Lemon Tiramisu: A Sunny Spin on a Classic Recipe

Take lemon, for example: The punchy citrus can provide a different, but arguably more vibrant, jolt to the palate, the perfect way to bring this Italian icon squarely into spring. 

Following the traditional order of operations, I started off by soaking dried ladyfingers to soften them. There was an easy lemon analog for the traditional soaking liquid of rum and espresso: the Southern Italian lemon liqueur limoncello.

I cut the booze with some lemon juice to tame its sweetness, dial up its tartness, and subtly quell its burn. The ladyfingers were pleasantly punchy, but I’d still need to find a way to ratchet up the lemon flavor to balance the richness of the mascarpone cream layers.

Many recipes for lemon tiramisu do this by incorporating lemon juice into the cream—but that added liquid can make the cream too soft and slump-y, and I wanted tall, proud slices.

Instead, I tried adding lemon juice in a different form: a lemon curd. By cooking the juice with sugar and eggs, I could capture all that floral tartness, but in a thickened state.

I mixed some of the curd into the mascarpone cream and then layered the cream with the soaked ladyfingers. I dolloped and swirled the rest of the curd on top of the tiramisu in a striking white and canary-yellow layer.

Tempting as it was to dig right in, I stashed the tiramisu in the fridge for a few hours.

This not only ensured that the dish would be refreshingly cool when served but also gave the ladyfingers time to soak up liquid from the rest of the tiramisu so they were tender and moist throughout.