Chocolate orange tiramisu

Serves 6 Desserts and puddings

Chocolate orange Tiramisu

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Ingredients

  • 12 ladyfinger or Pavesini biscuits
  • 100ml Grand Marnier, rum or brandy, or use 200ml orange juice and omit the water
  • 100ml cold water
  • 8tbsp orange marmalade
  • 50g dark (bittersweet) chocolate, to serve

For the chocolate custard

  • 250ml whole milk
  • ¼ vanilla pod or ½tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 15g cornflour
  • 25g caster sugar
  • 50g dark (bittersweet) chocolate, min 70% broken into small pieces

For the mascarpone cream

  • 250g mascarpone
  • 25g icing sugar
  • 4 egg whites

Method

Tastes even better when made the day before you need it. For a kids’ version, choose milk chocolate and freshly squeezed orange juice for the booze. If you would prefer to omit the uncooked egg white use whipping cream instead of the mascarpone mixture.

First make the chocolate custard. Heat the milk and vanilla in a medium saucepan over a medium heat until little bubbles form on the surface. Meanwhile, beat together the egg yolks, cornflour and sugar with a wooden spoon until smooth. Add a ladleful of hot milk to the beaten egg mixture and whisk immediately. Pour this mixture back into the pan containing the rest of the milk and bring to a gentle boil while stirring continuously with a wooden spoon. As soon as it thickens, remove the pan from the heat and stir in the chocolate pieces until completely melted into the custard, then transfer the custard to a cold bowl.

Cover the surface of the custard with cling film or damp baking parchment to prevent a skin forming. Allow to cool with the vanilla pod, if using, still in the bowl. When the custard has cooled, discard the vanilla pod.

To make the mascarpone cream, beat the mascarpone and icing sugar together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Add a couple of heaped tablespoons of the egg whites to the mascarpone and whisk it in to loosen the mixture. Fold in the rest of the egg whites with a large metal spoon until you have a light, frothy cream. Set aside.

Now assemble the tiramisu. Soak the biscuits one by one in a mixture of your chosen alcohol and water, or the orange juice; after soaking, hold the biscuit vertically and gently squeeze out the excess liquid before placing it on a plate. Break the biscuits into half, then put a single layer of them in the bottom of six glass tumblers. Spread some of the marmalade over the biscuits, followed by a layer of chocolate custard and a layer of the mascarpone. Repeat this layering until all the ingredients have been used up, ending with the mascarpone. Put into the fridge to chill for at least 1 hour and up to overnight. Before serving, grate over the chocolate.

Recipes and photographs taken from Rome: Centuries in an Italian Kitchen by Katie and Giancarlo Caldesi. Photography by Helen Cathcart (Hardie Grant, £25).
Chocolate orange Tiramisu
Recipes and photographs taken from Rome: Centuries in an Italian Kitchen by Katie and Giancarlo Caldesi. Photography by Helen Cathcart (Hardie Grant, £25).

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