Take Your Tiramisu To The Tropics By Making This Ingredient The Star

Tiramisu is a classic dessert that's surprisingly an adept canvas to work with. You can add or substitute ingredients to impart more flavors and textures to the straightforward dessert, but one of the best is a version that includes coconut. The tropical flavor with a summery tiramisu twist is a welcome addition to many dessert tables throughout the holidays and can even serve as an alternative to traditional coconut cream pie. But how best to add in the coconut so the flavor comes through? There are a few methods to consider.

While you can add coconut extract to the creamy marscapone mixture or simply top the dessert with shredded coconut, you'll want to use additional ingredients to get plenty of punchy flavor. Better yet, using other forms of coconut will help the sweet treat taste real rather than artificial. Once again, you have options, and your best bet is to start at the base of the dessert and work your way up.

Instead of soaking the lady fingers in espresso as you would for regular tiramisu, use coconut rum. This ensures you'll have coconut flavor soaked into the dessert from the inside out. You can even cut the base with water or simple syrup. While you can still use dark-roasted coffee if you like, coconut milk is another good alternative for soaking the lady fingers.

Next comes the whipped mascarpone layer, traditionally. To infuse the most coconut flavor, you can opt to whip up coconut cream or cream of coconut. But it's worth noting that the two ingredients are not the same.

Once topped with the toasted, shredded coconut flakes, you'll be well on your way to enjoying a dessert reminiscent of warmer days. While this take on tiramisu typically doesn't include espresso, you can add dark chocolate shavings on top or even some chopped nuts like almonds or pistachios for an Almond Joy-like dessert. Try topping with white chocolate and strawberries for a berries-and-cream spin on the tropical tiramisu.