I learned something wonderful this week. Low Carb Tiramisu is possible. Before I  go any further, know that I own a home keto bakery and have lots of keto dessert experience. 

Tiramisu means “pick me up.”  It’s an Italian classic, rich layers of cake, cream, liquor and espresso makes a luscious dessert, and just for you, this is sugar free, low carb, keto friendly.

There is no need to ever miss out on this Italian classic again if you don’t eat sugar or grains.   

Let’s get right to why this is low carb tiramisu?

I used my yellow cake batter that I use in my bakery. I piped them into finger shaped cakes and used Swerve as my sweetener. A serving is 4 net carb, but be aware, it’s still loaded with calories at about 367 from 1/12 of a serving,

Two layers of the cake fingers is perfect.

What makes a tiramisu wonderful?

Balance and not skipping the right steps. 

Some recipes simply doctor up whipped cream and call it tiramisu.

An authentic recipe makes the cream from mixing a sabayon, mascarpone and fresh stabilized whipped cream. This recipe has the perfect balance of these ingredients for the cream, and I’m so proud of it, even for sugar free.

There are a lot of moving parts in this recipe, and I  recommend making the cake fingers one day, allowing them to dry out a bit and then making the cream the next day.  

How do you Make tiramisu?

Authentic tiramisu is made with lady fingers, drenched in espresso (with liquor) and layered between layers of a cream made with mascarpone, sabayon and whipped heavy cream. The magic in the flavor is the cream which can’t be duplicated any other way.  Some recipes use egg whipped egg whites. I’ve not tried that, but I do know my method delivers that perfect cream taste that isn’t like anything else. 

What is sabayon?

The Sabayon originated in Italy as zabaglione. It’s basically egg yolks and powdered sugar and usually a liquor such as Marsala wine. I skipped liquor in my sabayon but I added a coffee infused rye to my espresso. You could skip the alcohol, or use any coffee liquor. You can go ahead and add the Marsala wine to your sabayon. 

Le Cordon Bleu at Home, tells you to whisk a sabayon  (egg yolks and powdered sugar) in a bowl that is placed in 2-3 inches of simmering water, and that water better not touch the pan, as it can curdle. There is a lot of whisking, and I was so proud of what seemed like the perfect sabayon. You can use your electric hand mixer at the stove. 

The whisking builds the air in the yolks, resulting in an airy, creamy, silky texture. Perfect means silky, no curdling, and it falls easily away from the spoon without leaving a film.

How does mascarpone differ from cream cheese?

Cream cheese contains 33% milk fat, no more than 55 % moisture. It has a tangy taste, is firmer than mascarpone. Marscapone is made from cream, is less firm and less tangy

Is there alcohol in tiramisu?

Usually there is some form of alcohol added to the espresso. However, you can leave it out if you’re serving to kids or prefer not to use it.

How long does tiramisu last?

It takes several hours to overnight for tiramisu to set, but then should be eaten within two days.  It does freeze well, though.

Can you freeze tiramisu?

Yes, you can. You can wrap in heavy plastic wrap in dish. Thaw in refrigerator.

Does tiramisu have raw eggs?

No, the egg yolks are cooked with the sweetener over a bain marie. I did not use uncooked whipped egg whites in the cream part, as some recipes do. My cream was absolutely perfect and tasted authentic. A bain marie is a double boiler. Use a stainless steel bowl over a saucepan of simmering water.

How do you pronounce tiramisu?

Teer ah ma su′

Making Low Carb, Keto Friendly Tiramisu

I envisioned several hurdles in making keto tiramisu, as I needed a replacement for the high carb lady fingers.

Making Keto Lady Fingers

While these are not official lady finger, low carb cake fingers work well, using almond flour and coconut flour.  I piped cake fingers into and baked them for ten minutes. I was concerned that the cake fingers might fall apart or get too mushy when dipped into the espresso, but they stayed intact, and they worked well. 

Can I substitute mascarpone in tiramisu?

If you have to substitute the mascarpone with cream cheese, whip the cream cheese with up to 1/4 heavy cream. 

What sugar free sweetener is used in this recipe?

I use Granulated Swerve, a powdered erythritol, and I write about Swerve here.

What is the nutrition value?

There are 304 calories, 29 grams fat, 4 carbs, 2 fiber. Net Carbs: 2

Pin This↓

More Low Carb Desserts from Spinach Tiger

Low Carb Lemon Budino

Low Carb Chocolate Cake

Low Carb Italian Orange Bundt Cake

Low Carb Chocolate Frosting

Low Carb Chocolate Budino

Print

Low Carb Tiramisu

Delicious Tiramisu made with homemade cake fingers, mascarpone, espresso, Swerve

Course Desserts

Cuisine Italian

Keyword keto bars, low carb cake, tiramisu

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Refrigerator Time 6 hours hours

Servings 12

Ingredients

Cake Fingers

• 2 1/4 cups almond flour Recipe Here
• 1/4 cup coconut flour
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1 cuo Swerve granulated
• 4 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Sabayon

• 6 egg yolks
• 1 cup Swerve Confectioner's Sweetener
• 1/3 cup Marsala wine optional

Remaining Ingredients

• 16 tablespoon mascarpone room temperature
• 1 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 3/4 cup espresso coffee
• 2 tablespoon coffee liquor optional

For Dusting Top

• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa for dusting

Instructions

• Set Mascarpone Cheese out to warm up.

Make Keto Lady Fingers

• Mix all dry ingredients together. Set aside.
• Beat butter for a few minutes with Swerve.
• Add eggs one at a time. Add vanilla.
• Add dry ingredients. If batter is too thick, add a few tablespoons almond milk. Batter will still be thick enough to pipe into cake fingers.
• Put into piping bag with circle tip. Pipe out onto baking sheet, to about six inches long, 2 inches wide each.
• Bake at 350 degrees F., 180 C for 10 minutes. Allow to cool completely.

Make Stabilized Whipped Cream, set aside

• Whip Cream to near stiff peaks mixed with one tablespoon Confectioner's Swerve.

Make Sabayon

• Separate egg yolks from egg whites. Save whites for another recipe like my biscuits.
• Set up a bain marie, using a stainless bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, making sure the bowl doesn't touch the water. This results in gentle heating method.

  Mix egg yolks with sweetener (add Marsala if you desire). Whisk for about ten minutes , making sure the bowl doesn't touch the water. It will turn into an amazing custard like pudding. Instead of whisking by hand, I used my hand electric mixer at the stove.

Make Tiramisu

• Mix mascarpone with sabayon. Fold in whipped cream.
• Add your choice of liquor to cooled espresso.
• Dip lady fingers into espresso, and layer pan. This will be more than enough to fill a 9 x 9 square dish. I sometimes use two smaller dishes so I can freeze one. Layer espresso with cream mixture, making two layers. Sprinkle with cacao powder or unsweetened cocoa.
• Refrigerate at least six hours. Tiramisu will last in refrigerator for two to five days. Best eaten day after refrigerated. You can wrap in plastic and freeze. Defrost in refrigerator overnight.

Notes

Notes:  Nutrition figured  using 1 tablespoon of coffee liquor and no marsala wine. You actually skip the liquor and it's still very good.

Nutrition

Carbohydrates: 4g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 29g | Fiber: 2g

The post Low Carb Tiramisu, Keto Lady Fingers appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

This is just a little bit of a departure from my blueberry pie. It’s made to stay together in tart form, ready for a dollop of whipped cream. I’m giving you the gluten free option, but you can find a non-gluten free tart crust option here, or use a regular pie crust 

The magic to the blueberry filling is mascarpone. It’s mixed in with half of the filling in a food processor until fairly smooth then added into the rest of the whole berry filling.

Just when I thought I might be done with blueberry pie, (my favorite), this idea came to mind. Notice in the picture, it actually does stay together, unlike a blueberry pie. This makes it especially nice for a small dinner party or brunch item. It’s not too sweet, but just enough of a dessert to be satisfying. I also like tarts over pies when I want a neat slice. I use this tart pan.

You could add in some homemade whipped cream. I suggest this recipe for a stable whipped cream which will stay put, under a day’s refrigeration. You can skip the decorative crust on top if you want to put whipped cream.

The recipe will make a little more tart dough than needed for a 9 inch tart, and enough for a 9 inch pie, bottom crust only.

I usually make a small tart as a taster when I make a big one, and there will be enough dough for that.

It may seem odd to bring you blueberries in December, but it’s a nice addition to your dessert table. I’ve added  in a cinnamon stick and freshly ground nutmeg, which pushes forth some Christmas flavor.

Aside from blueberries, we also traditionally have these grain free coconut cupcakes at Christmas time.

What’s YOUR Christmas dessert table look like?

Sometimes I make smaller tarts, which are nice when serving individually. These are five inch tart pans.

You might also like this gluten free lemon tart.

 Seven more variations on the blueberry pie from Spinach Tiger

More Gluten Free Recipes from Spinach Tiger

Amazing Gluten Free Tart Crust Recipe

Print

Gluten Free Blueberry Mascarpone Tart

A blueberry tart, richly made to stay together with mascarpone cheese.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 1 hour hour

Cook Time 40 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 40 minutes minutes

Servings 8

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• Gluten Free Pie Crust or
• Regular Tart Crust Found Here36 ounces frozen blueberries

Filling

• 36 ounces frozen blueberries
• 1 cup sugar
• juice of one lemon
• cinnamon stick
• 1/8 teaspoon fresh nutmeg
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tablespoons instant tapioca
• 8 ounces mascarpone cheese

Instructions

• Make pie crust. Refrigerate while making the filling.
• Put all the ingredients except the mascarpone cheese into a sauce pan and cook for ten minutes to 15 minutes.
• Remove cinnamon stick. Cool.
• While cooling, preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
• Take half of the mixture and put in a food processor with mascarpone cheese.
• Add to the rest of the berries.
• Take out dough and let rest for 10 minutes. At this point, it should be warm enough to roll, but not so warm it's sticky.
• Flour and roll between two pieces of plastic wrap or parchment paper.
• Put into tart pan.
• Add filling and bake for 40 minutes or until crust is golden.
• Optionally, you can use some of the dough to make cut outs for decorative purposes.
• Cool completely.
• Serve at room temperature. Refrigerate.

The post Gluten Free Blueberry Mascarpone Tart appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

I will have to agree with him. The cake, while a great tasting cake, seems to be a dessert unto itself. Even though the cake was good to eat, that frame of reference comparing it to tiramisu was there and that made it hard to appreciate. A traditional tiramisu is soaked with liquor and espresso and slathered with mascarpone cheese, made into a fluffy custard, and best eaten with a spoon. The ratio of cream to cake is closer to 1 to 1. This recipe threw us off a bit, because there is a lot more cake than cream.

The recipe calls for espresso syrup and Kahlúa (or amaretto or brandy), but I think it needed more of each. As much as I thought I soaked the cake with the syrup, it went almost unnoticed and I had a feeling it wasn’t enough. Maybe it was something in the way I made the cake, but it needed more espresso flavor. And it needed to be wetter. But, as you can see, I can’t seem to get away from comparing it to a traditional tiramisu.

Aside from making a large cake, I made two smaller tarts, just right to put into the above cappuccino cups. I think I like it best made this way, and eaten more like pudding cake, as long there is added syrup to make the cake really wet.

Having said all of that, I’ve thought about this a lot over the last few days and if I were to remake it, I would do one of several things:

Slice each cake in two, making it a four-layer cake and soaking each layer with a bit more espresso syrup.

• Make cupcakes and fill each with some of the cream and again on top, layer the chocolate between two layers of cream frosting.

• Make one layer in a rectangular pan and double the syrup.

Mascarpone Cheese, a Key Ingredient
The good news is that it is still hard to go wrong with anything that has mascarpone cheese, a triple cream cheese, originating in Italy.

The cows that produce mascarpone are fed herbs and flowers. Can you imagine the thought behind that? It is not really a cheese, but a culture that is added to the cream of skim milk. It is delicious eaten by itself with fruit, often seen in dessert cakes, but can also be included in a savory dish and made into a pasta sauce.

It’s quite rich, and a little goes a long way. It used to be found only in gourmet stores, but the popularity of tiramisu has made mascarpone much more readily available at the local grocer.

Print

Tuesdays with Dorie: Tiramisu Cake

A tiramisu cake I refer to as a cappuccino cake, adapted from Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.

Servings 10

Ingredients

• CAKE INGREDIENTS
• 2 cups cake flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/4 cups butter unsalted at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• ESPRESSO EXTRACT
• 2 T instant espresso powder
• 2 T boiling water
• ESPRESSO SYRUP INGREDIENTS
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon Kahlúa or brandy
• FILLING & FROSTING INGREDIENTS
• 1 8 oz mascarpone
• 1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar sifted
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 tablespoons Kahlúa or brandy
• 1 cup cold heavy cream
• 3 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate divided.

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Sift cake flour, baking powder, salt in bowl. Set aside.
• Beat butter until creamy with a paddle attachment with mixer or electric mixer for three minutes.
• Cream sugar and butter for three minutes.
• Add eggs one at a time and beat for a minute each. Add vanilla
• On low speed add in buttermilk and dry ingredients in three additions. Begin and end with flour mixture.
• Bake for 28 to 30 minutes at 350.
• ESPRESSO EXTRACT INSTRUCTIONS (See Note)
• Mix together until blended. Set Aside.
• ESPRESSO SYRUP INSTRUCTIONS (See Note)
• Bring sugar and water together just until boiling. Add above espresso extract and liqueur or brandy. Set aside.
• FILLING AND FROSTING INSTRUCTIONS
• Blend mascarpone, confectioner's sugar, vanilla and Kahlúa or brandy and whisk just until smooth.
• Whip heavy cream until it holds stiff peaks. Using a rubber spatula stir in 1/4 of whipped cream into the mascarpone.
• Gently fold in remaining whipped cream.
• ASSEMBLE CAKE
• FOR A FOUR LAYER CAKE
• Bake cakes in two 9 inch pans. Divide into 4 equal parts.
• Using pastry brush, brush some espresso syrup over bottom layer, saving 1 tablespoon of the syrup for the final frosting.
• Shave chocolate. You will use this for each layer, sparingly.
• Save some of this for the final decorating step.
• Spread some mascarpone cream over and gently press some of the chopped chocolate into the filling.
• Use 1 cup or so only for this step, saving the frosting for the final layer.
• Repeat with each of first three layers.
• FINAL FROSTING INSTRUCTIONS
• Whisk the remaining 1 tablespoon of espresso extract into the remaining mascarpone filling. Apply frosting on sides and top.
• Decorate with espresso beans or my personal choice, some shaved chocolate.
• Refrigerate, but serve a little less chilled. Take out 30 minutes prior to serving.

Notes

This is the original recipe for the espresso syrup. I suggest doubling this and then using only what you need, which might be all of it. You will need to double the espresso extract also.

• Make cupcakes and fill each with some of the cream and again on top, layer the chocolate between two layers of cream frosting.

• Make one layer in a rectangular pan and double the syrup ingredients.

The post Tiramisu Cake appeared first on Spinach Tiger.