This is a simple, delicious dark chocolate orange tiramisu recipe, fit for a crowd.
I’ve been making this tiramisu recipe since I was 10 years old. My dad is a huge fan of tiramisu and I’m a huge fan of my dad so I would make this for him almost every father’s day or birthday. Since this is my childhood recipe, I use cream cheese instead of mascarpone…cream cheese fits nicely into a ten year old’s budget. You’ll also notice that this recipe doesn’t contain eggs because I didn’t quite understand cooking eggs over a double boiler at such a young age.
Even though this recipe is not traditional it’s authentic to what I grew up with and what I made for my loved ones. It’s also darn delicious and easier than traditional recipes because you don’t need eggs or fancy ingredients.
I recommend making this tiramisu at least a couple hours before you serve it. The lady fingers soak up the delicious coffee and the whole dessert becomes even more delectable! My recipe calls for store-bought lady fingers which tend to be drier than the homemade version. If you use homemade or soft ladyfinger, serve the tiramisu within a couple hours.
pin this recipe to your ‘make ahead desserts’ board!
Unlike the traditional dusting of cocoa powder, my version of tiramisu is topped with grated dark chocolate. I’m not a huge fan of choking on chocolate dust and the grated bar also lends more chocolate flavor… this is always a bonus in my opinion!
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dark chocolate orange tiramisu
Description
Fresh orange zest and dark chocolate make this a truly delicious tiramisu recipe! Made with cream cheese, whipped cream and fresh brewed coffee.
Ingredients
- 3 1/2 cups strong coffee, fresh brewed and cooled to room temperature
- 1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened at room temperature (leave the cream cheese out of the fridge for a couple hours)
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- Zest of 1 orange
- 2 cups heavy whipping cream
- 10.5 ounces (or 36) store-bought lady finger cookies
- 4 ounces dark chocolate, grated
Instructions
- Prepare a pot of strong coffee. Pour the coffee into a large, shallow bowl and allow it to cool to room temperature. It’s very important that your coffee is completely cooled, otherwise the ladyfingers will become too soggy when dipped.
- While the coffee cools, blend the softened cream cheese in the bowl of a standing mixer with the whisk attachment in place.
- Add the sugar, almond extract, vanilla extract, salt and orange zest. Continue to blend until fully combined, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed.
- With the mixer running on low, very slowly add ¼ of the whipping cream to the cream cheese. Adding the cream slowly prevents lumps.
- Once the cream and the cream cheese are smooth and well combined, add the rest of the heavy cream and whip until thick and the whisk leaves a visible trail when dragged through the cream.
- Dip one side of a lady finger cookie in the cooled coffee, don’t soak the cookies – just dip them. Line the bottom of your favorite 9 inch square baking dish.
- Continue to dip and place the lady fingers until you have an even layer covering the bottom of the serving dish.
- Spread ⅓ of the cream mixture over the layer of lady fingers.
- Add another layer of coffee-dipped lady fingers over the cream.
- Spread ½ of the remaining cream mixture over the lady fingers.
- Top the cream with one more layer of coffee-dipped lady fingers and cover the top with the rest of the cream.
- Top the tiramisu with the grated chocolate.
- Loosely cover the dish with plastic wrap so as not to disrupt the chocolate. Chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours or overnight.
- Serve cold.
