Why It Works
- Incorporating pumpkin purée and warm fall spices into the mascarpone mixture and pairing it with coffee-soaked ladyfingers recreates the flavors of a classic pumpkin spice latte.
- Folding whipped cream into the mascarpone mixture gives the filling a light, airy texture.
- Chilling the dessert for at least eight hours allows the ladyfingers to soften.
We know, we know, this recipe is bound to elicit eye rolls and at least a few irate emails from Italian readers. And you know what? We don’t care. Because as annoying as the idea may sound, it works. It’s logical. We even think it’s a little bit genius.
Serious Eats / Robby Lozano
Consider the evidence:
- Tiramisu is one of the greatest desserts of all time, utterly perfect in form and flavor. It needs no improvement.
- And yet, tiramisu is also begging for interpretation. That expanse of sweet, whipped mascarpone is a blank slate of creamy bliss, ready and willing to take on new flavors (see: matcha tiramisu, pandan tiramisu, chai tiramisu, and so many more).
- Pumpkin spice latte is a coffee drink, which means it already contains one of tiramisu’s original ingredients, so we have synergy.
- Pumpkin spice latte also has warm fall spices that would absolutely be at home in a creamy, coffee-spiked dessert like tiramisu.
- Pumpkin spice latte does not (originally) have pumpkin, but everyone with a brain knows adding pumpkin to it makes it even better. (See proof here.)
- A light dose of pumpkin purée in the mascarpone base is a natural fit with all that warm spice, coffee, and cream—it’s basically just pumpkin pie meets tiramisu—and no one in their right mind would complain about that!
- This does not mean we are abandoning classic tiramisu, we think there’s enough room in this world to contain both, and more. So much more. All the more. There is no limit where tiramisu and any dessert it inspires is concerned. Except for tirami-soufflé, that sounds weird.
Here’s the skinny on what goes into this: We incorporate pumpkin purée and pumpkin pie spice into the mascarpone filling, which gets its light, airy texture from the addition of whipped cream. And instead of soaking the ladyfingers in marsala, as is traditional, we dip the biscuits in a mixture of strong coffee, coffee liqueur, and vanilla extract. Topped with a light dusting of espresso powder and ground cinnamon, the dessert evokes the bittersweet, autumnal flavors of a pumpkin spice latte.
Serious Eats / Robby Lozano
So, throw all the scorn you want at this, we dare you not to eat it when it’s sitting in front of you staring you in the face.
Editor’s Note
This recipe was developed by Craig Ruff; the headnote was written by Daniel Gritzer.