The Ultimate Tiramisu Recipe

If you love coffee, and you love tiramisu, then this is the recipe for you! It gets a little weird, and very nerdy, but it does make the ultimate tiramisu!

Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
01:37 - Eggs
03:01 - Coffee
04:55 - Espresso
05:22 - Aeropress
06:20 - Coffee Beans
07:04 - Saline
08:13 - Mascarpone
09:27 - Assembly
11:21 - Rest
11:46 - Cocoa Powder
12:10 - Tasting
13:22 - Outro

Here's the recipe for 32 biscuits and 18g espresso doses:

Ingredients

- 32 Savoiardi biscuits*
- 144g of ground coffee
- 640g of mascarpone cheese
- 8 egg yolks
- 128g of sugar
- 8 drops saline solution (To make saline: dissolve 5g of salt in 20g of boiling water. Store in a dropper bottle.)
- Cocoa Powder to finish

* Note on biscuits: Our default biscuits for this recipe have been the Vicenzovo Savoiardi Lady Fingers. We’d recommend trying to find something similar to these - there are plenty of near-identical biscuits from other brands. If you are using a different style of biscuit, you will need to do some maths to figure out your dose of coffee/biscuit.
Our recipe is built around biscuits that weigh 8g each - if you’re working with 12g/biscuit, do the maths to compensate for the extra weight with extra coffee.

Instructions
- Brew 8 double shots of espresso.
- You need 480g of coffee liquid total. This will be split into two equal portions of 240g for each layer. - Allow to cool completely before using.
- Add 9 drops of saline solution to the cooled coffee liquid.
- Add all egg yolks to a ziplock bag and cook, using a sous vide circulator, at 60C for 30 minutes then cool completely. If you cannot use a sous vide, you can either use them raw or you can mix with the sugar and heat in a bain marie to 70C, then quickly cool.
- Mix the sugar and egg yolk using a hand mixer, or stand mixer, at a relatively low speed for 4 to 5 minutes. You should see the mixture increase in volume and begin to notably thicken.
- Add the mascarpone in thirds, each time incorporating on lower speeds for 30 to 60 seconds. It doesn't need to be flawlessly mixed.
- Begin the assembly. Prepare your chosen tray. This recipe presumes you will do it in two stages.
- Pour 240g of the coffee mixture in a suitable bowl. Take half the Savoiardi. Dunk the Savoiardi only on the non-sugared side. Then turn upside down and place in the tray. Repeat with all biscuits. You should have a little coffee left over. Starting with the last biscuits you dunked, use a pastry brush to add all the remaining coffee to the biscuits in the layer.
- Carefully put half of the mascarpone mixture on top of the biscuits.
- Add the remaining 240g of coffee to the bowl. Repeat the dunking of the remaining biscuits.
- Add the remaining mascarpone cream.
- Refrigerate for at least 8 hours, ideally 24.
- Before serving dust with cocoa powder.
- Serve and enjoy!

Biscuit recommendations
- Matilde Vincenzi Vincenzovo Savoiardi/Ladyfinger biscuits
- Antico Borgo Savoiardi/Ladyfinger Biscuits

Nutritional info for a single portion (4 biscuits / 207g)
Energy - 593.4 kcal
Fat - 40.9g
Saturates - 27.3g
Carbohydrate - 46.8g
Sugars - 34.0g
Fibre - 0.5g
Protein - 8.9g
Salt - 1g

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[worldkat]

I cannot believe the day has come. How long we waited, how much we have grown.

[dougn]

"This recipe gets a bit nerdy..."
First step: Start sousvideing the egg yolks...
A bit nerdy???? A BIT????
I love James' videos!

[cowslaw]

The 0:31 table smash and "Do you not care about flavor??!" is so Hames Joffmann

[sidonath]

The video was actually filmed almost a year ago, but James wouldn't publish it until he had a chance to convince the world that decaf can taste good and that pulling longer shots makes more coffee flavor come through. It's the long game!

[juren]

Much appreciated that the recipe is in grams and not in cups or stone or some other archaic measure! (Wouldn't have expected otherwise from James)

[rameking]

That hand wave transition was straight up editing magic. My inexperienced eye couldn't find a transition line anywhere. 👍 Fantastic job editor.

[aallpprr]

my advice as an italian is to put the cocoa powder before resting it, this gives it a chance to hydrate and give a nice chocolaty taste, so that when you eat it you don't have a powdery and tasteless cocoa in your mouth

[kameisama]

this recipe is so fussy and precise, i almost didn’t make it, i almost skipped steps and took shortcuts. but i didn’t, and everyone at christmas dinner absolutely loved it. i guess im on the hook to make this again next year. thanks james!

[milogauger]

2:30 another solution is to use a beer cooler. The insulation properties of the cooler means that water (which can be heated to a desired temperature) will stay at that temperature for a decently long period of time without losing much heat. This method was extensively tested by j. Kenji Lopez-Alt and shown to work quite well.

[FatTony]

Prepared it on Christmas Eve and we ate it one day later. Best tiramisu I ever had. The recipe is outstanding in precision. If anyone even reads this before trying to make it: Prepare the coffee liquid way in advance. I wasted a lot of time waiting for my coffee to cool down!
@James and team: Keep up the good work! I watch every video and enjoy all of them!

[gregorio]

I make tiramisu for Christmas every year as a tradition. Every year I try different things like trying different mascarpone. Timing of this is perfect and will give it a shot !

[Demasx]

James, I really appreciate you taking the time to gently & politely persuade me... the norm these days is to simply declare, assert, and demand it be done a particular way

[dasKeks]

So deep into the decaf project I wasn't expecting a tiramisu video :D

EDIT: Well ok, decaf mentioned :D

[concrete_enema]

I really appreciate that you use your unique perspective and expertise to communicate something that actually enriches my life instead of just content that I mindlessly consume without paying any real attention

[Trebajakub]

If you cannot afford a sous vide machine thingy, I can strongly recommend putting a rice cooked to the “keep warm” mode, stick your thermometer inside and put the eggs into the sous vide bag. Did wonders. 😁
This tiramisu recipe is pure perfection! Thank you!

[Feanor_Evanstar]

Ok ok ok, I see your dropper kit and raise you: a volumetric pipette . Cause if we are going to get nerdy let’s get really nerdy 😂

[ActualChef]

This is a killer entry into the pantheon of good Tiramisu recipes on YouTube. I appreciate the science. Any time I get to put my immersion circulator to work I’m happy.

[rdpsysium]

Absolutely CACKLING at the eggs and kettle bit. Ahh, this video is already so delightful!

[cineblazer]

James may be the single most qualified person on this planet to make this video. I fucking love the Internet.

[FuzzyBunnyofInle]

I didn't realize how much I needed to see such a fussy, precise baking demonstration/instruction.
Why does it feel like a backrub for my brain?