Tiramisu Cookies

Classic tiramisu is one of those happy recipes that’s easy to make but still tastes sophisticated, and these tiramisu cookies replicate its signature flavors in an even easier form. Better yet, you can drop a handful of these cookies into your bag and take them along with you. Try that with real tiramisu!

They take slightly longer than regular cookies (about 30 minutes, plus baking time), but that’s because they’re a filled sandwich cookie. It takes time to whip up the filling and assemble the cookies, though you can prepare the filling while the cookies themselves are cooling.

Ingredients for Tiramisu Cookies

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• Butter: The butter in the cookie dough helps give the cookies their flavor and richness. The butter in the filling gives it richness and substance.
• Sugar: Granulated sugar sweetens the cookies, but it also works together with the butter, flour, eggs and baking powder to give them their texture.
• Eggs: Eggs enrich a cookie dough, help the dry and wet ingredients combine with the butter, and their proteins help bind the cookie together.
• Vanilla extract: Vanilla is one of the essential dessert flavorings. Here it plays a mellow, understated role supporting the rum, espresso and chocolate flavors.
• Rum extract: Ladyfingers dipped in espresso spiked with rum (or brandy) are one of the core ingredients in regular tiramisu, and the rum extract plays a role in recreating that flavor profile.
• Kahlua: Kahlua’s espresso liqueur drives the coffee flavor into the filling. Prepared instant espresso powder (dissolved in hot water) can be used for an alcohol-free alternative.
• Flour: All-purpose flour is a cornerstone ingredient in cookies, binding up the eggs, butter and sugar to create the cookies’ final texture.
• Baking powder: Baking powder provides the leavening that keeps the cookies light.
• Mascarpone cheese: Mascarpone is what gives tiramisu’s filling its signature richness, and it plays the same role in the cookies’ filling.
• Instant espresso: The espresso-dipped ladyfingers are an essential element in tiramisu, and instant espresso powder ticks that box in these cookies.
• Confectioners’ sugar: Powdered confectioners’ sugar pulls the mascarpone, butter and flavorings together to make a filling that can be spread on the cookies.
• Cocoa: Finishing the cookies with a light dusting of cocoa completes their resemblance to tiramisu. You can use cocoa powder or Dutch-processed cocoa.

Directions

Step 1: Mix the cookie dough

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Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, five to seven minutes. Beat in the eggs, rum extract and vanilla extract.

In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, espresso powder, baking powder and salt. Then, gradually beat the flour mixture into the creamed butter mixture.

Step 2: Bake the cookies

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Drop the dough on parchment-lined cookie sheets a tablespoon at a time, spacing the cookies 2 inches apart. Flatten the cookies slightly with the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar. Bake the cookies until the edges begin to brown slightly, 12 to 14 minutes. Remove the cookies from the pans to wire racks, and let them cool completely.

Step 3: Make the filling

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In a large bowl, beat the mascarpone cheese and softened butter until they’re combined and smooth. Beat the Kahlua (or instant espresso powder dissolved in water) into the mascarpone mixture. Gradually beat in the confectioners’ sugar and salt to make a soft, spreadable filling.

Step 4: Pipe the filling onto the cookies

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Pipe or spread the filling over the flat bottoms of half the cookies, then cover them with the remaining cookies. Finish by dusting the cookies with cocoa, and refrigerate them until they’re served.

Tiramisu Cookie Variations

• Garnish with chocolate instead of cocoa: Traditional tiramisu is garnished with either cocoa or shaved chocolate. Cocoa is definitely the easy option when you’re doing cookies instead, but chocolate shavings aren’t out of the question. The trick is making them stick. To do that, pipe a small dot of the tiramisu-style filling on the top of each sandwich cookie and carefully press a chocolate curl or shaving onto it. You may find it easier to do this before the cookies are assembled, so you won’t have to worry about having enough leftover filling to make the dots. To make the chocolate curls, follow the instructions in this cupcake recipe.
• Lean into the chocolate: If you enjoy tiramisu but would like it better with a bolder chocolate element, add rum extract to these chocolate espresso cookies and sandwich those around your tiramisu filling. The combination still recalls tiramisu but dials the chocolate content way, way up.

How to Store Tiramisu Cookies

Because of the mascarpone, this tiramisu cookie recipe can’t be stored at room temperature like most cookies (the cheese represents a food safety risk). Instead, pack them into one or more containers with tight-fitting lids, and keep them in your refrigerator.

How long will tiramisu cookies keep?

Because of their cheese content, it’s helpful to think of them as leftovers rather than as cookies. While cookies can last anywhere from a week to a month at room temperature, you should plan to keep these in your fridge and eat them within three to five days (a tough job, we know, but someone’s got to do it).

Can I freeze tiramisu cookies?

Absolutely. Tiramisu itself freezes just fine, and these cookies are even more freezer-friendly because the mascarpone filling is stabilized with confectioners’ sugar. In a freezer container, they’ll retain their quality for up to a month. Packed airtight in heavy-duty freezer bags or vacuum bags, they’ll last up to three months and potentially longer.

Tiramisu Cookie Tips

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Why aren’t the butter and mascarpone coming together for me?

You probably haven’t softened the butter long enough. Your fingers will tell you when it’s ready; if you pinch both the mascarpone and the butter, you should feel the same degree of resistance. It also helps if the mascarpone isn’t fridge-cold when you start to mix them; otherwise, it will chill and stiffen the butter. Don’t leave it out in its container to warm up; that takes time and can affect food safety. Instead, spread it on a plate that’s gently warmed under the hot water tap. The mascarpone needs just a few minutes to warm enough to be easily mixed.

I don’t remember when I froze these cookies. Are they still safe to eat?

Food safety is never an issue in the freezer because bacteria can’t reproduce in that environment. Instead, it’s solely a question of how good they’ll taste, so you can always take a nibble to find out whether they’re past their prime. If they still taste good, you can go ahead and eat them, but if they’re stale or have off-flavors, toss them (and you’ll remember to label and date them next time, right?).

How else can I riff on the idea of tiramisu cookies?

Oh, there are way more possibilities than the handful we’ve listed in the Variations section above. Our Test Kitchen and the site’s home bakers have created a staggering number of tiramisu variations (11 pages worth, at the time of this writing). Unless you have an Italian nonna to placate, you can draw freely on those recipes to inspire seasonal or ingredient-driven variations on these tiramisu cookies. If you’ve enjoyed our pumpkin tiramisu in autumn, for example, you could add rum or brandy extract to our pumpkin cookies and then spread them with the same tiramisu-style filling.