Tiramisù truffle ice-cream

I absolutely love tiramisu, my fav dessert of all time, in fact I love it so much that I must have tens of recipes and variations on it and these ice cream truffles are the latest addition to the collection.

Chocolate truffles are great but ice cream truffles are definitely the next level and I assure you worth a try. You might don’t know but the tradition of making ice cream truffles actually started in south of Italy where temperatures are usually higher than the north of the country where the most common chocolate truffles were born.

As every great recipe the selection of ingredients is key, therefore selecting a good quality coffee for your tiramisu is essential, even if is in and ice cream format. This recipe was developed for Difference Coffee, a brand renowned world-wide from bringing the best coffees to Michelin stars restaurants all around the globe and now, we can get those same amazing coffees in our homes too, in a useful Nespresso capsule size.

On this occasion I used Jamaica Blue mountain coffee, a very special coffee with sweet floral notes and overall lack of bitterness. I must admit, I don’t often use speciality coffees in my pastry, but when I do, I can definitely taste the Difference J

Chef’s tips: Don’t overstress if attempting this recipe at home, to make your life easier you can buy the ice cream from a good gelateria, a simple milk or vanilla ice cream will work too. Instead of the coffee liqueur, amaretto could be used. Also, the chocolate cake I use as base for the dessert can be considered optional if you don’t want turn your oven on, or simply use crumbed cookies.

Serves: about 6, depending on the size // Prep. Time: 40 minutes plus overnight rest // Cooking: 10 minutes plus the cake

Ingredients 

For the mascarpone ice cream:

• 300 ml of whole milk

• 200 g of Mascarpone

• 2 egg yolks

• 80 g of sugar

For the coffee and choco ganache:

• 175 ml water

• 200 g of sugar

• 62 g of cocoa powder

• 50 g of double cream

• 40 ml of coffee liqueur

• 2 espresso shots

For the flourless chocolate cake:

• 3 eggs

• 120 g of sugar

• 150 g of dark chocolate (55%)

• 150 g of unsalted soft butter

• 180 g of ground almonds

• Extra cocoa powder to dust

• Gold leaves to garnish

Preparation

Start with the cake. Crack the eggs in bowl, add the sugar and whip with a mixer until foamy and stiff. It could take about 3 minutes with an electric mixer. Meanwhile melt gently the chocolate on bain-marie and when ready let it cool slightly.

Now add gradually the almonds to the egg mixture and when uniform, add gradually the chocolate too. Now incorporate the soft butter. Fold a baking tin with parchment and pour the cake mix in. The mixture should be about 2 to 3 cm deep in the tin. Bake at 160 for at least 35 minutes. Check with a toothpick if the cake is still wet in the middle and if ready, let it cool, if not, give it 5 more minutes at a lowered temperature of 150. When cold, carve cake ‘circles’ from the cake using a pastry ring cutter or a glass of a similar dimension of the ice cream mould.

To prepare the ice cream beat the yolks with the sugar and bring the milk to a boiling point. Let milk cool slightly and pour it over the egg yolk mixture. This should lightly pasteurize your eggs. If kitchen thermometer is available, you can make sure of this by slowly bringing the milk and egg mixture to about 80/82 degrees while often mixing with a whisk.

Let it cool and blitz in the mascarpone. Now pour the mixture into the ice cream machine and let it swirl until ready.

When the ice cream is still soft, fill the silicone moulds with it and let it set in the freezer overnight until very hard. Half dome moulds are perfect for this dessert, but any shape works too. 

While the ice cream set, prepare the chocolate ganache. Bring sugar, water and cocoa powder to a boil while mixing. When ready, pass it to a fine sieve to avoid lumps and let it cool. Now add the cream, the liqueur and the coffee. It should be loose but not super liquid. The alcohol, the sugar and the cream will help this ganache not to froze completely. Store in the fridge.

The day after, scoop out the middle of the frozen truffles and fill rapidly with the cold ganache (not until the top or it could overflow). Now put back in the freezer for 1h to set slightly. Cover the holes left on the truffles by the ganache with a bit of ice cream left and remove any excess with a spatula. Put back in the freezer 1 more h to set.

 Remember these truffles would need to be defrosted 5 minutes before serving. Remove the ice creams from the moulds, place each of them on top of a cake circle and dust with cocoa powder. Garnish with optional gold leaves and enjoy.