Cheesecake Factory Tiramisu Recipe
A copy of The Cheesecake Factory's tiramisu: ladyfingers dipped in coffee and liqueur, a cooked Marsala custard with mascarpone, and whipped cream.
- Total
- 6 hr 38 min
- Serves
- 9
- Calories (est.)
- 320
The Cheesecake Factory's tiramisu is ladyfingers layered with a mascarpone custard flavoured with Marsala and coffee liqueur, chocolate and whipped cream. This copy cooks four egg yolks with sugar and Marsala over simmering water, folds in eight ounces of mascarpone and whipped cream, layers it with 24 coffee-dipped ladyfingers in an 8-inch dish and chills it for six hours.
Tiramisu at The Cheesecake Factory: two desserts
The chain sells two desserts with tiramisu in the name. The first is the tiramisu itself. Allrecipes describes it as made with ladyfingers, an Italian-made custard with mascarpone, chocolate, coffee liqueur, Marsala and whipped cream. It quotes the executive pastry chef, Chris Radovan: the Marsala is what makes the recipe traditional, and the kitchen uses straight mascarpone where many restaurants add cream cheese.
The second is the Tiramisu Cheesecake, which the same article describes as a creamy cheesecake on a ladyfinger base, topped with custard and espresso powder. This page makes the first one. A cheesecake with the same flavours is the tiramisu cheesecake on this site, written as a copy of Costco's.
The chain does not publish its recipe, so the amounts below are this site's own. MakeFoodLovely is not connected with The Cheesecake Factory.
Recipe
Cheesecake Factory Tiramisu
A reconstruction of The Cheesecake Factory's tiramisu — ladyfingers dipped in coffee and coffee liqueur, layered with a cooked Marsala custard, mascarpone and whipped cream. Nine pieces from an 8-inch dish.
- Prep
- 30 min
- Cook
- 8 min
- Total
- 6 hr 38 min
- Serves
- 9
- Cuisine
- Italian
Ingredients
- For the cream:
- 4 large egg yolks
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup dry Marsala
- 8 ounces cold mascarpone
- 3/4 cup cold heavy cream
- For the layers:
- 1 cup strong brewed coffee (cooled)
- 2 tablespoons coffee liqueur
- 7 ounces crisp ladyfingers (about 24 savoiardi)
- 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 ounce semisweet chocolate (finely grated)
Instructions
- Whisk the egg yolks, the sugar and the Marsala in a heatproof bowl. Set the bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water and whisk without stopping for 6 to 8 minutes, until the custard is thick, pale and 160°F on a thermometer.
- Take the bowl off the pan and let the custard cool for 15 minutes, whisking now and then. Whisk in the cold mascarpone, just until smooth.
- Whip the cream to stiff peaks in a second bowl and fold it into the mascarpone custard in two additions.
- Stir the coffee and the coffee liqueur together in a shallow dish. Dip half of the ladyfingers one at a time, about 1 second a side, and lay them in one layer in an 8-inch square dish, breaking some to fill the gaps.
- Spread half of the cream over the ladyfingers. Dip and lay the remaining ladyfingers and spread the rest of the cream on top.
- Cover and refrigerate for at least 6 hours, or overnight. Before serving, sift the cocoa over the top and scatter the grated chocolate over it.
Nutrition
- Calories:
- 320
Calculated from the ingredient quantities above using the USDA FoodData Central database, then divided by the number of servings. It is an estimate and will vary with the exact products you use.
Why the yolks are cooked
A traditional tiramisu uses raw egg yolks. This one cooks them. The FDA's advice on eggs is that dishes containing eggs should be cooked to 160°F, and that recipes served with raw eggs should be made with pasteurized ones. Whisked over simmering water with the sugar and the Marsala, the yolks reach that temperature in six to eight minutes and turn into a thick foam, the Italian zabaglione.
Keep the water at a bare simmer and the whisk moving. Over boiling water, or left alone, the yolks scramble at the edge of the bowl.
Marsala, coffee liqueur, and leaving them out
- Dry Marsala is a fortified wine from Sicily. Sweet Marsala works too; take a tablespoon of sugar out of the custard.
- Without alcohol: cook the yolks with 1/4 cup of the coffee in place of the Marsala and leave the liqueur out of the dip. The custard foams less.
- Coffee: espresso, or coffee brewed at double strength. A shot made from instant coffee works; the Nescafé Gold espresso page has the amounts.
One second a side
Crisp ladyfingers are dry sponge biscuits and take up liquid at once. One second a side leaves the centre firm, and it softens in the refrigerator as moisture moves in from the cream. A ladyfinger held under until it is soaked through falls apart in the dish and leaves a puddle of coffee under the first layer.
Soft, cake-like ladyfingers need no more than a brush of coffee.
Six hours, and how long it keeps
Right after it is assembled the tiramisu is too soft to cut. Six hours in the refrigerator set the cream and soften the ladyfingers, and it cuts into squares; left overnight, the cut is cleaner.
Covered, it keeps three days in the refrigerator, within the 3 to 4 days the FDA gives for cooked egg dishes. Dust it with cocoa just before serving, because cocoa left on overnight turns dark and wet.
Other desserts on this site are the no-bake peanut butter cheesecake balls and the honeybun cheesecake.
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