Suspended Tiramisu (Tiramisu Sospeso) is a fancy looking dessert. An “easy to make” fancy looking dessert.
The idea of a Suspended Tiramisu in a cocktail glass comes from an Italian food TV show: Celebrity Masterchef Italia. Ok fair enough, I love food TV shows.
More than by the recipe itself I was intrigued by its presentation. This one has definitely the “wow” factor when you have friends for dinner.
From the original recipe of the Suspeded Tiramisu I only took the presentation. My recipe reflects my classic Tiramisu recipe, which I make with 50% mascarpone cheese and 50% whipped cream. I know that purists will point out that the original Tiramisu is made with 100% mascarpone but I find my version lighter and more “airy”.
Here I also used gelatin to make the cream dollops stay up. I experienced a problem due to the hot gelatin and the fats making the cream lumpy and granular. I finally solved it with the good old immersion blender. Making the gelatin cool down before combining it with the rest should prevent this anyway.
Furthermore I used a “trick” I often employ when I make classic Tiramisu: I set aside a small part of the main cream and then I add a few drops of strong expresso coffee. This makes a coffee flavored mascarpone cream. In this case I used this cream for the bottom of the glass.
Breaking the biscuit and allows you to taste the three levels: coffee cream, coffee biscuit and mascarpone cream.
Properly positioning the biscuit could be a little tricky at first. Using a toothpick is good aid (see image below).
This version of Tiramisu inspired me so much that I bought 4 Martini glasses just for this. And I’m not James Bond.
Suspended Tiramisu
Ingredients
For the coffee shortcrust pastry biscuits:
- 220 g flour 7.8 oz
- 110 g butter room temperature (3.9 oz)
- 70 g sugar 2.5 oz
- 20 g coffee instant (0.7 oz)
- 1 egg
- 1 pinch of salt
For the pate a bombe:
- 3 egg yolks
- 100 g sugar 3.5 oz
- 30 g water 1 oz
- For the tiramisu cream:
- 250 g mascarpone cheese 8.8 oz
- 100 g panna montata 3.5 oz
- 7 g gelatin roughly 1 ½ sheets (0.25 oz)
- 20 g whipping cream fresh (0.7 oz)
- strong expresso coffee a few drops
- cocoa powder unsweetened
Instructions
For the coffee shortcrust pastry biscuits:
- In the mixer combine the instant coffee with the sugar. Transfer them in a large bowl and add the softened butter. Quickly work the ingredients with your fingertips, just enough to incorporate the butter.
- Add the egg together with salt and keep working it briefly.
- Finally add the flour and work it until the dough is created.
- Wrap the dough in clingfilm and put it in the fridge for 1 hour.
- Turn the oven on at 180° C (350° F)
- Dust the working surface with a little bit of flour. Lightly dust the rolling pin too and start rolling the pastry dough to approximately 5 mm. It's also possible to roll the pastry between.
- Put the rolled dough between 2 sheets of parchment paper and chill for 5 mins (this makes the cutting of the pastry easier).
- Using a 8 cm coppapasta (3'' ring mold) cut discs out of the pastry. Put the discs in an oven plate lined with parchment paper.
- Tip: bake more biscuits than needed, just in case something goes wrong when assembling the dessert.
- Cook at 180° (350° F) for 9-10 minutes.
- Take the plate out of the oven and let the biscuits cool down for 5 minutes, before moving them onto a cooling rack
For the tiramisu cream:
- Soak the gelatin sheets in cold water for 5 minutes. If using the gelatin powder instead, the equivalent of 1 ½ sheets is roughly 1/3 of a tablespoon.
- Prepare the pate a bombe: beat the egg yolks using a stand mixer (or handheld) until they are light-colored and fluffy. Meanwhile heat up the water and the sugar. When the syrup reaches the temperature of 121° C (250° F) remove from heat.
- While the stand mixer is working drizzle the hot syrup on the yolks in a continuous stream. Leave the mixer working at high speed until the mixture reaches room temperature (roughly 10 minutes).
- Put 20g of cream on slow heat. When it's just about to boil remove from heat and add the wrung gelatin sheets. Mix to dissolve. Let it cool down to at least 30° C (85° F).
- Soften the mascarpone cheese using a spatula. Add the mascarpone to the pate a bombe and mix well.
- Whip the cream with a hand or stand mixer. Add the whipped cream to the mixture and gently incorporate it with a spatula.
- Prepare the coffee. I used the mocha machine, the Italian way.
- Meanwhile set aside roughly 20% of the mascarpone cream.
- When the coffee starts coming out add the first few drops to the lesser (20%) mascarpone cream. Mix well to obtain a coffee + mascarpone cream.
- When the liquid cream with gelatin goes below 30° C add it to the main (80%) mascarpone cream, and mix well.
- In case the cream becomes lumpy mix everything with an immersion mixer until smooth.
- Transfer the cream in a piping bag with a star tip and chill for 30 minutes.
Assembly:
- Using a piping bag with no tip, fill the bottom of the Martini glasses with the coffee-mascarpone cream.
- Position one biscuit horizontally inside each of the glasses with the help of a toothpick.
- Using the piping bag with the star tip start decorating the top of the biscuit, starting from the edges and going to the center. Dust lightly with cocoa powder before serving.
- Alternatively it's possible to start the decoration before placing the biscuit inside the glass. Put the biscuit on the table and decorate the edge.
- Place the biscuit inside the glass using the toothpick, and finish the decoration inside the glass. This prevents the biscuit by flipping over when decorating the edges.