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This creamy and delicious Chai Tiramisu has lady fingers dipped in warm chai, layered with sweetened mascarpone cream and topped with a thick layer of cocoa powder.
In case you are new here, I *love* tiramisu. And I’ve made all types of tiramisu, starting with my classic tiramisu, dubai chocolate tiramisu, limoncello tiramisu, earl grey tiramisu, matcha tiramisu and now we’re talking about chai. Let’s get into it!
Ingredients You’ll Need for Chai Tiramisu
- Mascarpone cheese. This creamy, Italian cheese is an essential ingredient in tiramisu.
- Black tea bags. We’re using these to make a homemade chai. I love making it from scratch but feel free to use a store-bought version if you like.
- Egg yolks. This gives a delicious volume and richness to the filling.
- Heavy cream. I love whipping the filling to add volume and air to the filling.
- Lady fingers. I buy my lady fingers from Italian grocery stores. I find them to be the best quality there.
For the rest of the ingredients, please see the recipe index card below!
How to Make Chai Tiramisu
- Make the chai. I like to crush the spices with the back of a knife or spoon. It helps open them up and create a delicious concentrate.
- Steep the tea with spices. Pour in the hot water and the spices. And then turn the heat off and add in the tea bags. Set it aside and let it cool.
- Make the tiramisu filling. Whip the mascarpone cream, eggs, rum, heavy cream and vanilla until it’s soft and voluminous. I like to do this for about three minutes.
4. Layer the lady fingers with the filling. Dip the lady fingers into the chai concentrate. And then transfer them into your baking dish. Top it with half of the filling and spread it out into an even layer. Add the second layer of dipped lady fingers. Pour in the remaining filling and spread it out evenly.
5. Chill in the fridge. I like to chill it in the fridge for at least four hours. This helps marry all the flavors together.
6. Dust on the cocoa powder. And serve. Yum!
Recipe Tip
- Make this alcohol-free? Simply exclude the rum all together. No need to replace it with anything–it’ll still taste delicious.
- Extra spices. If you’ve bought these spices and are like, “what else can I make with them?” I got you. Make some of my favorite chai recipes my like chai chocolate chip cookies, chai snickerdoodles and chai apple skillet cake.
More Cozy Recipes to Make
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Chai Tiramisu
Equipment
- 1 (2-quart) baking dish
Ingredients
Chai Tea Concentrate:
- 1 teaspoon black peppercorns, (about 10 peppercorns)
- 5 whole cloves
- 3 whole cardamom pods
- 2 inch knob fresh ginger, (peeled and cut into rounds)
- 1 stick cinnamon
- 3 cups filtered water
- 3 bags black tea
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
Mascarpone filling:
- 2 cups mascarpone
- ½ cup white granulated sugar
- 4 large egg yolks
- 2 tablespoons dark rum
- 3 tablespoons heavy cream
- Pinch kosher salt
- 24 lady fingers, (from a 7-ounce package)
- 1 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted, for topping
Instructions
To Make the Chai Concentrate:
- On a cutting board, using the back of a chef’s knife, crush the black peppercorns, cloves, and cardamom pods. Place them in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the ginger and cinnamon sticks and toast for 2 to 3 minutes, or until fragrant.
- Add the water and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Add the tea bags, turn off the heat and cover the pot so the tea can steep for 5 minutes. Discard the tea bags and pour in the sugar. Stir until the sugar dissolves. Pour the tea through a strainer and set aside. If you’re moving super fast through this recipe, you may need to transfer the bowl of chai tea to the fridge to chill faster.
To Make the Mascarpone Filling:
- In the stand-up mixer (with the whisk attachment) or using a hand-held electric mixer, combine the mascarpone, sugar, egg yolks, dark rum, heavy cream and salt. Beat for about two minutes, until light and fluffy. The mixture should fall back onto itself.
To Assemble the Tiramisu:
- Spread about 1/3 cup of the mascarpone filling onto the bottom of a 2-quart baking dish. Dip about 6 to 7 lady fingers, one by one, into the chai tea, arranging them side by side. If there’s a gap between the lady fingers and the baking dish, place a few in the opposite direction.
- Spread about 1/2 cup of the mascarpone filling atop the lady fingers. Repeat layering with the remaining two layers. Smooth the top layer of mascarpone filling until nice and even. Lightly cover the tiramisu and transfer to the fridge to chill for at least 2 hours (or up to 1 day). Dust the top with the cocoa powder.
Notes
- Before you start the recipe, give your lady fingers a taste test. If they’re hard and dry, then feel free to dunk the lady fingers in the chai tea for about 5 long seconds. if they’re not dry, then I recommend doing a super fast dunk.
- Let’s talk different brands of mascarpone. I tested this with two different brands. Bellwether Farms was much thicker than Vermont Creamery. I love both brands but for this particular recipe I favored the thickness from Bellwether Farms. But both will work great!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I made this for thanksgiving and it was soo good! It was a lot easier than I thought, and very delicious. In the future, I may use chai tea bags because it would be quicker. Also, could you add to this recipe in the mascarpone and eggs should be cold or room temp? Some tiramisu recipes call for this ingredients to be room temp. However, you regular tiramisu recipe said that they should be cold, so I kept them cold. And everything blended together very smoothly. Just a suggestion. Thanks for the awesome recipe!
Is there a replacement for the lady’s finger crust? I’m from India and we don’t get them here.
unfortunately not really!
You can always bake off your own and make the ladyfingers as a sheet cake!
Perfect dessert for a party! I’m going to try it for my dinner with friends this weekend!!
– Natalie
This recipe looks yummy. I love all things chai. Where did you find that blue casserole dish? I love it!
Target but a few years ago 🙁
This sounds and looks amazing and I’d love to try but need GF. Has anyone tried baking with the Schar gluten-free lady fingers? Thank you!
I think this would work great with GF lady fingers! 🙂
This looks amazing! Can’t wait to try it.
Can I substitute the dark rum with some non alcoholic? (eg vanilla essence) and if so how much do you think I’d need?
Thanks!!
I would recommend simply skipping it. Vanilla essence won’t taste very good. 🙂
This looks amazing and I can’t wait to try making it. I’m a little afraid of raw eggs in foods, any helpful advice on on that?
Use organic eggs and you should be fine. But obviously you know if you’re pregnant you definitely should stay away from raw eggs and definitely eat them at your own risk. (I’ve never had a problem before though – I eat meringue all the time.)
This looks so good! Would it make a significant difference if I don’t add dark rum? Bailey’s is the only alcohol I have on hand at the moment.
Oh I think Bailey’s would be great.
I made my own chai spice last month after my husband began spending a fortune on the cartons of chai at the store. The first batch I made had so much pepper, OMG! I thought my head was going to explode. I gotta find your recipe and try that one instead. Then use it to make this tiramisu, looks muy bueno!!
The chai recipe is at the beginning of the recipe above. Everything you need is here!
OMG! I made this last night, the flavors are AWESOME!! 🙂 It was such an easy recipe to do (I did the tea bags instead of making the concentrate, so that saved time!). The only thing is that the filling has not set properly, it is still a bit runny…I guess I didn’t mix the filling enough BUT it does not matter! it is still delicious and I will make it again for sure!! Thank you so much for this recipe, I have never ever though I would make a tiramisu but I did and I am so happy!! 🙂
YAYYYY! That’s amazing. You know, on one of my tests I had the same thing happened but when I used Italian lady fingers it didn’t happen. What brand of lady fingers did you use? I think next time if you want to give it a go, you should just lightly dunk the lady fingers in there.
Oh I see, I used the Whole Foods brand. They were not so dry and I did a super fast dunk but they absorbed so much tea! lol I’ll try Italian lady fingers next time for sure! 🙂 Thank you so much for replying to my comments, you are the BEST!! 🙂
Dude! I know. I used the WF brand too and that was the one that resulted in the super watery tiramisu! Maybe next time don’t even dunk the whole thing OR use Italian lady fingers, which tend to be MUCH drier. So interesting!
Interesting! Thank you so much for the tip! You are the BEST! 🙂