Olive Garden™ Tiramisu Recipe
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The word Tiramisu is Italian for “Pick Me Up.” This probably comes from the coffee you’ll find in the recipe. A nice blend of strong Italian coffee along with a bit of brandy can make for a nice dessert.
I’m not a Tiramisu expert, but I’ve heard many people say that the Olive Garden™ recipe is one of the better ones you’ll find. I had some Tiramisu at a little Italian bakery in the Little Italy part of San Franscisco. It was amazing, but i think the atmosphere had a lot to do with it.
When you make this recipe, make sure you add plenty of sugar to keep it from that “cheese taste”. This is a dessert, not an appetizer, so don’t be afraid to sweeten it up.
One of the restaurant recipes floating around uses sponge cake. One trip to The Olive Garden and you’ll know it’s made with lady fingers, not sponge cake. The following is the real deal.
Recipe:
- 3 egg yolks
- 1/4 cup whole milk
- 1 cup grandulated sugar
- 3 cups mascarpone cheese (this is an Italian cream cheese)
- 8 ounces cream cheese
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 20 – 24 lady fingers
- 1/4 cup cold espresso
- 1/4 cup Kahlua coffee liqueur
- 2 teaspoons cocoa powder
Directions:
- Fill a medium saucepan halfway with water and bring it to a boil over medium/high heat, then reduce heat so that the water is simmering. Whisk egg yolks, milk and sugar together in a medium metal bowl, then place the bowl on top of the saucepan (you can also use a double boiler for this step). Stir the mixture often for ten minutes. After the sugar dissolves the mixture should begin to thicken and turn light yellow. Remove it from the heat to cool.
- Use an electric mixer to combine mascarpone, cream cheese and vanilla in a large bowl. Mix until mostly creamy, but with a few small chunks remaining.
- Add egg yolk mixture to the cheese mixture and mix just until well-combined.
- Combine espresso and Kahlua in a small bowl. Pour this mixture onto a dinner plate. One-by-one touch the bottom of each lady finger in the espresso. The lady finger will quickly soak up the espresso/Kahlua mixture, but you don’t want the lady finger soaked — just a dab will do ya. The top half of each lady finger should still be dry. Arrange the soaked lady fingers side-by-side on the bottom of an 8×8-inch serving dish or baking pan.
- Spoon about half of the cheese mixture over the lady fingers, then add another layer of soaked lady fingers on top of the cheese mixture.
- Spoon the remaining cheese mixture over the second layer of lady fingers and spread it evenly.
- Put two teaspoons of cocoa powder in a tight-mesh strainer and gently tap the side of the strainer to add an even dusting of cocoa powder over the top of the dessert.
- Cover and chill for several hours. To serve, slice the dessert twice across and down creating 9 even portions (the first serving is always the hardest to get out).
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13 Responses to 'Olive Garden™ Tiramisu Recipe'
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wanted to try the recipe for olive garden tiramisu.
one of the ingredients is cold espresso—what is that? are u talking about a certain type of ground coffee as the ingredient or an actual espresso which is cold?
Esspresso is a vital ingredient and gives it a good amount of the flavor. In a pinch, you could use very strong cold coffee. Espresso is a finely ground coffee been that’s made by running very hot water, at high pressure through the grinds. You can buy an espresso machine at most stores like Target or Walmart or you could just get a cup of espresso at Starbucks and put it into the refridgerator.
Olive Garden tiramisu does not have Kahlua in it – that’s why it’s better than what the high end restaurants serve.
Did you get some insider info on this? I don’t want to change the recipe unless I’m sure. Thanks for the input
Do you have to use Kahlua, what if you did not put it in, how bad will it change the taste
do you use the hard or soft ladyfingers?
According to other recipes, use the soft ladyfingers so it doesn’t come out chewy!
I’ll have to ask my bro about the ingredients (kahlua). He works at OG and could probably get the official recipe for me.
This is really good! If you don’t have an expresso machine, purchase a few shots of expresso at a coffee shop and let it cool. I used Bailey’s instead of Kahula because I had it available. The Bailey’s was good, but think Kahula would be even better. When layering the cheese and ladyfingers, only use a small amount of cheese in-between the two layersof ladyfingers if you want the thick and creamy cheese layer in the picture.
I am going to try out this recipe. My daughter and I are making a Tiramisu (hopefully) for a high school cake auction to raise money for their senior trip in 2012. We have to make it big and want to make it in the shape of of the Fleur De Lis, which we have to make a mold out of tin foil to shape it and fill it. She wants to use a green or ruby red sparkle sugar to sprinkle on top of the cake for glamour as we intend to fill the outside board of the cake with hard candy jewels. I will probally add the coca into the layers so that the coca flavor is added but will not be on top. I really hope this works. If anyone has suggestions to make the high school cake better I would love the input to consider. The cake is due on stage October 29, 2011. Thanks!
I take my client to The Olive Garden 3 days a week- she will have a Tiramisu after dinner and take one hometo have with her coffee in the morning- Olive Garden’s is the best!! My clien has been going there for 11 years. I’m going to make this recipe, and I will get back to you on how she likes it- Thank You!!
I tried this recipe today n it came out good. Im sad to say that OG is better. The cheese mixture is thicker than OG. Next time I Will use heavy whipping cream instead of the cream cheese.
I didnt use esspresso. I used very strong coffee n I didnt notice a difference in taste.
I’ve always been a fan of Olive Garden’s Tiramsu and I made this as dessert for my Christmas dinner. I was intimidated by the whole double boiler thing, but don’t be! It was very easy! It came out EXCELLENT!!! I used regular, crunchy ladyfinger from the cookie aisle and bought a sample size Kahula bottle at my local liquor store instead of buying a large bottle. My only changes would be to cut the sugar, just a little bit, maybe 3/4 c instead of a full cup and take their advice…if you can let this sit in the fridge overnight it comes out the best, which we discovered eating leftovers the next day! ENJOY!!!