I love being able to travel back in time with the blog. This weekend, we invited some friends over for dinner, and I wanted to make this Lucuma tiramisu to accompany the ají de gallina that I served for dinner. And now, five years later, it was no different—a creamy and delicious dessert.
When I was in Chile, we went to eat at Astrid y Gastón restaurant. For dessert, I chose a Lucuma trilogy that included a Lucuma tiramisu. This is my version, and I think it turned out very tasty and different.
What is Lucuma?
Lucuma is a fruit native to the Andean valleys of Peru, Chile, and Ecuador. It is also known as “eggfruit” due to its yellow-orange color on the inside and custard-like texture. A nutrient-rich fruit has been a staple in Andean diets for thousands of years.
Lucuma has a sweet, mild flavor often described as a combination of maple, caramel, dulce de leche, and sweet potato. It is used in various dishes, such as ice cream, smoothies, cakes, and pies.
Lucuma powder, made from dehydrated and ground lucuma fruit, is also a popular ingredient in health food products and can be used as a natural sweetener.
You can find lucuma powder online or at Whole Foods and health stores in the USA. And Goya also stocked frozen Lucuma pulp in Latin supermarkets.
Other recipes with Lucuma:
- Lucuma Meringue Cake
- Chilean Lucuma Dessert
- Lucuma Flan
- Lucuma Tres Leches
- Lucuma Macarons
- Lucuma Ice Cream
Lucuma Tiramisu
A delicious dessert.
- Total Time: 6 hours
- Yield: 8
Ingredients
- 2 packages of ladyfingers cookies (about 24 cookies)
- 225 grams of Philadelphia cream cheese at room temperature
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1 1/2 cups Lucuma puree (I used a whole pot from the Guayarauco) OR 1/2 cup Lucuma powder and 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 cup espresso coffee
- cocoa powder
Instructions
- Beat the cream cheese with the mixer at low speed until it is creamy. Add the lucuma puree or the lucuma powder and powdered sugar, mix well, then add the cream and continue beating at high speed for three more minutes until it is creamy and light.
- Prepare espresso coffee or instant coffee, 1 cup or so, and let cool.
- Assemble the tiramisu in a medium rectangular dish or trifle. Put a layer of cookies on the base, take each ladyfinger, and wet it with coffee on both sides. Don’t submerge the cookie. Only dip 1 second on each side, or it will break.
- Then layer half of the lucuma cream, use half, another layer of cookies, final layer of lucuma cream, sprinkle with cocoa, and refrigerate 6 hours or ideally overnight before serving.
Notes
Traditionally tiramisu is made with mascarpone cheese, but I found that using lucuma puree was not worth the expense as the prominent flavor is lucuma. And it is delicious.
- Prep Time: 30 minutos
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Refrigerator
- Cuisine: Chilean
Dear Pilar: I sorry I disagree with you as far as Chilean foods, corn and squash are not native to Chile. they were developed by the Aztecs and potatoes are as Peruvian as picarones, Mapuches ate piñones and guanacos. We have to admit that Mapuches were NOT an agricultureal or farmers tribe, they learned about corn, squash and potatoes when the Incas larrived to Chile and educated the native tribes to grow the mentioned foods We grew up believing the Mapuches were the Cream of Crop of the regional area they populated. I was born in Chile and lived there until 1961 and I admit our native population didn’t have the class of the Incas or original nations north off Ecuador all the way to the Hudson bay. Sorry to be so honest.
Edward, in general, when talking about corn, squash, and potatoes, I mean natives to the continent, not brought by the Spaniards. As such, corn, squash, and potatoes have a long biological evolution (in Chile), and nowadays, different varieties are recognized and used in different countries in Latin America.