AN OLD, BITTERSWEET DESSERT FAVE
Tiramisu is a polarizing dessert. Mention it, and people may squeal with delight or recoil in disgust — there’s no in-between.
Loosely translated from Italian as “pick-me-up,” tiramisu should taste sweet, creamy, slightly boozy and bitter all at once.
“When tiramisu is really good, the result is bigger than the sum of its parts,” says chef Brooks Headley of Superiority Burger in New York. Headley still makes tiramisu the same way he was taught years ago: packaged savoiardi (ladyfingers cookies, which he prefers over homemade sponge), mascarpone, raw egg yolks, a little dark rum and cocoa powder.
“The slight bitterness of coffee, gentle dairy f lavor from mascarpone — it’s a good balance between luxury ingredients and the stuff you can get at a grocery store,” Headley said. “I find the process of making tiramisu therapeutic: soaking the savoiardi and then stacking them in a pan.”
The dessert’s origin story is hazy, but its roots date back to the ’60s in Treviso, Italy. It wasn’t until the 1980s, however, that it took New York by storm. Soon, trendy restaurants through the United States — Italian or not — offered it.
Its basic components are universally accepted. Tiramisu is made with ladyfingers (or sponge cake) dipped in — or brushed with — espresso often spiked with liquor, and layered with a whipped, sweetened mascarpone-yolk mixture. Everything else is up for debate.
Some argue the egg yolks must be gently cooked into a zabaglione, a light custard; others, like Headley, insist on raw yolks. There are versions that fold whipped cream or beaten egg whites into mascarpone as a lightener (and likely to keep the whites from being wasted). There’s also debate about what kind of alcohol to add — rum, brandy, Marsala or others — and how much. Ina Garten and Giada De Laurentiis prefer dark rum, while Nigella Lawson has used anything and every
thing from Bailey’s to Frangelico. A friend’s mom who emigrated from Italy in the ’70s uses Kahlua, while New York-based Contra and Wildair chef Fabian von Hauske adds bitter amaro to his.
Centrolina pastry chef Caitlin Dysart says the dessert suits the times we’re in.
“We’ve been hesitant to put it on the menu, because people expect that from an Italian restaurant, and it felt cliché, whereas we wanted to explore a vast variety of Italian cuisine,” the D.C.-based chef said. “But we’ve been making it a
lot since COVID, when we switched to takeout only. It travels and keeps very well. I’ve found that people are really going for those comfort foods and love it.”
Through trial and error, I’ve come up with my favorite version. I lighten the mascarpone-yolk mixture with beaten egg whites and just a touch of whipped cream. I dial back the sugar and lightly dip the ladyfingers in strong, bitter espresso-rum concoction to cut through the richness of dairy and egg and balance the sweetness. While some prefer to drench the
savoiardi in the coffee, I prefer a moistened cookie that retains its texture beside the creamy layers, making me want to eat bite after bite.
Of all the liquors I’ve tried, dark rum has turned out to be the best complement, tempering the sweetness and adding lovely caramel notes to the coffee. I finish it with a f lourish: shavings of bittersweet chocolate, though I also like using high-quality unsweetened cocoa powder.