Il Diplomatico (Chocolate tiramisu)

It's pretty obvious to people who know me (ahem, maybe just my husband) that tiramisu is one of my most favorite desserts. Of course, I love all sugary things but a nice, wet (I meant moist) tiramisu is incredibly difficult to resist. It's rich, creamy, flavorful and above all, not too sweet. My husband thinks "not too sweet" is an Asian person's highest compliment for a dessert and I must admit he's quiet right. Again, I'm not dissing the oh so beloved American chocolate chip cookies. You need those to be real sweet because that's just how they are. I love and make them plenty. But, sometimes, "not too sweet" desserts are just sweet enough.

Anyway, where was I? Oh, yes, I was saying I love tiramisu. I've had many versions of tiramisu from grocery store to fancy European bakery varieties but the number 1 in my book (and I don't say this lightly) is the il diplomatico from Ristorante Machiavelli in Seattle. It's kinda like a chocolate-y tiramisu and really stupidly good. Side note, their pasta alle vongole and liver chicken lasagna are also killer. Because the il diplomatico at this place changed my life (I'm being a bit dramatic here), I've been trying to replicate it ever since. Today, I'm sharing with you my version of this dessert (not theirs, because they so rightfully refuse to share the recipe with me).

Enough rambling. Who gives a crap about this blog post anyway, right? Let's make the damn thing.

Ingredients:

• 1 pack (7 0z) Italian lady fingers (cookies, not actual human fingers). I usually get this at WholeFoods.

• 4 tbsp instant coffee powder

• 8 tbsp granulated sugar

• 3 tbsp rum

• 2 cup water (or 2 cup brewed coffee and skip the instant coffee powder)

• 1 tbsp vanilla extract

• 4 eggs

• 4oz chocolate, melted and cooled

Instruction:

1. Mix together instant coffee powder, rum, water and 5 tbsp of sugar (leaving 3 tbsp behind for the mouse later). Put this aside. This will be the soak for our cookies to make them moist and flavorful. If you don't have instant coffee powder, you can also use 2 cups of brewed coffee instead.

2. Separate the egg yolks and egg whites.

3. Whip up the egg whites with 3 tbsp of sugar until soft peak, using a stand mixer on medium speed and hand mixer on medium-high speed. Make sure the bowl and whisk are clean and oil-free. It is very hard to whip egg whites into meringue if they come into contact with oil. Set that aside.

4. In the same bowl if using stand mixer or a different bowl if using hand mixer, whip up the egg yolks on medium speed until the mixture is lighter in color. It is not going to froth up a lot.

5. Add cooled and melted chocolate and vanilla extract to the egg yolk mixture and continue whipping until fully combined.

6. Gently fold 1/3 of the meringue into the egg yolk/chocolate mixture to lighten up the batter. It is okay if you deflate some of the meringue.

7. Gently fold in the rest of the meringue until just combined.

8. Lightly coat a 8x8 dish (or any size dish you would like) with some butter for easy release.

9. One by one, soak each of the lady fingers in the coffee/rum mixture for a few seconds. The longer you do this, the "wetter" your il diplomatico will be.

10. Place half of the cookies on the bottom of the pan in one single layer.

11. Cover with the chocolate mousse mixture. Yep, the whole thing, just pour it in.

12. Then make a second cookie layer on top of the mousse with the rest of the cookies. Don't forget to soak these too.

13. Smooth up the top layer.

14. Cover and refrigerate overnight. If you are on a time crunch, you can probably rest it for only 4 hours but I find that leaving it overnight will give the cookies plenty of time to moisten and become way more flavorful.

15. When ready to serve, top with plenty of cocoa powder and whipped cream if desire.

Find my short 30-second step by step video on Instagram or Tiktok!