A coffee lover’s dream! Learn how to make tiramisu without raw eggs. This Italian tiramisu cake recipe uses the traditional round cake form, but replaces the traditional raw egg custard with a delicious cooked pastry cream. The result? An otherwise classic tiramisu recipe with a mascarpone filling that is tasty and creamy without any risk of foodborne illness.
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How to Make Tiramisù without Raw Eggs
There are two ways to make Tiramisù with no raw eggs: use cooked pastry cream… or make a pate-à-bombe! We’ll start with the more complicated method: making a pate-à-bombe!
How to Make a Pate-à-Bombe for Tiramisù
Ingredients for Pate-à-Bombe (if replacing the pastry cream in this recipe)
- Sugar – 125 g
- Egg yolks – 4
- Water – 50 g
Add the sugar to the water in a small sauce pan.
Cook the sugar and water until you’ve achieved a syrup at a temperature of 250°F (121 °C).
Shortly before the syrup has reached this temperature, begin whipping the egg yolks at medium speed. When the syrup is ready, drizzle it into the whipping eggs and continue whipping on high until the eggs are completely cooled.
Finally, combine the cooled whipped eggs with the mascarpone cheese in this recipe.
How to Make Crème Pâtissière (Pastry Cream) for Tiramisù
The best Crème Pâtissière is silky smooth even after it cools, with a delicate yet decadent flavor. Special tools required include a whisk and a strainer.
Chill a Bowl
Before starting: Put a large bowl in the freezer 30-60 minutes before starting your custard. We need it to cool the final custard!
Warm the Milk
To make pastry cream, start by warming milk and vanilla in a medium size pot. Warm it just until you see small bubbles —hot but not boiling. No thermometer is needed but do pay attention! Add a few teaspoons of natural vanilla extract or better yet the seeds (and pod) from one vanilla bean. Quality ingredients make a quality pastry cream!
Temper the Eggs
While the milk is warming, add the egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch and flour to a large bowl. Whisk the ingredients to a smooth paste. Zest the lemon but set it aside for now.
Once the milk is hot but not boiling, remove the vanilla bean pod pieces. Then, slowly add the hot milk to the egg mixture a little at a time—whisking it vigorously as you pour. This is what is called ‘tempering’ and it simply means to warm the eggs to the same temperature as the milk. Tempering the eggs will protect them from curdling and creating lumps in your final pastry cream.
Strain It!
Once all of the milk has been added to the egg mix, strain the liquid back into your original pot. Straining is critical because there are always a few clumps that would otherwise ruin your Crème Pâtissière.
Once you’ve strained the liquid, you can add the lemon zest. We don’t add it until after the liquid has been strained to avoid straining out the lemon zest we just added! If you want lemon but prefer to avoid the texture of the lemon zest, you can add large slices of lemon zest to the milk along with the vanilla as you are warming the milk. Then, remove the slices along with the vanilla bean pod pieces before using it to temper the eggs.
Whisk to Chill!
Cook the pastry cream over medium heat, whisking constantly. Cook it until it has thickened. Then, transfer all of the warm pastry cream to the chilled bowl… and continue whisking!
Adding warm pastry cream to a cold bowl drops the temperature of the Crème Pâtissière quickly and will produce the creamiest pastry cream possible. Whisk until the cream has cooled considerably. Then, lay plastic wrap directly on top of the pastry cream and chill it in the refrigerator.
Don’t want to do this extra step? Instead, transfer the pastry cream to a wide mouth container and lay plastic wrap or a silicon lid directly on top of the warm pastry cream. Any air between the cream and the cover gives a skin a chance to develop on your pastry cream—which will ruin the texture!
Pastry cream which hasn’t been cooled quickly after it’s cooked will be less creamy when it’s finally cool. We recommend against whipping it alot after it’s cool to try to make it creamy. This will change the viscosity.
To summarize:
Temper the Eggs Well 🙂
Tempering the egg yolk mixture is not hard. Whisk eggs with the sugar and other thickeners till they are smooth and blended (no lumps). Slowly pour the simmering (but not boiling) milk into the egg mix, whisking constantly.
After all the milk is added (it will be thin), strain the mix back into the pot for cooking and thickening it!
Super creamy? Chill the finished custard quickly!
Put a bowl in the freezer for an hour before making the pastry cream. This will be used after the custard is cooked to drop the temperature quickly. Just transfer the warm cooked custard to the cold bowl and keep whisking to drop the temperature!
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Tiramisù without Raw Eggs Recipe
Equipment
- Cake Pan 8" (20 cm)
Ingredients
- 8 oz lady fingers
- 1 ¾ cup liquid coffee made w/ mocha machine or espresso, preferably); add sugar to taste or none
- 2 cups pastry cream SEE RECIPE BELOW
- 18 oz mascarpone cheese
- 3 tbsp cocoa powder or as needed for the top
Instructions
PREPARE THE COFFEE
- Prepare at least 1 ¾ cups of coffee or mocha. If you are using an espresso machine, make ‘long’ shots. Sugar to taste. Cool the coffee completely.1 ¾ cup liquid coffee
PREPARE THE CUSTARD
- SEE STEPS BELOW 🙂2 cups pastry cream
COMBINE THE CUSTARD WITH MASCARPONE
- Using a stand mixer or hand mixer, beat the mascarpone cheese with the chilled custard until thick and smooth.18 oz mascarpone cheese
PREPARE THE TIRAMISU
- Cover the bottom of the pan you are using with a layer of custard (optional- helps soak up any leaking coffee from the lady fingers above).
- Dip each ladyfinger quickly in coffee and lay on the bottom of the pan. Repeat, lining the ladyfingers up next to one another lengthwise until the entire bottom of the dish is covered (one layer). Cut ladyfingers before dipping if you need to in order to fill awkward spaces in your pan.8 oz lady fingers
- Spread half of the crema evenly over the ladyfingers layer. Create a second layer of coffee-soaked ladyfingers on top of the crema. Spread the rest of the crema on top of this layer of ladyfingers.
- Using a sieve, coat the top of the tiramisu with quality cocoa powder. Chill for a few hours and serve!3 tbsp cocoa powder
Video
Notes
Creme Patissiere Recipe for Tiramisù
Equipment
- whisk
Ingredients
PASTRY CREAM
- 1 ½ cups whole milk
- 8 egg yolks
- 1 ½ vanilla bean
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 ¼ tbsp cornstarch
- 2 ¼ tbsp flour
Instructions
MAKE PASTRY CREAM
- A half an hour before starting the pastry cream, put another large bowl in the freezer to chill.
- In a medium pot, bring the milk and vanilla to a simmer—hot but not boiling. If using fresh vanilla, split the pod and remove the seeds. Add the seeds and the pieces of pod to the milk as it warms.
- While the milk is warming, combine the egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch and flour into a large bowl. Whisk until the mix is thick and smooth.
- When the milk is hot, remove the pieces of vanilla bean pod. Then, slowly pour the milk into the egg mix, whisking continuously. When all of the milk is whisked into the eggs, strain the liquid back into the milk pot.
- Heat the custard over medium heat until it thickens. Whisk constantly to prevent lumps.
- Pour the pastry cream into into the chilled bowl, whisking continuously—this time to quickly cool down the custard.
- When the custard is mostly cool, lay plastic wrap or a silicon lid directly on top of the custard and put that in the refrigerator to chill as well.
Video
“c’est vraiment une très bonne idée de remplacer les jaunes d’œufs, merci”
I am so afraid of raw eggs. I love this version
“Bravi ragazzi ci voleva proprio”
“Finalmente un tiramisù
Come piace a me
Grazie per la spiegazione
Chiarissima”
I also add butter to my crème pat right after cooking it letting the butter melt into it while i whip it- super luxurious taste!
Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Kina! Sounds delicious -Thanks for sharing! If you haven’t already, we hope you will consider checking out our YouTube cooking channel at youtube.com/piattorecipes