This delicious and unbelievably easy Tiramisu recipe is made with coffee soaked lady fingers, sweet and creamy mascarpone (no raw eggs!), and cocoa powder dusted on top. It requires no baking and can be made in advance!
Who doesn’t love an easy no-bake dessert? That’s one of the best things about this tiramisu recipe. If you are looking quick no-bake dessert I also love No Bake Peanut Butter Pretzel Bars and Butterscotch Cereal Bars.
This recipe has been a long time coming, and I'm embarrassed to admit how much tiramisu has been made in the trial of this recipe (I literally bought out every package of Savoiardi lady fingers at two different stores!) but I wanted to nail down the right approach.
By “right approach”, I mean how traditional of a tiramisu recipe I wanted to share. (In case you're not familiar with it, Tiramisu is a popular Italian dessert made with lady fingers (or spongecake), coffee, liqueur, and mascarpone cheese topped with chocolate powder). Should I make the lady fingers from scratch? Does it matter? And more importantly, do I make it with raw eggs?
What makes my recipe different:
My tiramisu does not use raw eggs. It's the easiest tiramisu recipe to make, and there's no sacrifice in flavor.
Traditional tiramisu uses raw egg yolks and sugar beaten and then combined with raw whipped egg whites and mascarpone. I've tried that method, but thought people would most likely be turned off by the raw eggs.
Then I tried using a double boiler to gently cook the eggs and sugar before adding them to the mascarpone, which is a really common method used in lots of modern recipes (the Pioneer Woman has a great recipe!). I found it tricky to get the thick and creamy mascarpone layer I wanted.
So, I ultimately decided to swap out the egg whites in favor of fresh whipped cream, because I like the flavor and texture more. The result is delicious and EASY! You're going to love it!
Ingredients you'll need:
- Ladyfingers: I buy them, but you could make them from scratch.
- Mascarpone: it wouldn't be true tiramisu without mascarpone, but if you absolutely must, you could substitute cream cheese.
- Coffee: I use espresso
- Heavy Whipped cream
- Granulated Sugar
- Vanilla extract: or substitute imitation vanilla
- Cocoa powder: for dusting on top
How to make Tiramisu:
- Mix creamy filling. Beat the mascarpone, cream, sugar, and vanilla together until stiff peaks.
- Dip lady fingers. Add the espresso and liqueur (if using) to a shallow bowl and dip the lady fingers on both sides (don't let them soak–just a quick dip!)
- Layer mascarpone. Smooth a layer of the mascarpone/whipped cream mixture on top of the lady fingers.
- Repeat. Add another layer of lady fingers (dipped in coffee and liqueur) and another layer of cheese mixture. Dust with cocoa powder.
What kind of alcohol is used in tiramisu?
Tiramisu can be made with or without alcohol. This recipe calls for coffee flavored liqueur because I like that it enhances the coffee flavor.
Alcohol free: Leave it out completely.
Alcohol variations: use dark rum, brandy, marsala wine.
Espresso substitutions: coffee, decaf
MAKE AHEAD AND FREEZING INSTRUCTIONS:
Tiramisu is even better when made in advance, allowing the flavors to blend! It will keep in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 days.
To freeze, make completely, but don’t dust with cocoa powder. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and then tinfoil and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight and dust with cocoa powder a few hours before serving.
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Recipe
Tiramisu
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream (360 ml)
- 8 ounce container mascarpone cheese ,room temperature (225 g)
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar (67 g)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (5 ml)
- 1 1/2 cups cold espresso , prepared (360 ml)
- 3 Tablespoons coffee flavored liqueur ,optional (Kahlua or DaVinci brands) (45 ml)
- 1 package Lady Fingers ,Savoiardi brand can be found in the cookie aisle at your local grocery store, or online
- Cocoa powder for dusting the top
Instructions
- Add whipping cream to a mixing bowl and beat on medium speed with electric mixers (or use a stand mixer). Slowly add sugar and vanilla and continue to beat until stiff peaks. Add mascarpone cheese and fold in until combined. Set aside.
- Add coffee and liqueur to a shallow bowl. Dip the lady fingers in the coffee (Don't soak them--just quickly dip them on both sides to get them wet) and lay them in a single layer on the bottom of an 8x8'' or similar size pan.
- Smooth half of the mascarpone mixture over the top. Add another layer of dipped lady fingers. Smooth remaining mascarpone cream over the top.
- Dust cocoa powder generously over the top (I use a fine mesh strainer to do this). Refrigerate for at least 3-4 hours or up to overnight before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Check out my webstory! I originally shared this recipe April 2017. Updated January 2020 with process photos and instructions.
Have you tried this recipe?!
RATE and COMMENT below! I would love to hear your experience.
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Made this for my daughter-in-laws for her birthday. Wow!! She loved it. It is so easy. Love that there are NO EGGS. Thank you
This was so delicious, tiramisu is my husbands favorite dessert and he said this was one of the best he’s tasted! So easy and I love that it has no raw egg!
I had never tried tiramisu because I don’t like coffee. But my daughters convinced me to try this recipe. OMG!!! It is soooo delicious! And it was really easy to make. I had read the comments and whipped up the mascarpone cheese so that it blended well with the whipped cream. This recipe is definitely one I will make again and again.
I had never tried tiramisu because I don’t like coffee. But my daughters convinced me to try this recipe. OMG!!! It is soooo delicious! And it was really easy to make. I had read the comments and whipped up the mascarpone cheese so that it blended well with the whipped cream. This recipe is definitely one I will make again and again.
This is a KEEPER!!! The kind of dessert you take to a party and get a lot of compliments on it!
Easy. Delicious. Perfect. And deserving of the 5 star rating.
I did make a minor modification to the recipe.
I used the remaining 1/3 cup of heavy cream to melt Ghirardelli milk chocolate chips into a ganache. I put that in the middle layer between the marscapne and second layer of lady fingers.
I also ordered espresso from Starbucks and let it cool before making this. Adding Baileys as the liqueur topped this recipe off.
10/10 will make this again and again and again.
To quote my husband “this is better than the one Publix makes.”
I made the tiramisu yesterday morning and this morning most of the cocoa powder is dark on top and some is light. Does not look good even thou it tastes good. I had it covered with saran wrap in the refrigerator. What went wrong please??
Totally get it — the cocoa likely darkened unevenly from condensation under the plastic wrap. It helps to dust the cocoa right before serving to keep it looking fresh. If you do it ahead, loosely cover with foil instead to avoid moisture. Glad it still tasted amazing!
I decided to make tiramisu for the first time and I absolutely loved this recipe. It was so good and creamy and I loved the espresso soaked ladyfingers. it was wiped out within a couple hours after serving. I wanna make this recipe again, but I wanna double the recipe, when I double the recipe do you think a 9 x 13“ dish would work well or do I do two 8 x 8“ dishes?
Lauren, Really want to try your Tiramisu Recipe….Looks great
2 questions The espresso….is it sweetened? and The Cocoa Powder on Top is it Unsweetened? Thank you so much
Both unsweetened! Hope you love it Carmela!
I’ve made several eggless tiramisus, and no one can tell the difference! The recipe is easy to manage. Sometimes I substitute Italian mascarpone with American cream cheese, though I prefer the Italian cheese for its texture and flavor. I usually don’t add any sugar, and it still tastes just right to me. American desserts tend to be overly sweet, and I find them hard to swallow.
Agreed…I usually use the quarter of the amount what they recommend in the recipe and still sweet enough
This is my go to for Tiramasu. I have gotten so many compliments on it. I do use kahlua as well. So this time I am going to use it as a filling between chocolate cake layers then a stabilized whipped cream on top. . Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Such an easy recipe! The whipped cream is delicious. Very easy to substitute other cookies also.
Will it be too hard to make if I don’t have a mixer and mix it by hand?
You can definitely still make it by hand—it just takes a bit more elbow grease! Use a whisk to beat the cream until stiff peaks (might take 5–10 minutes), then gently fold in the mascarpone. Totally doable and worth it!
How many people this recipe serves?
This recipe serves 9 people!
Made this for my fiancés birthday today. I stayed up so late making this for him since it is his all time favorite. I’m not the biggest fan of tiramisu, but I can appreciate something with good flavor and texture. I took one bite and that was it, the way I described it was “disgusting”. There was hardly and flavor and it wasn’t sweet at all. The quality of espresso I had was great as well as the coffee liquor, which was homemade, by my boss. I also made the ladyfingers from scratch and those taste fine. But for some reason all together it was boring and not worth eating unfortunately. Hoping to find a good recipe for next year because I love making things from scratch.
It’s really very sweet and when I make it people rave about it. Are you sure you added the sugar? Also it’s really good if you grate dark chocolate from a bar on top of it.
I’m not sure how something can have “hardly any flavor” and be “disgusting” at the same time? Just sayin’