Rupert's made these charming little tiramisu cups using obulato, which is an edible paper from Japan made from potato starch which dissolves on contact with water, making it the perfect ingredient for encapsulating small mouthfuls of delicious treats like a mini tiramisu!  Obulato comes in round and square sheets, or on a roll, but in this case we've used the pre-formed obulato cupcake cases.

The tiramisu cups have a reverse-spherified espresso coffee bubble in the middle, made using sodium alginate and calcium gluconate.  We use calcium gluconate for reverse spherification because in this technique it is added to the mixture which makes the sphere, not the bath the sphere is dropped in, so the taste is important, and calcium gluconate has the most neutral taste of the various calcium salts you could use for this technique.

Finally we've topped the cups with our chopped truffled hazelnut praline grains, which add the cocoa and nutty tones to finish the dish off.

Obulato cups

Spray the obulato sheet with a stock syrup and then place over a mould. We used small shot glasses in this case.  Repeat this process until you have three layers.

Put into an oven set to 80c for around 10-20 minutes

Keep in an airtight container until ready to use. 

Coffee Centre
  • 170g Espresso
  • 50g Coffee Liqueur
  • 80g Water
  • 9g Calcium Gluconate
  • 50g Sugar

Mix the water and the calcium gluconate in a small pan. The mix will go white and a bit chalky.

Warm gently and it will become clear.

Now mix everything together, and thicken slightly with MSK UltraTex until you get a thick coulis-like viscosity.

Alginate Bath
  • 1 litre Water (soft or filtered water)
  • 10g Sodium Alginate
  • 200g Sugar

Mix the sugar and sodium alginate together and gradually whisk into the water. The water should thicken slightly.

Pass through a sieve and pour into a flat bottomed dish.

Making the Tiramisu

Brush the obulato cup with a little gold metallic powder, then layer up the Tiramisu in the cup with the coffee bubble in the centre.  We topped each cup with our chopped truffled hazelnut praline grains and a touch of gold leaf.