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This Easy Tiramisu Mousse contains my favorite part of the Tiramisu: the mousse! Just a few accessible ingredients mix up to make the most delicious and creamy tiramisu mousse. I’m all about the mousse (no cake).
Table of Contents
How to make Tiramisu Mousse Video
What Inspired Tiramisu Mousse
Watching a group of food/dessert bloggers eat dessert at a restaurant is like watching vultures attack. It’s hysterical. But I digress.
If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen that I was in Santa Barbara this past weekend for the #SBFoodieEscape. I apologize for my overgramming, I just wanted to share allthethings. In fact, I have so much to share about the weekend that I’ll have a whole post soon, but for now I just wanted to talk about Tiramisu.
Because we were a group of food bloggers, eating was a central theme to our weekend. Each meal and restaurant was planned with a group of food and dessert bloggers in mind. Our last dinner was eaten at the Santa Ynez Kitchen in Santa Ynez, CA.
OMG. You guys. That food. If you’re ever in the Santa Barbara/Solvang area go here to eat. Some of the best Italian food ever. Also? I tried octopus, beets, and artichokes. It was a red letter weekend for this picky girl!
{BTW, beets will forever and always taste like dirt to me. How do people eat them and like them???}
The highlight of the dinner was dessert. #obviously
The highlight of dessert, for me? The layered Tiramisu.
When the waiter placed the selection of 4 desserts on the table, the 8 of us attacked them so fast with our spoons that literally the plates were licked clean in less than 5 minutes.
At one point Julianne was laughing so hard because there were 6 spoons at once in the teeny tiny jar of pana cotta and she decided to just let it go rather than fight it.
That’s how food bloggers do. Making copycats of my favorite things is how I do. Hence this Tiramisu Mousse copycat.
It was the best thing I ate all night. (Except for the mushroom pasta that was life changing.)
I absolutely love Tiramisu. I would order it at every single restaurant I go to except for one thing: I’m not much a fan of the cake or ladyfingers in the center. What I really love about Tiramisu is the cream. The marscarpone, espresso, whipped cream, and chocolate are what I dream about when I think about tiramisu.
Lady fingers dipped in espresso? Meh.
Piles of tiramisu mousse in a glass? YES!
That’s what I loved about the dessert at the restaurant last weekend: there was no cake. It was a jar full of my favorite stuff in the world, which is kind of genius.
Also? Do you know how hard it is to find mainstream lady fingers? When I was writing my book I wanted to find some to go with the Tiramisu Dip. I went to 4 grocery stores – NADA.
Which is why just making a bowl of all the other good stuff is perfect. No ladyfinger hunting is needed.
Learn to Make Easy Tiramisu Mousse
This Tiramisu Mousse recipe is super easy, fast, and delicious. Just a few components go into making the best Tiramisu Mousse you’ll ever eat, I promise.
1. Marscarpone. Tiramisu is traditionally made with marscarpone, which is an Italian cheese. It’s very similar to cream cheese, but smoother. You can use marscarpone in this recipe or you can use cream cheese. I used cream cheese because I didn’t want to go to the store and I wanted tiramisu NOW. Use what you have or what you can find.
2. Coffee. Tiramisu has a varying espresso flavor depending on where you get it. I like a strong tiramisu, so I add more coffee than some. You make the coffee flavor by brewing instant coffee in a small amount of water. I always have little instant Starbucks Via coffee packets on hand (what? doesn’t everyone travel with them?) One of those packets plus 1/4 cup of hot water will make your espresso flavoring. You can add from 1 tablespoon of this espresso up to the full amount in your tiramisu. Add to your flavor palate.
3. Whipped Cream. I used fresh whipped cream, but you can substitute whipped topping if you want, which can also make this lower in fat and calories or sugar, depending on your preference. See the notes in the recipe.
4. Chocolate. Instead of layering the tiramisu with cake or ladyfingers, I layered it sand-art style with unsweetened cocoa powder. The top gets a dusting of grated semi-sweet baking chocolate. I don’t recommend using the unsweetened cocoa on top because it’s bitter. The first bite that hits your tongue shouldn’t be bitter.
Mix, chill, pipe, repeat. That’s it. 20 minutes to an addicting dessert.
For me, this Tiramisu Mousse dessert just reminds me of a very fun weekend. Hopefully it’ll make memories for you too!
Easy Tiramisu Mousse
Ingredients
- 1 ½ teaspoons instant coffee I use the Starbucks Via packs
- ¼ cup (59ml) hot water
- 1 cup (237ml) heavy whipping cream cold (see note)
- 1 ½ cups (170g) powdered sugar see note
- 8 ounces (226g) marscarpone cheese or cream cheese low fat cream cheese is fine
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon (5g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 ounce (33g) semi-sweet baking chocolate
Instructions
- Place the instant coffee in the hot water and stir. Let cool for 5 minutes.
- Beat heavy whipping cream until stiff peaks form. Chill until ready to use. (Alternately: you can use an 8 ounce carton of whipped topping. See note.)
- Mix powdered sugar and marscarpone/cream cheese with a hand mixer until smooth. Mix in vanilla extract and 1 tablespoon of the coffee. Add up to the entire amount of coffee, depending on how strong you want your tiramisu. (I added all of it because that’s how I roll.) Mix in vanilla.
- Fold whipped cream into coffee mixture gently. Place the tiramisu in a gallon size ziploc bag that is fitted with a large round or 1M tip.
- Pipe a small amount the bottom of each of 4 serving glasses (my glasses were 6 ounce size). Top the layer with a dusting of cocoa powder. Continue layering the tiramisu and cocoa powder. Once you get to the top layer, grate the 1 ounce of semi-sweet baking chocolate over the tops of the serving dishes (instead of the dusting of cocoa powder). This gives a sweet first taste instead of being bitter from the unsweetened cocoa. Chill, covered, in the fridge until ready to serve.
Recipe Video
Recipe Notes
- When making whipped cream it’s best to start with cold cream.
- If using whipped topping, reduce powdered sugar by 1/4 cup so it’s not too sweet.
- Make sure coffee is cool before adding to the mixture!
Recipe Nutrition
I piped this Tiramisu Mousse recipe using a ziploc bag instead of a pastry bag. See how I did it here:
Sweets from friends:
Classic Tiramisu by Life, Love, and Sugar
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Tiramisu by Grandbaby Cakes
Tiramisu Pana Cotta by Heather’s French Press
Last Updated on March 4, 2023
Any chance this recipe could be made ahead of time and frozen? Â I want to make a large batch for a party a week or two before.
This looks amazing! just wondering if you’ve ever tried making it the day before? and please, try beets roasted before you swear them off completely!
These lasted in my fridge a few days before I ate them all, so you can definitely make it ahead of time! I think I’ll have to roast some – raw I just can’t do!
Thanks, Dorothy. I will try again and perhaps use cream cheese instead. It’s so good, and looks lovely in my parfait glasses. The mixture was fairly “loose” so getting it into the dishes neatly was tough–perhaps another clue that I was too zealous in beating the mixture? It was almost pourable.
Hi, Dorothy. I made this for a second time this weekend and once again had a problem with the mascarpone mixture “separating,” so I didn’t get the lovely smooth texture I wanted. I thought that perhaps I had added the coffee infusion too soon the first time so was very careful. At first the mascarpone-sugar mixture was fine. Is it possible that overbeating caused it? I ended up using my hand mixer’s whisk attachment to get it smoother, and then my mini food processor, which helped (though it took me a lot longer than it should have to make it.). Everyone loved it, but I’m a perfectionist and would like to know where I goofed. I’m an experienced dessert maker so this was frustrating! Thanks advance.Â
Hmm, that’s strange. I know that sometimes when I make no-bake cheesecake, it stays a little lumpy when I fold in the whipped cream. This is a very similar concept but more noticeable because of the color (brown vs. white). My only thought is that everything is not quite soft enough. Marscapone, like cream cheese, is stiff unless really soft, so maybe that’s why? If it was separating (liquidy) that could be from too much beating. It’s such a finicky thing – too much beating and it can separate, too little and it can be lumpy!
This looks ahhhmazing! I can’t wait to make this!! just a quick question you have to add in the coffee mixture and whipped cream and then put it in the ziploc?Â
I folded it all together and put it in the ziploc only to help get it into the serving dishes easily. That step can be omitted if you want to just spoon it in!
How about adding brandy to the coffee also? (Or rum etc…)
that looks so good , i will add this to list of dessert recipes to be able to try it later , thanks for sharing .
http://squeezepage.healthy-dessert.com
Hi. Â Is powdered sugar the same as icing sugar?
ThanksÂ
Yes!
Hello! I wanted to leave a comment to tell you I made this last night for dessert, and it is absolutely delicious!! I haven’t had dessert that good in quite a while. It’s definitely something I’ll be making it again, so thank you very much for coming up with this recipe!
I used heavy whipping cream and beat it up myself instead of getting the whipped topping; I also just brewed up a regular pot of coffee, stronger than usual, and used that instead of instant coffee. I think I added twice the amount you say to add in your recipe. XD My family loves coffee!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!! And yeah, sometimes stronger is better! 🙂
Hi! I just finished making this and the consistency is nothing like mousse! It’s grainy and runny. When I beat the mascarpone with the sugar it didn’t blend smooth & I mixed for a while. When I folded in my whipped cream it didn’t become “moussy” but runny. I used all fresh ingredients. I also used the full amount of coffee. It tastes outstanding though! I have it in the fridge to see if it’ll firm up a little. Can you please give any tips, I’m sure it was “operator error”!
I used cream cheese for this but I have used marscarpone in the past and the sugar and marscarpone did dissolve together. If you’re having trouble next time you may need to let it sit so the sugar can dissolve (I’ve never had that problem, but you never know with different brands of things). As for the whipped cream, you may have over beaten or over mixed. When whipped cream gets mixed too much it can become runny. My mousse was a pudding mousse consistency (a cross between the two) and it was thinner before it chilled. Hopefully chilling helps!
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