to gradually increase the speed to high over a period of 8-10mins. This way, you will be incorporating air into the mixture and thus result into fluffy stiff peaks.
Chocolate Tiramisu aka Chocomisu
Course: From The Kitchen, Something SweetDifficulty: Medium5
servings30
minutesIngredients
1 ultimate chocolate recipe* or 20-25 Italian ladyfingers biscuits
3 large egg yolks
80g sugar
240g (1 cup plus 1 tbsp) mascarpone cheese
218ml (¾ cup plus 2 tbsp) heavy cream
125ml (½ cup) cold expresso or strong coffee
62.5ml coffee liqueur (optional)
70g (2½ oz) dark chocolate, thinly chopped or shaved
½ tbsp unsweetened cocoa, for dusting
Directions
- For the Chocolate cake
- Bake our ultimate chocolate cake recipe in a 24 x 15 cm mould
- Once cooled, slice the chocolate cake so that it is about 1cm thick
- For the Mascarpone mixture
- Set a large heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water, making sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water
- In that heatproof bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar to create a sabayon. Whisk continuously until the mixture becomes thick, viscous and light in colour.
- Remove from the heat and whisk for another 2 minutes or so until the mixture is homogenous and the sugar has dissolved. Then set aside to cool down completely
- Once cooled, incorporate the mascarpone until well combined
- In a separate bowl, whip your heavy cream into stiff peaks
- Using a spatula, gently fold in the whipped cream into the mascarpone mixture. The mixture should be smooth, light and creamy. Set the mixture aside
- Assembly
- Mix the coffee and liqueur into a flat dish
- If using ladyfingers biscuit; dip the biscuits into the coffee mixture (do not over soak or the biscuit will fall apart) and arrange them into a 24 x 15cm serving dish
- If using the chocolate cake; cut and arrange the cake to fit into a 24 x 15cm serving dish then using a tablespoon, spread the coffee mixture evenly onto the cake
- Spoon half of the mascarpone mixture evenly over the layer of chocolate cake
- Repeat process with cake or ladyfingers biscuits
- Finish off with a layer of the remaining mascarpone mixture
- Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or best overnight
- Dust tiramisu with cocoa powder and shaved chocolate before serving
Notes
- * Bake the cake into a 24 X 15 cm (9 X 6 inches) mould
Recipe adapted from Ask Chef Dennis
