Matcha Tiramisu Cups, No Eggs and No Oven

No eggs, no oven, no water bath, no worrying about raw yolks at a dinner party. Matcha tiramisu cups are the easiest impressive dessert going, and they get better overnight, which means making them the day before and then doing nothing.

Classic tiramisu is coffee and cocoa. This one swaps in matcha for both, so the ladyfingers get dipped in sweetened green tea instead of espresso and the top gets dusted green instead of brown. Less bitter than the original, and a lot more photogenic.

Buy the right matcha or do not bother

This is the part people skip before wondering why their dessert tastes like grass. Culinary grade matcha is fine for baking, where sugar and butter cover a lot. In a cold cream, there is nothing to hide behind.

Grade	Rough price	In this recipe
Ceremonial	$25 to $40 per 30g	Sweet, bright green, worth it
Latte or premium	$15 to $25 per 30g	The sensible choice
Culinary	$8 to $15 per 100g	Dull, olive colored, bitter finish
The dusty tin in the cupboard	Free	Brown. Throw it out.

Matcha goes stale and turns from green to khaki. If the powder in the cupboard is the color of an army jacket, it will taste like one.

The cream, which takes five minutes

Whisk 8 ounces of mascarpone with half a cup of powdered sugar until smooth. Sift in two teaspoons of matcha, because unsifted matcha leaves little bitter lumps that ambush somebody later. In a second bowl, whip one cup of cold heavy cream to stiff peaks, then fold it into the mascarpone in two additions.

Fold, do not stir. Mascarpone splits if it gets beaten hard, and split mascarpone is grainy and cannot be fixed.

The soak and the build

Whisk one tablespoon of matcha into a cup of hot water with two tablespoons of sugar, then let it cool completely. Warm liquid turns ladyfingers to mush in seconds.

Dip each ladyfinger for one second per side. One. They look too dry coming out and they are not, because they keep absorbing for hours. Break them to fit the cups, layer cookie, cream, cookie, cream, and refrigerate at least four hours. Overnight is better.

Can you make it without mascarpone?

Full fat cream cheese, beaten until completely smooth, gets about 85 percent of the way there. It is tangier and a little firmer. Avoid the whipped kind in a tub and anything labeled spread, because both carry water and stabilizers that turn the cream loose.

Why is tiramisu watery at the bottom?

Overdipped ladyfingers, almost always. The second most common cause is cream that was folded in while still soft. If it is already made and already weeping, chill it another few hours and serve it as a spoon dessert. It tastes the same.

How long does it keep?

Three days covered in the fridge, and day two is the peak. Dust the matcha on top just before serving, because the powder pulls moisture from the cream and goes patchy and dark after a few hours.

What to build it in

The shape of the cup changes how the dessert eats. A tall narrow glass gives more layers and a better cross section, but it is harder to eat because the spoon cannot reach the sides. A wide squat glass eats beautifully and looks like less. Six ounce tumblers are the compromise.

Small jars with lids are the practical choice for taking this anywhere. Build them in the jar, screw the lid on, dust the matcha on arrival.

For one big dish instead, an 8 inch square holds this quantity with two full layers of ladyfingers. It needs longer in the fridge, six hours minimum, because the layers are thicker and the soak has further to travel.

Scaling it for a crowd

The recipe doubles cleanly, which is not true of every dessert. Two things change. Whip the cream in two batches rather than one big one, because an overfilled bowl whips unevenly and leaves soft patches. And make the matcha soak fresh rather than doubling and storing it, since matcha whisked into water goes bitter and separates within a couple of hours.

Serves	Mascarpone	Cream	Ladyfingers	Matcha total
4 to 6 cups	8 oz	1 cup	About 18	3 tbsp
10 to 12 cups	16 oz	2 cups	About 36	6 tbsp
8 inch square dish	12 oz	1.5 cups	About 26	4 tbsp

Worth making?

Yes, and specifically worth making the night before something. There is real pleasure in opening the fridge at 7pm and finding dessert already done, already better than it was, waiting in six little cups.

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