Heavenly homemade angel food cake transformed into Tiramisu Angel Pie. Layers of shortbread crust, chocolate ganache, coffee syrup and creamy mascarpone whipped cream, with a dusting of grated chocolate. Transcendently delicious.
I made my own homemade gluten-free angel food cake, but any sponge cake/angel food is perfect. Usually ladyfingers are the norm for the coffee layers, but those darn lady cookies can be difficult to find, so angel food to the rescue. Also in traditional tiramisu there’s no crust, but for serving as a pie a shortbread crust coated with ganache was perfect.
Tiramisu Pointers for a Perfect Dessert
- Tiramisu takes a full 24 hours in the fridge after putting all the layers together, so make this a day or two ahead for serving.
- Prep ingredients first for ease of layering: Make crust and ganache, slice angel food cake, whip mascarpone cream filling, coffee syrup, and grate the chocolate.
Getting right to the task at hand: Press the shortbread crust into the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan and bake for 10 minutes. Pour about 3/4 cup of warmed chocolate or mocha chocolate ganache over the top to seal the crust. To help the ganache coat the bottom, tilt the pan back and forth to cover to the edges.
Homemade mascarpone cheese and heavy whipping cream with powdered sugar makes up the filling. If mascarpone cheese is not available, or making your own is daunting, cream cheese can be substituted.
For the first layer, slice the angel food in about 1/2-inch slices. Trim off some corners to follow outside curve of the pan.
Pour half of the coffee syrup over the angel food and pipe on half of the mascarpone cream mixture. Be careful when spreading the mascarpone cream filling as there will be coffee syrup which has not absorbed yet.
Finish off the first layer with half of the grated chocolate. Repeat the angel food cake layer, coffee syrup, mascarpone cream and grated chocolate (forgot pic). Use your imagination for pic below; but you get my drift.
Place the springform pan with tiramisu on a baking sheet and refrigerate for a full 24 hours. The angel food needs time to fully soak up all that nom nom coffee syrup. The waiting time is definitely need, however, it’s worth every second of every minute. See below!
Once the 24 hours is up. release the springform and the tiramisu on a serving plate. Look at that tiramisu, straight out of the fridge!
Can You Freeze Tiramisu?
The answer is Yes! After serving, I sliced the leftovers, placed on a parchment line baking sheet, and froze for a couple hours. I then wrapped each slice in plastic wrap. Unwrap before thawing and in about 20 minutes, dessert is served!
It’s truly magic, if you ask me, with a little science. I was expecting coffee to be pouring out or mushy cake; neither of which happened. Talk about a beautiful dessert!
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Products I used for Tiramisu Angel Pie:
9-inch Springform pan. You will love this!
Angel Food Cake Pan I love this pan as it has built in feet, so no bottle to balance the cake pan on.
Black & Decker hand mixer (this is one of the most powerful electric hand mixers w/o being super expensive).
Tiramisu Angel Pie
Course: DessertCuisine: Italian12
servings30
minutes24
hoursChocolate ganache covered shortbread crust, sliced angel food cake layered with coffee syrup, mascarpone cream filling & grated chocolate.
Ingredients
- Shortbread Crust
1 cup all-purpose flour (or gluten-free flour)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, room temp
1 egg yolk, beaten with fork
- Tiramisu Angel Pie
Shortbread crust (recipe above) in 9-inch springform pan
3/4 cup mocha ganache or plain chocolate ganache, warmed to pourable consistency
1 angel food cake, sliced in 1/2-inch slices
1-1/2 cups brewed coffee
3 tablespoons granulated sugar (for coffee)
12 ounces mascarpone cheese (substitute cream cheese)
1-1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup powdered sugar (for mascarpone cream)
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 ounces high quality milk or dark chocolate finely grated
Directions
- Shortbread Crust
- Preheat oven to 375 F.
- Use no-stick spray on bottom of springform pan.
- In a medium sized bowl stir the flour, sugar and salt together. Add the butter and work into crust until crumbly.
- Stir in the egg yolk until the dough comes together, and press into the bottom of the springform pan.
- Bake at 375 F. for 10 minutes.
- Pour on the warmed ganache and tilt pan to coat the entire bottom. Place in fridge to cool while prepping ingredients for tiramisu.
- Tiramisu Filling(s)
- In a medium sized bowl stir the coffee and the 3 tablespoons granulated sugar together until sugar is dissolved. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, add the mascarpone cheese, heavy whipping cream, and 1/2 cup powdered sugar and vanilla. Use an electric mixer and beat until stiff peaks form, set aside in fridge until ready to use.
- Assembly
- On the cooled crust, place a layer of angel food cake in pan, cutting corners to fit curve of pan, and use extra pieces to fill in gaps.
- Drizzle on half of the coffee syrup.
- Pipe on and spread half of the mascarpone cream filling.
- Sprinkle on half of the grated chocolate.
- Repeat all layers, cake slices, coffee syrup, mascarpone cream filling, and grated chocolate.
- Place finished pie on a baking sheet and refrigerate for 24 hours. A couple of tablespoons may leak onto baking sheet, but that’s normal.
- When ready to serve, release springform pan and slice. Cover remaining pie with plastic wrap and store in fridge for up 4 to 5 days. You may freeze extra pie in individual slices or full sections of pie.
