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This easy limoncello tiramisu sings with lemon flavor both from fresh lemons and delicious limoncello. Ladyfingers are soaked in a limoncello syrup and then layered with a pillowy lemon whipped mascarpone cream. The hardest thing about this dessert is letting it refrigerate overnight!
Ingredients Needed
There aren’t too many ingredients in this limoncello tiramisu, but that means that the ingredients you do use need to be high quality.
Limoncello- this is an Italian lemon liqueur typically made with vodka. Italians will serve this as a digestif after a meal, especially in southern Italy. Buy a good quality limoncello. I like ones that don’t have fake yellow color added to them.
Granulated Sugar
Lemon Juice- Go for fresh lemon juice here as we really want that lemon flavor to shine and the bottled stuff just won’t do it justice.
Mascarpone Cheese- You’ll find this at most grocery stores nowadays, sometimes in the specialty cheese area. It’s a smooth, creamy cheese similar to cream cheese but less tangy and more creamy. It’s usually in a short round tub. I’ve never seen low-fat versions of mascarpone at any of my grocery stores, but always make sure to go for the full-fat variety. You will want to start with cold mascarpone, unlike cream cheese which is usually softened before starting a recipe.
Lemon Curd- As a time saver, I use a purchased jar of lemon curd for this recipe. However, if you want to make your own, you can definitely do that too!
Heavy Whipping Cream
Ladyfinger cookies- Also known as Savoiardi cookies are crisp, long and narrow cookies named for resembling the shape of a lady’s finger. Only use the crisp cookies in this dessert. The soft ones will result in a soggy tiramisu.
Tips for making tiramisu
Dipping the ladyfingers- The key to the right consistency of this limoncello tiramisu is dipping the ladyfingers into the limoncello syrup for the right amount of time. I prefer a shallow dish for the syrup and then place one side of the ladyfinger in the syrup for about 2 seconds and then turn it over and do the same with the other side. There should still be slight crispness after taking it out of the syrup and it should not be soggy or completely saturated.
Cold Mascarpone- Mascarpone can occasionally be finicky and separate or curdle due to its high-fat content. To make sure this doesn’t happen, start with cold mascarpone cheese instead of room temperature. Over-beating can lead it to separate also, so just beat it until the lemon curd and juice is incorporated and not more. If it does curdle, place the bowl over a pot of simmering water and whisk it for 1-2 minutes until it smooths out again. Allow it to chill slightly and then whip it again.
Refrigerate Overnight- We all like instant gratification, me included, but this dessert really shines when it is refrigerated overnight. It’s definitely edible after 4-6 hours but it won’t have as much flavor or brightness as it would with more refrigeration. Plus, this makes it a great option for a dinner party or get-together because it is completely finished when going into the fridge so all you need to do is slice it up and serve it when you are ready to eat it.
Different pan sizes
As the recipe is written, I used a 9 x 13 pan. If you have a different pan size than mine or want to make a different quantity of the dessert, see below for alternate-sized pans.
9 x 9 pan: about 26 ladyfingers. For the syrup, 1 cup of water, ¼ cup sugar, ¾ cup limoncello and 2 tablespoon lemon juice. For the cream, 16 oz mascarpone, 10 oz lemon curd, ¼ cup limoncello, 3 tablespoon lemon juice, 1 ½ cups heavy whipping cream and ¼ cup sugar.
9 x 5 loaf pan: about 16 ladyfingers. For the syrup, ½ cup of water, 2 tablespoon sugar, ¼ cup + 2 tablespoon limoncello, and 1 tablespoon lemon juice. For the cream, 8 oz mascarpone, 5 oz lemon curd, 2 tablespoon limoncello, 1.5 tablespoon lemon juice, ¾ cup heavy whipping cream and ¼ cup sugar. If you use a loaf pan, it works better to slice thin slices as you would bread vs slicing squares of tiramisu.
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