I am happy to bring you this no-cook, easy eggless tiramisu recipe. This delicious toffee tiramisu recipe is easy to make, either with homemade ladyfingers or storebought.
Chopped toffee bits folded into a rich no-egg mascarpone cream and layered with espresso-dipped lady fingers–you’re going to love it!
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If you love toffee, try my brown butter toffee chocolate chip cookies.
For ease of browsing, here are all of my custard and pudding recipes in one place.
I originally wrote this as a sponsored post for Griff’s Toffee, a fantastic toffee made here in North Carolina. Thanks for working with me, guys!
Watch my easy eggless tiramisu web story here.
Why You Have to Make This Recipe, Friends
If you are weirded out by raw eggs, this recipe is for you.
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If you love caramel and toffee flavors, this recipe is for you.
If you think that traditional tiramisu is too smooth and you’d like a little crunchy to go with your creamy, this recipe is for you.
Also, you don’t need a
A hand mixer works just fine.
How to Make Eggless Tiramisu
Before you get started, let’s go over ingredients and substitutions as well as the procedure.
You’ll find the complete recipe at the end of the post.
Ingredients and Substitutions
Here’s your shopping list:
- heavy cream: no substitutions here. You need the butterfat in the cream to whip up and to set into sliceable pieces
- dark brown sugar: the flavor of the dark brown sugar enhances the caramel and toffee flavors. You can substitute white sugar, but it won’t have quite the depth of flavor. Light brown sugar is also a great substitute.
- mascarpone cheese: You may substitute softened American cream cheese if you’d like. Italian mascarpone is the traditional ingredient, but either will work. And while I don’t recommend it for cheesecake, this would be an excellent use of the kind of cream cheese that comes in tubs and not bricks.
- salt: brings out all the flavor
- caramel liqueur: You can also substitute caramel coffee syrup or homemade caramel sauce or syrup to keep it non-alcoholic. My coffee butterscotch sauce would be amazing in this recipe
- Toffee candy: Use Griff’s or a national brand such as Skor or Heath bars.
- ladyfingers: you can use Savoiardi, which are harder and soak up syrup slowly, or spongecake-based homemade ladyfingers which are softer. These will only need a quick dip!
- espresso: or strong coffee, cold. You may also use instant coffee dissolved in hot simple syrup and then cooled.
- espresso liqueur: (optional. Leave out if you want to keep it non-alcoholic. Or to boost the coffee flavor, you could add a teaspoon of coffee extract)
- cocoa powder: in this case, cocoa powder is a garnish. As such it’s not strictly necessary, but it does look pretty sifted over a heart-shaped template for Valentine’s day. Switch up the design to Christmas trees for Christmas, bunnies for Easter, etc
You’re looking at 10 ingredients to make the dreamiest tiramisu ever.
Procedure
The tiramisu is pretty easy to make. It’s a great dessert to make with your kids too, because you can set up an assembly line where everyone has their own job.
Here’s what to do:
Mise en Place:
- Pour cold espresso and espresso liqueur (or coffee extract) into a pie pan or shallow bowl
- Get your lady fingers out of the package.
- Mix up the mascarpone cream by whipping the cream with the mascarpone and caramel liqueur (or caramel sauce) and folding in the rest of the ingredients
Assembly
- Dip ladyfingers into the espresso mixture and line the pan with a single layer
- Spread on 1/3 of the mascarpone cream (or 1/2 if using Savoiardi. See recipe notes)
- Dip and layer on another layer of ladyfingers.
- Spread on more mascarpone cream.
- Repeat a third time if there is room in the pan (there should be if you used flat ladyfingers rather than Savoiardi)
- Finish with a thin layer of the mascarpone cream and press plastic wrap onto the surface.
- Chill for 8 hours or overnight
- Dust cocoa powder over the top with a fine mesh strainer (or dust over a stencil)
- Slice and serve
Variation for Individual Desserts
As you can see in the photos, I made some of the tiramisu in individual servings. This makes for an elegant presentation, you don’t have to share, and you won’t have to cut it to serve.
I recommend a set of graduated cutters for individual tiramisu. Choose the size that will fit snugly in your glasses and just cut circles from a sheet of spongecake (which is really what ladyfingers are), dip them in your coffee mixture, and layer them up with your mascarpone cream.
When filling tall or narrow glasses with your cream, it’s easiest to fill a ziptop bag or piping bag with the filling, snip off a corner, and pipe it into the glasses. No need to get fancy with piping tips, you’re just trying to get the cream in the glass without making a mess of the sides so you can see the layers.
Tips for Success
- You can use soft, sponge cake ladyfingers (homemade or store-bought) or the crisp Italian Savoiardi cookies. Soft ladyfingers are very delicate, so only give them a very quick in-out dip in the espresso syrup. Savoiardi are sturdier and dryer and can absorb the syrup more slowly, so time is not so much of the essence when using them.
- Since Savoiardi are more round in profile than sponge cake ladyfingers, you will only get two layers each of cream and cookies, so plan accordingly. With the flatter homemade ladyfingers, you can get 3 layers like I did.
- Make sure your espresso “dip” is cold or at least no warmer than room temperature. Hot syrup will make your ladyfingers disintegrate pretty quickly.
- Let your mascarpone (or cream cheese) come to room temperature, and everything will blend together beautifully.
- Finely chop your toffee and don’t add too much to your mascarpone cream. Otherwise, it will be hard to cut clean slices because of all the crunchy bits.
Easy Tiramisu Q & A
You can make this recipe with or without alcohol, because I give substitutions for the liqueurs. As a matter of fact, most of the photos in this post are of eggless tiramisu made with caramel sauce in the cream rather than liqueur and with simple syrup and instant coffee rather than espresso and coffee liqueur. And I promise you, it is delicious either way.
Yes. It works out just fine.
The issue with making traditional tiramisu with eggs is that if you make the very classic preparation, the eggs aren’t cooked. This can raise some concerns for folks with compromised immune systems. Or for folks who are kind of weirded out by raw eggs.
Other tiramisu recipes, like Dennis’s wonderful classic recipe, call for the eggs to be cooked over a double boiler into a sabayon, or cooked foam. This yields the most gorgeous, silky traditional tiramisu without raw eggs.
Honestly, though, tiramisu will set up and be “sliceable” even without the eggs.
This tiramisu is a bit more caramelly than traditional tiramisu. And of course it has little bits of candy in it to provide some textural contrast. You still get the hit of espresso from the soaked lady fingers and a bitter edge from the traditional cocoa powder garnish.
For best texture, enjoy them within about 3-4 days.
The filling is gluten-free. If you get gluten-free ladyfingers, you’re all set. But as written, with “regular” ladyfingers–storebought or homemade–this is not a gluten-free recipe.
Questions?
It will help me and other readers so much if you take a moment to rate and leave a review for this recipe.
You can use the stars to rate 1-5 (5 is best), and leave a review in the comments. It helps me make adjustments if any are needed, and comments help others decide whether the recipe is worth making.
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Thank you so much for taking the time!
Easy Eggless Tiramisu with Griff’s Coffee Toffee Crunch
Equipment
Ingredients
For the Eggless Mascarpone Cream
- 1-2 toffee candy bars or 6-8 pieces of toffee finely chopped
- 1 ½ cups heavy cream
- ½ cup dark brown sugar packed
- heavy pinch salt
- 1 ½ cups mascarpone cheese* See Notes
- ¼ cup salted caramel liqueur I used Bailey’s or caramel or butterscotch dessert sauce
Espresso “Dip”
- 1 ½ cups cold espresso or strong coffee
- ¼ cup coffee liqueur I used Grind Espresso Shot, optional
- VARIATION: Use 1 cup simple syrup with 2 Tablespoons instant coffee dissolved in it
To Assemble and Finish
- 3 packages of 24 lady fingers savoiardi or 1 batch homemade ladyfingers
- cocoa powder for sifting stencil optional
Instructions
For the Mascarpone Cream
- Using a chef knife, finely chop the toffee. Set aside.
- Pour the heavy cream into a large bowl. Add the brown sugar and salt. Whisk a couple of times and allow to sit for about 10 minutes so the sugar dissolves.
- Using a hand mixer or in your stand mixer with the whisk attachment, whisk the cream until it reaches medium-soft peaks.
- Add the room temperature mascarpone and the caramel liqueur (or caramel sauce) and continue to whip until mixture just reaches stiff peaks. Do not over-whip or mascarpone can become grainy.
- Fold in the toffee bits until evenly dispersed in the cream.
For the Espresso Dip
- In a shallow dish, mix the cold espresso or strong coffee with the coffee liqueur.
To Assemble and Finish
- Working with no more than 2 or 3 ladyfingers at a time, briefly dip both sides of the cookies into the coffee mixture. Layer them closely together in a 7" x 11" glass dish. Continue dipping and placing until you fill the bottom of the dish in a single layer.
- Scoop about 1/3 of the coffee toffee cream onto the ladyfingers and spread evenly and smoothly.
- Repeat steps 1 and 2 twice more, ending with the last third of the cream. You'll have three layers each of ladyfingers and cream. The 7 x 11 dish will be completely full.
- Place plastic wrap directly on the surface of the cream and refrigerate overnight, or for at least 8 hours.
- Right before serving, carefully peel off plastic wrap. Spoon about 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder into a fine mesh strainer, and evenly and generously dust the top of the tiramisu. If you would like you can use any stencil you have to create a pattern on top of your tiramisu. I used a heart template I cut out of cardboard and an Exacto knife to cut the design into a cake box. You could also use thick card stock.
- Slice and serve. Note that tiramisu is a soft dessert, so much as with pie, the first piece or two might not come beautifully out of the dish. But after those first 2, you should be able to get nice, clean slices. If you are feeling spunky, wipe your knife clean between cuts to achieve the neatest look.
Did You Make Any Changes?
Notes
Nutrition
Hi, y’all! I hope you’ve enjoyed this post and hopefully also learned a thing or two.
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Sounds good this is my favorite griff toffee. I love it.
Thank you! The coffee toffee is my favorite too! I hope you give the tiramisu a try. I think you will really like it!
This look downright amazing! I’ve got to find some of that Griff’s Toffee!
You really do–it is so good, Angie! Use that discount code through March 2nd, or pick some up locally. Here’s their “Where to Find in Virginia” page https://www.chapelhilltoffee.com/virginia/ and also for NC since you might get down to Wilmington or to Raleigh sometime: https://www.chapelhilltoffee.com/north-carolina/
This tiramisu looks sooo delicious and I am so glad it’s no bake. Especially helpful during the heat of Florida spring/summer.
I am a HUGE fan of toffee, and coffee, so you know my fingers are crossed!
I will cross my fingers for you too, Sissy!! This toffee is sincerely The Very Best! Good luck!
I’d make chocolate covered strawberries and coat them in toffee crumbles.
Wehaf, you win for the most creative use of Griff’s Toffee! Good luck in the giveaway!
I’d love to enjoy it straight, but I could see myself using it to scoop ice cream with too.
Yes! Like an edible spoon! This idea wins, Charles! lol Good luck in the giveaway!