Tiramisu

Before you start

• pasteurised eggs — the yolks are never cooked
• it chills at least 4h, and overnight is better
• a dish about 20cm square

Ingredients

Serves 6 · dimmer marks are storecupboard

• 120gsavoiardi (dried sponge fingers)
• 180gmascarpone cheese — out of the fridge twenty minutes first — cold, it splits when it is beaten
• 320mlcream — whipping or double
• 6egg yolks — pasteurised. The whites keep three days in the fridge for something else
• 60gsugar
• 250mlstrong coffee — espresso, or strong instant — made ahead and completely cold
• 2 tbspcocoa powder

Method

7 steps

1. fold · 9m

   Yolks and sugar beaten hard until they are pale, thick and fall from the whisk in a ribbon. Use pasteurised eggs: nothing in a tiramisu is ever heated. If pasteurised ones are not to hand, leave the yolks out entirely, take the cream up to 400ml and set it with the mascarpone alone — it works, and it is what to do rather than take the chance.

2. fold · 5m

   Mascarpone beaten into that a spoonful at a time. Tipped in cold and beaten hard it goes grainy and splits, and a split bowl does not come back together.

3. fold · 6m

   Cream whipped only to soft peaks — it firms up again while it is being folded — then folded through in three additions with a spatula rather than stirred in.

4. soak · 6m

   Cold coffee in a shallow bowl. Each finger turned in it for about one second a side and lifted straight out. Held under, they collapse on the way to the dish and the whole thing sits in a puddle.

5. fold · 6m

   A layer of fingers, half the cream spread over, another layer, the rest of the cream smoothed flat.

6. rest · 4 hours walk away

   Covered, in the fridge. It is not a pudding until the biscuits have softened all the way through and the cream has firmed around them: four hours does it, overnight does it properly.

7. finish · 3m

   Cocoa through a small sieve just before it goes to the table. Dusted hours early it draws moisture and turns to a dark paste on the surface.