Easy Tiramisu

Remember that book I borrowed from the library with 60 coffee recipes?



So, yesterday I decided to prepare something form there and were leafing through, sighing and squeaking occasionally at the splendour of this all.


Mocha macaroon were voted off because you have to keep them overnight before serving (I think it is some sort of sophisticated torture – you have to spent about 3 hours making them and can’t eat’em immediately!)


The layered pear cake looked rad, but too much hustle just for two of us on Sunday night.


I have to confess, after much thought and consideration, I have decided on Tiramisu, which is the most popular coffee dessert, and since we have the recipe in Gordon Ramsey’s book called “Fast Food”, my tiramisu was made easy.

So, here is the recipe:

Easy Tiramisu

Serves 4
You’ll need:
150 ml single cream, 4 tbsp icing sugar, 250g mascarpone, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 3 tbsp Grand Marnier (or any other brandy)*, 200 ml strong coffee (cooled to room temperature), 20-24 sponge fingers (savoiardi) and some cocoa powder, to dust.


1. Whip the cream with 3 tbsp icing sugar until evenly blended, then beat in the mascarpone, vanilla extract and 1 tbsp brandy.

2. Sweeten the coffee with the remaining 1 tbsp icing sugar, stir to dissolve, then
add the rest of the brandy.

3. Dip 4 sponge fingers in the coffee mixture and use them to line the base of four serving glasses (breaking them into shorter lengths if necessary to fit the glasses). Spoon over a layer of the mascarpone mixture. Repeat layering the dipped sponge fingers and mascarpone mix until you reach the top of the glasses.

4. Spoon any remaining coffee mixture over the top and dust with sifted cocoa
powder. Chill for at least 20 min.

5. Just before serving, stick two sponge fingers into each tiramisu.

Mine on the pics doesn’t have sponge fingers because they were eaten by mistake before I got to the last line in the recipe :-(.

We have tried it yesterday and it is a winner. Very nice and not too sweet with luxurious silky texture and slight tang from the Grand Marnier. And so easy to make! Heaven. Coffee is rather accompaniment, then a lead in this recipe, still you feel its presence.


* Actually, in Ramsay’s recipe it is Marsala(or brandy or Tia Maria), but we didn’t have any of those and had Grand Marnier (standing unopened from March when we bought it in Keflavic’s duty free on the way back from Iceland.) It worked perfectly!