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This is a combination of two of my favourite desserts. Banana Tiramisu is like if banoffee pie and tiramisu had a lovechild. Imagine the creamy texture and coffee, cocoa and booze-soaked flavours of tiramisu combined with the sweet, velvety caramel and fruity banana flavours so synonymous with banoffee pie… heaven in a bowl.
It is much simpler than it looks and requires no cooking time at all – making it the perfect no-bake dessert recipe. Like a traditional tiramisu, the secret is in the chilling time. Once you have prepped the layers, it is more or less an assembly job, ideal for entertaining and dinner parties. Trust me, this is the dessert you didn’t know you needed.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe:
- All the prep is done in advance so you can make it ahead of time and chill in the fridge until you are serving.
- It’s so delicious and a twist on classic tiramisu which makes it just that bit more interesting.
- This banana tiramisu marries banoffee pie with tiramisu to make the most delicious flavour combination.
Ingredients:
Full recipe can be found in the printable recipe card at the bottom of the post, just scroll down!
Mascarpone – a creamy, thick Italian cheese with a high fat content (around 40%) and similar consistency to cream cheese. Make sure it’s at room temperature before making tiramisu.
Eggs – use free-range large eggs if you can. They must be stamped with the British Lion since they are served raw.
Caster sugar – I like to use caster sugar. Granulated sugar works too.
Savioardi lady fingers – these crisp, sweet vanilla-flavoured biscuits soften when immersed in liquid, absorbing the delicious coffee flavour.
Strong coffee – it is important it is strong otherwise the coffee flavour won’t come through in the dessert. Make sure it has cooled slightly before dipping.
Marsala – this is a fortified wine produced in Italy. You could swap for other alcohols/liqueurs (see FAQs).
Kahlúa – this is a coffee-flavoured liqueur made in Mexico using 100% Arabica coffee beans, rum and sugar. It has a lovely strong coffee flavour with notes of sweet vanilla and caramel.
Bananas – obviously key for the banoffee flavour, you want them to be nice and ripe but not as overripe as you would use for banana bread.
Caramel – this is key for the sweet, banoffee flavour. You could use dulce de leche if you prefer.
Cocoa powder – make sure you use the unsweetened variety (and definitely not hot chocolate powder!)
Substitutions and Variations
Alcohol: You could skip it entirely or use Frangelico (hazelnut-flavoured liqueur) and Amaretto (almond-flavour liqueur). Rum and brandy also work very well. If you don’t want to buy marsala wine and kahlúa, just use one or the other.
Other tiramisu recipes: try my pistachio tiramisu, Baileys tiramisu, Lotus Biscoff tiramisu, or panettone tiramisu.
Cooking Tips
Piping on the top: if you don’t feel confident piping, that is fine! Instead of piping the caramel in lines and feathering it out with a toothpick, you can top with a dusting of sieved cocoa powder or a grating of dark chocolate. Or blitzed biscuit crumbs (in a nod to the buttery biscuit base found in banoffee pie) for a bit of texture.
Serving tiramisu: Removing it from the fridge before serving means that the flavours will come through better. Just remove it 20 minutes beforehand but not too much longer (especially if it’s a hot day) as you don’t want it to impact the set.
Dipping the lady fingers: The key to ensuring the fingers don’t disintegrate is to keep the dunking very short. You need to dip the lady fingers into the coffee and baileys mixture for just a few seconds. Even if they feel hard still to the touch, once the liquid continues to soak in and once they sit in the dish with the cream layers, they will soften. You want them to have long enough to absorb the flavour but not too long that they turn soggy immediately.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Banoffee pie is a classic British dessert made from layers of thick caramel sauce, sliced bananas and whipped cream on a buttery biscuit base. Often it is topped with gratings of dark chocolate.
Although caramel and dulce de leche look and taste similar, they are made in different ways. Homemade caramel is made by simmering sugar with water until it caramelises, before adding cream and, often, butter to make a thick, sweet and creamy sauce. Dulce de leche is made by heating up milk with sugar very slowly, simmering until it caramelises. It is very popular in Latin America, Spain, Portugal and the Philippines.
You can do, but I wanted to make a simpler version and there is no real need for a homemade caramel. A tin of caramel is delicious!
Storage & Make Ahead Instructions
I prefer to make my tiramisu the day before, then cover and chill it overnight in the fridge. This allows time for the layers to set and flavours to infuse, giving it a better texture and enhanced flavour (basically making it even more delicious). However, if you are pushed for time, it can be ready in 6 hours (the leftovers will be even better the next day though).
Although it is best served the day after making, once the flavours have developed, any leftovers can last up to 3 days.
Other recipes you may like
If you enjoyed this banana tiramisu recipe, try my Tiramisu Pancakes, Banana Bread Bars or my Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Banana Bread. For more tiramisu flavoured treats, try my Tiramisu Cookies, Tiramisu Ice Cream Mochi or my Tiramisu Tres Leches Cake.
Easy Dessert Recipes
Panettone Tiramisu
Easy Dessert Recipes
Pistachio Tiramisu
Easy Dessert Recipes
Baileys Tiramisu
Easy Dessert Recipes
Speculoos Tiramisu
Made this recipe and loved it?
I would love love LOVE if you could leave a review in the comments… I love hearing what you thought, any changes you made, the stories behind what made you try my recipes. Also, if you share a photo on Instagram, please tag me @desertislanddishes, it makes my day to see you making my creations!
Banana Tiramisu
Ingredients
- 3 large eggs, separated
- 100 g caster sugar
- 500 g mascarpone, at room temperature
- 200 g savoiardi lady fingers
- 150 ml strong coffee, cooled to room temperature
- 50 ml Marsala
- 25 ml Kahlúa
- 3 small ripe bananas
- 1 x 397g can caramel
- Generous pinch of flaky salt
- 2 heaped tbsp cocoa powder
Instructions
- Place the egg yolks in a large mixing bowl with the caster sugar and whisk using an electric whisk for about 5 minutes – or until thick and pale.
- Add the mascarpone and whisk until smooth and combined. Set aside.
- In a separate large bowl, whisk the egg whites using an electric whisk until you have soft peaks.
- Fold in ⅓ of the mascarpone-egg yolk mixture until combined. Next, very gently fold in another ⅓, trying to keep in as much air as possible. Continue to gently fold the remaining ⅓ as before, ensuring you don’t lose too much air. Set aside.
- In a shallow bowl, mix together the coffee, Marsala and Kahlúa. Set aside.
- Pour the caramel into a mixing bowl, add a generous pinch of flaky salt and stir gently to loosen. Set aside.
- Slice the bananas into rounds approx. 3mm thick. Set on a plate.
- Begin to layer up your tiramisu – bear in mind the size, shape and depth of the dish you are using and how many layers you want to make (you need to ensure that the amount of caramel, banana and mascarpone mixture you use for each layer will leave you enough for the next).
- One at a time, dip the savoiardi biscuits into the coffee and alcohol mixture for a few seconds on each side – it needs to be just long enough to absorb some of the mixture, but not too long that it becomes soggy and disintegrates.
- Arrange in a flat layer of soaked Savioardi into the bottom of a medium-sized serving dish. Spread a layer of the caramel on top to cover.
- Next, add the sliced banana coins in a flat layer. Top with a layer of the mascarpone mixture and spread using the back of a spoon, palette knife or spatula until smooth. Sieve over a little cocoa powder to cover.
- Repeat this process, finishing with a smooth layer of mascarpone mixture, but for the final layer I omit the cocoa powder dusting and decorate with caramel as a nod to the banoffee flavours inside. If you want to have the same decoration as my photos, simply put the remaining caramel into a disposable piping bag and snip a little off the end (you could also use a sandwich bag).
- Starting at the top left corner of the serving dish, apply gentle pressure to the piping bag as you draw vertical lines from the top of the dish to the bottom, leaving a thin line of caramel atop the mascarpone. Continued this across the entire mascarpone layer, leaving a gap of about 1 cm (0.5 inch) between each line of caramel.
- Next, take a toothpick, and working horizontally, gently drag it from left to right through the lines of caramel, alternating direction (left to right, then right to left, and so on). You could also do swirls for a more marble-like effect.
- Cover and chill in the fridge for at least 6 hours, ideally overnight.
