Creamy Tiramisu Ice Cream - No Churn

A homemade no-churn tiramisu ice cream with mascarpone and coffee-soaked ladyfingers.

My 10 year old was the inspiration behind this tiramisu ice cream recipe. He loves tiramisu (an alcohol-free version though) and when I made it for his birthday, I had a lot of the egg/mascarpone/cream mixture left. It was super thick and fluffy and I thought, hey I wonder how this would freeze.

Very well it turns out! It's smooth and creamy AND it's an ice cream made without an ice cream maker.

The original recipe I posted contained no ladyfingers and instead used a coffee syrup. I have since made it with traditional coffee-soaked ladyfingers instead and this yields better texture and flavour. If you want to make it without ladyfingers, I have left the recipe for the coffee syrup in the post.

The No-Churn Ice Cream Base

The ice cream consists of egg yolks, sugar, mascarpone cheese and whipped cream. There's a little bit of technical skill involved in the handling of the egg yolks and sugar, but it's very simple really.

The egg yolks and the sugar are whisked together and heated in a Bain Marie. A Bain Marie is essentially a hot water bath in which you cook food. A saucepan of simmering water works well as the bath. Over this, you balance a bowl of whatever you're cooking, in this case, the egg yolks and sugar. This water bath keeps a nice even temperature and lessens the risk of burning or scrambling the eggs.

Keep whisking as the egg yolks heat up. The egg yolks will grow in volume and become thick and pale yellow. If you've used fine-grained sugar, like castor sugar then the sugar will dissolve. If you've used regular granulated white sugar it may not, but don't worry it will dissolve later on as it's mixed with the other ingredients.

Once cooked, it's left to cool for a while before room temperature mascarpone cheese is folded in. Lastly, whipped cream is folded in, and that's the ice cream base done!

The Coffee Soaked Ladyfingers

Ladyfingers are a really light and airy biscuit that you can find in your local supermarket (or find a recipe to make your own!) They don't have heaps of flavour on their own, and they're a bit dry to eat by themselves but they make a wonderful absorber of flavour in a tiramisu.

8-10 ladyfingers and half a cup of coffee are what will bring the classic espresso taste and texture to the tiramisu ice cream. They are layered in-between the mascarpone mixture.

When dipping the ladyfingers into the coffee, use super quick motions. They need to barely wet. Ladyfinger biscuits absorb moisture really easily so if you soak them too long they'll simply fall apart.

Coffee Syrup (Biscuit Alternative)

You really do need the coffee flavour in tiramisu and if you don't have ladyfingers, you can bring the coffee taste with coffee syrup instead.

The syrup is very simple, it's just made from ½ cup of strong coffee and ½ cup of granulated sugar. This is simmered in a saucepan until the liquid has reduced by about half.

Ensure you keep stirring it as it's reducing because it will bubble up a lot and will spill over if it's not watched. If it's bubbling too much, regularly take the pan off the heat so the bubbles settle before placing it back on.

Test that the syrup has reduced enough by dropping a small amount on a cold plate. Let it cool then run your finger through it. It should be syrupy but still slightly runny. If you let it go too far it will make coffee toffee instead.

Layering the Ice Cream

Line a 900g (8x4inch/21x11cm) loaf tin with parchment paper and scoop in ⅓ of the mascarpone mixture. Over this, layer 4-5 soaked ladyfingers. You might need to break them up to fit. Scoop over another ⅓ of mascarpone followed by 4-5 more ladyfingers.

Top with the last ⅓ of mascarpone ice cream.

Finish it off with a generous sprinkle of chocolate shavings. Usually, tiramisu has a dusting of dark cocoa on top, but I thought chocolate shavings would be nicer over ice cream and still give that chocolate taste that the cocoa brings.

If using coffee syrup instead of lady-fingers, drizzle the cold syrup in between the layers of mascarpone ice cream.

Serving

The ice cream needs at least 6 hours to freeze, but before serving let it sit at room temperature for 8-10 minutes to slightly soften it before scooping.

Want more delicious ice cream recipes? Then try this no-churn lemon cheesecake ice cream or peanut butter cookie dough ice cream or this blackberry ripple ice cream recipe.

Looking for some more inspiring dessert recipes? Check out these lavender macarons with white chocolate ganache or this creamy lemon yogurt tart.

Have you made this? Tag me and let me know! @home_grown_happinessnz