Italian cuisine · Desserts & Sweets

Zuppa Inglese

Emilian layered dessert of red-soaked ladyfingers, vanilla custard and chocolate custard.

Ingredients · for 6 servings

• 300 ml whole milk
• 200 ml cream
• 4 eggs
• 150 g sugar
• 50 g cornstarch
• 1 vanilla pod
• 80 g dark chocolate
• 200 g ladyfingers
• 150 ml alchermes liqueur (or substitute 100 ml water + 2 tbsp raspberry syrup)
• 1 pinch salt

Instructions

1. Bring the milk and cream to a boil with the scraped vanilla seeds and pod, remove from the heat and let steep for 10 min, then remove the pod.
2. Beat the egg yolks with sugar, cornstarch and a pinch of salt until smooth, pour in the hot milk while stirring, and return everything to the pot.
3. Thicken the custard over medium heat, stirring constantly, for 3-4 min until it clearly thickens and coats the back of a spoon, then remove from the heat immediately.
4. Take out a third of the custard, melt the roughly chopped chocolate in it and stir smooth; cover both custards with cling film directly on the surface and let cool to room temperature.
5. Briefly dip the ladyfingers in the alchermes - only 2 seconds per side, or they'll fall apart - and layer half of them into a glass bowl.
6. Layer light and dark custard alternately with the soaked ladyfingers, finish with custard and chill for at least 4 hours before serving the dessert by the spoonful.