Tiramisu recipes can be time-consuming if you make everything from scratch, but this easy tiramisu takes a few shortcuts to produce a divine dessert that you can serve to anyone. There’s no alcohol in the recipe (not even extracts for flavor), and the ingredients are all affordable and easy to find. Tiramisu usually has layers of mascarpone cheese, coffee and alcohol. This recipe uses instant pudding and instant coffee to save time and make preparation much easier for you. A few minutes of mixing and layering, plus a few hours in the refrigerator to chill, give you an easy, no-bake dish that you can make repeatedly during warm weather.
Easy Tiramisu Ingredients
- 2% milk: You’ll need this to make the instant pudding mix; don’t use water.
- Instant vanilla pudding mix: Instant pudding mix takes only a couple of minutes to produce creamy pudding that you can use in place of the mascarpone cheese found in classic tiramisu. Instant pudding mix is often much less expensive than mascarpone cheese, too.
- Heavy whipping cream: Light, airy whipped cream combined with vanilla pudding gives this easy tiramisu a heavenly texture.
- Confectioners’ sugar: The confectioners’ sugar sweetens and stabilizes the whipped cream in this recipe.
- Ladyfingers: When the ladyfingers are split in half lengthwise, they easily soak up liquid and become a flavorful, cakey layer.
- Instant coffee granules: Don’t worry about brewing a full cup of coffee from ground beans. Just use your favorite instant coffee for this recipe because it’s faster than setting up a coffee machine.
- Boiling water: You won’t be able to make the instant coffee with water that isn’t boiling.
- Baking cocoa: A layer of baking cocoa on top of the tiramisu provides some chocolate flavor; the sweetness of the pudding mixture helps sweeten the cocoa powder.
Directions
Step 1: Make the filling
In a large bowl, whisk the milk and pudding mix for two minutes, and then set it aside for another two minutes to let it soft-set. Beat the cream in a small bowl until it begins to thicken. Add the confectioner’s sugar to the cream and continue beating until soft peaks form. Fold the whipped cream into the pudding, and then cover the bowl and place it in the refrigerator.
Step 2: Assemble the tiramisu
Set half of the ladyfingers in an 11×7-inch baking dish with their cut sides up. Dissolve the coffee granules in the boiling water, and then drizzle half of the coffee over the ladyfingers. Spread half of the pudding mixture over the ladyfingers, and then repeat these two layers with the rest of the ladyfingers, coffee and pudding mixture. Sprinkle cocoa over the top and refrigerate for a few hours.
Easy Tiramisu Variations
- Use whipped topping instead of making your own whipped cream: Homemade whipped cream will taste wonderful in this recipe, but if you want a shortcut, you can try thawed whipped topping. The taste of the tiramisu may be a little different because whipped topping doesn’t always taste exactly like homemade whipped cream.
- Use pumpkin pie filling instead of pudding: While vanilla pudding makes this tiramisu taste more like the traditional dish, you can play around with pudding substitutes. Try making this with canned pumpkin and spices, such as what’s in this pumpkin tiramisu recipe.
- Use hot cocoa instead of coffee: Coffee might not be your favorite drink, or you might be out of instant coffee granules; in either case, try using hot cocoa to soak your ladyfingers instead of coffee, as directed in this hot chocolate tiramisu recipe.
How to Store Easy Tiramisu
Store leftover tiramisu in the refrigerator. Cover the dish tightly with plastic wrap, or if your baking dish came with a tight-fitting lid that forms an airtight seal, you can use that. Eat the rest of the tiramisu within two days, and no longer.
Can you make easy tiramisu ahead of time?
You can make the easy tiramisu up to two days ahead and store it in the refrigerator. In this time, the ladyfingers will really soak up the flavors of the pudding and coffee mixtures. Just remember that if you serve it two days later, you can’t store leftovers in the refrigerator for another two days; you’ll have to finish it that day.
Easy Tiramisu Tips
Do you need to chill easy tiramisu before serving it?
Yes, you do want to let this easy tiramisu chill for a few hours before you serve it. That gives the ladyfingers time to soak up flavor and develop a softer texture.
What can you use if you can’t find ladyfingers?
Ladyfingers are usually available in bakeries and many grocery store bakery and bread sections, but if you can’t find them, try using slices of pound cake or sponge cake. The cake can be storebought, or you can make your own; try this traditional sponge cake or this buttermilk pound cake.
Doesn’t tiramisu normally contain alcohol?
Classic tiramisu recipes usually contain alcohol such as marsala wine or rum. This easy tiramisu recipe is alcohol-free, but if you want some of the flavor that the alcohol brings to traditional recipes, you can add a little rum extract to the coffee mixture. Keep in mind that most extracts are made with alcohol, so if you need to keep this recipe completely alcohol-free, either look for a brand that doesn’t use alcohol in their extracts, or leave out the flavoring.
