Why you’ll love them
These tiramisu tartlets are your favourite tiramisu flavours of cream, coffee and chocolate combined in a cute little tartlet shell. There are three delicious components to these mini tiramisu tarts.
- The pastry crust: The little tartlet shells take the place of the lady finger biscuits that would be used in a traditional tiramisu. They don’t soften like ladyfingers either and stay a crisp little cup for the amazing fillings.
- Coffee chocolate ganache filling: In the base of each tartlet shell is a coffee flavoured chocolate ganache. With a great kick of coffee, it definitely evokes the flavour of tiramisu.
- Mascarpone cream topping: Mascarpone and cream are combined with a little sugar and vanilla for a delicious creamy treat on top.
Texture-wise, these little coffee tartlets have crispness from the base but the filling is soft and unctuous and tastes amazing. It’s the perfect little Italian-inspired dessert.
If you love tiramisu, try these more traditional but eggless tiramisu cups or change things up with this raspberry tiramisu.
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Ingredients you’ll need
Jump to the recipe for full ingredients and instructions.
- Tartlet shells: I bake my own homemade pastry tart shells but any store-bought ones will work too. Depending on their size, you’ll need to adjust the amount of filling going into each one.
- Chocolate: Use dark chocolate / semi-sweet chocolate (50% cocoa solids) for these. Even if you wouldn’t normally eat dark chocolate, the recipe will be too sweet if you use milk chocolate.
- Cream: You’re looking for a cream you can whip, so 35% milk fat or higher. Depending on where you live, this may be called thickened cream, whipping cream or heavy cream.
- Sugar: You’ll need two types of sugar for these mini tiramisu tarts – brown sugar for the coffee ganache and caster sugar / superfine sugar for the cream filling.
- Instant granulated coffee: I use instant coffee granules for the ganache. If you use a powder like instant espresso powder, you’ll likely need to halve it, roughly but add half, then taste test once it’s dissolved into the cream, adding more to taste.
- Mascarpone cheese: Mascarpone is an Italian cream cheese. Very light in “cheese” flavour, it’s more like a very thick cream.
- Pure vanilla extract: Vanilla extract gives the cream a lovely flavour. Stick to extract over essence as the latter is a synthetic flavouring.
- Cocoa powder: Not pictured above, the cocoa powder is just for dusting over the top of the coffee tartlets. You can swap that for chocolate shavings if you like.
How to make tiramisu tartlets
If you want to make your tartlet shells from scratch, go to this tartlet shells post first.
You can make these days in advance. It’s a very simple process of adding flour, sugar and butter to a food processor until it looks like crumbs. Add an egg and process until it clumps. Now just roll out the pastry dough, cut small rounds and press them into a muffin pan. Chill 2 hours before baking in the oven and, voila!
Jump to the recipe for full ingredients and instructions.
1. Heat cream, sugar and coffee
Start by stirring together the cream, sugar and instant coffee granules until it’s all dissolved together. Don’t boil it though.
2. Add chocolate and make ganache
Add finely chopped chocolate to the hot cream and settle it under so that it softens, then stir it to a smooth ganache after a minute.
3. Make the mascarpone cream filling
Beat together the mascarpone, sugar and vanilla just until it’s combined – you don’t want to whip this. Don’t overmix the mascarpone or it can curdle / split.
Next, whip the cream in a separate bowl to soft peaks, then just very gently fold it into the mascarpone mixture.
4. Add ganache to the shells
Divide the ganache between the tartlet shells and chill until firm.
5. Add the cream filling
Transfer the mascarpone cream to a piping bag and pipe onto the set ganache. You can also just scoop it on with a spoon.
Tips and tricks
- Make the tart shells ahead: I love these made with my own tartlet shells – they’re crisp and delicious. You can make them ahead of time and they can even be frozen. The pastry can be made and shaped and chilled in the fridge for up to 3 days before baking. You can bake them and keep them in an airtight container for 2-3 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
- Don’t overwhip the mascarpone: You just want to beat it just enough to combine everything as it can curdle or split if you overbeat it.
Variations
- Feel free to leave the coffee out and just make chocolate tiramisu tarts.
- Liqueur: You can also add some liqueur to either the ganache or the cream topping but don’t add more than 1 tablespoon or you may find you have setting issues. Try coffee liqueur like kahlua or tia maria. You can also leave out the coffee and use another flavour like cointreau for an orange chocolate tart variation.
Storage
Store these tiramisu tartlets in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. They don’t freeze well so are best assembled and kept in the fridge within 3 days of serving. The tartlet shells alone can be frozen though so feel free to make them ahead of time.
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Ingredients
FOR THE COFFEE GANACHE
- 100 g dark chocolate / semi-sweet chocolate (50-70% cocoa solids)
- ½ cup thickened cream (heavy cream / whipping cream)
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar (notes 1)
- 1 tablespoon granulated coffee (notes 1)
- 12 tartlet shells
FOR THE CREAM MIXTURE
- ¾ cup thickened cream (heavy cream / whipping cream) (180ml)
- ¾ cup mascarpone cheese (180g)
- ¼ cup caster superfine sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
For best results, always weigh ingredients where a weight is provided
Instructions
- TARTLET SHELLS:If you’re making the tartlet shells from scratch, you’ll need to do those first – even up to 3 days ahead. They must be cool when you add the chocolate mix.
- FOR THE GANACHE: Chop the chocolate very finely and set aside
- In a small or medium saucepan, combine the cream, sugar and coffee. Cook over low-medium heat, stirring until the sugar and coffee have dissolved. As soon as you see the first tiny bubbles, remove it from the heat.
- Add the chocolate into the cream mixture and give the pan a swirl to settle the chocolate underneath as much as possible. Let it sit for 1 minute to soften, then stir to a smooth, glossy ganache.
- Set aside for about 10 minutes or until it’s around room temperature.
- Pour the chocolate mixture evenly between 12 tartlet shells (it’s about 1 tablespoon per shell). Chill 1 hour before topping.
- FOR THE CREAM MIXTURE: In a medium bowl, beat the cream with an electric mixer to stiff peaks. be careful not to overbeat or it will become grainy.
- In a separate bowl, beat the mascarpone, sugar and vanilla, until just combined (don’t overbeat).
- Fold ⅓ of the whipped cream into the mascarpone gently with a spatula so as not to knock out the air and repeat two more times until all incorporated.
- Transfer the cream mixture to a piping bag and pipe a dollop on top of the set ganache in each of the tartlet shells.
- As long as the ganache is set when you top them, these tiramisu tartlets can be served immediately or chilled overnight before serving.
- Dust with cocoa right before serving and top with a coffee bean.
- Please take a moment to leave a comment & rating. It's appreciated and so helpful.
Notes
- Tablespoons: I use a standard Australian 20ml tablespoon (equal to 4 teaspoons). Check yours before measuring.
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