Preparation of the tiramisu cheesecake

• Start by preparing the sponge cake insert; if you don’t want to bake or turn on the oven, use ladyfingers. Beat the sugar and eggs with the whisk until foamy, fold in the flour, add the baking powder and mix. Line a 10-inch pan with parchment paper, pour in the batter and bake at 356°F for about ten minutes — do the toothpick test, then remove from the oven, let cool slightly, unmold and let cool completely on a rack.

  

• Now prepare the biscuit base:
  place the biscuits, softened butter, cocoa and instant coffee in the bowl of a food processor and blend until you obtain a very fine, sandy mixture — but don’t heat it up too much.
  Line the bottom of a 10-inch springform pan with parchment paper, pour in the crushed biscuits, press them down and level as evenly as possible so the base has the same thickness all around. Sprinkle some dark chocolate on top (I used some leftover Easter chocolate) and refrigerate to chill.

  

• Now work on the cream: the first step is to pasteurize the eggs.
  Crack the eggs into a bowl with the sugar, put a little water in a saucepan and bring it to a boil. Place the bowl with the eggs over the saucepan, making sure it doesn’t touch the water but only the steam. Heat the eggs, whisking rapidly, and measure the temperature; wait until it reaches 176°F. Do not exceed this temperature or the eggs will curdle!

  

• Remove the bowl from the heat, whisk quickly, then transfer the mixture — which will have already begun to thicken — into the bowl of the stand mixer. Whisk at medium-high speed until cool and fully whipped.
  While the mixture is whipping, soak the gelatin sheets in cold water.
  Once you have a light, fluffy consistency, with the mixer still running add the mascarpone little by little and then the ricotta. Warm 2 tbsp of water in a small saucepan and dissolve the gelatin sheets in it, then drizzle the dissolved gelatin into the cream while mixing.

  

• Take the pan out of the fridge and pour in half of the cream. Trim the sponge cake so its circumference is about 1″ (1 centimeter ≈ 0.4″) smaller than the pan’s diameter — it just needs to sit about 1 cm away from the edge.
  Soak the sponge cake with espresso; if you used ladyfingers, soak those instead. Scatter some chocolate pieces and pour the rest of the cream, then level well.
  Place the dessert in the freezer for at least 2 hours; it needs to firm up before you can unmold it cleanly.

  

• After the time has passed, gently open the springform and unmold the cake. If you have trouble, warm a knife and run it along the edges to help release it. To avoid this issue you can line the springform with parchment paper before assembling the dessert, although avoiding creases can be tricky; alternatively there are acetate sheets, but I rarely use them.
  Once unmolded, whip the cream until stiff peaks form — for best results start with cold cream and a cold bowl. Add the sugar and whip until you reach the right consistency; be careful not to overwhip or the cream will separate.
  Decorate the cake with dollops of whipped cream, dust with unsweetened cocoa powder and place it in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours to thaw slowly.
  You can assemble the cheesecake several days before serving and add the whipped cream decoration at the last minute, or decorate it after unmolding and then return it to the freezer. In any case, if the cake will be refrigerated for more than a day, store it covered in a container so it doesn’t absorb odors.
  I prepared this cake for a dear friend’s birthday; in the last photo below you can see, albeit not very clearly, a slice of the cake.

  
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