Avoid This Mistake For A Creamy, Smooth Tiramisu

Tiramisu hasn't actually been around that long as a dessert, but it's quickly become a dish where people have strong opinions about what makes it "traditional" and the different mistakes that can ruin it. Created sometime in the 50s or 60s in Italy, the original tiramisu, as it has come to be accepted, was a simple combination of sweetened mascarpone cream and coffee-soaked ladyfingers. No liqueurs, or marsala, or any of the other fancy flavors that have become standard additions to the dessert. But like many Italian dishes that simplicity means the quality of the individual components is paramount. That means perfectly soft, spongy ladyfingers, and, more importantly, an ethereally light and smooth mascarpone cream made with whipped eggs. But getting that perfect texture isn't easy, and one of the 12 mistakes you can make with tiramisu is using cold eggs in the cream mixture.

When you see recommendations for room temperature eggs in baking, it's all about better whipping. "Using room temperature eggs is important in baking because of the increased volume, as well as better binding potential with other ingredients," Tasting Table baking expert Sara Klimek explains. Texture is essential to a perfect tiramisu, and that extra volume you get from whipping room temperature eggs is what will make your mascarpone extra creamy and light instead of dense. Better binding means no grainy sugar or unincorporated cheese. That's the smooth, lightly sweet cream that makes tiramisu feel so luxurious.

The reason room temperature eggs are better for tiramisu has to do with egg proteins. These are what bind eggs and egg whites together and give them their structure. Cold temperatures cause egg proteins to tighten up, making them more rigid and stable. This can be useful in some whipping applications like making a meringue, where you want your whipped eggs to hold their shape, but in creamier mixtures, the less tight proteins of warmer eggs will break down more easily. This means a weaker structure, but greater volume when they are whipped. Tiramisu relies more on mascarpone for structure and the whipped eggs for making it lighter, so a higher volume is ideal.

While the easiest way to prep eggs for tiramisu is simply letting them sit out and come to temperature, you can also speed up the time if you weren't planning ahead. Eggs can be brought up to room temperature by letting them sit in a bowl of warm water. This will bring them to an ideal temperature in only five minutes or so. It's a small step, but it will make a real difference in the final texture of your tiramisu, no matter what recipe you're using. You can opt for store-bought ladyfingers or play around with different flavors, but nailing that mascarpone cream is essential, and room temperature eggs are one of the biggest keys to getting it right.