‘The Pioneer Woman’ Ree Drummond’s Mini-Tiramisu Is a ‘Quick-and-Dirty Version’ of the Classic Italian Dessert

Tiramisu, on the go? The Pioneer Woman star Ree Drummond shows you how to transform this classic Italian dessert into a take-with-you treat for your next picnic, packed lunch, and more. Here’s how to make her Mini Tiramisu.

What you’ll need to make Drummond’s Mini Tiramisu

To make what Ree Drummond calls her portable snack (ingredient quantities and Drummond’s video for the recipe can be found here), you’ll need heavy cream, sugar, vanilla extract, mascarpone cheese, espresso, dark rum, ladyfinger cookies, semisweet chocolate, and unsweetened cocoa powder.

How to put this to-go dessert together

Drummond begins by whipping up “plain whipped cream; I’m adding some sugar and a little splash of vanilla,” the television personality said in the Food Network video for this recipe.

Next, the mascarpone cheese is mixed into the whipped cream with a hand mixer. “When I’m making a regular big pan of Tiramisu, I will fold the mascarpone into the whipped cream mixture. But this is more of a quick-and-dirty version of Tiramisu.”

Now the espresso and rum are mixed in a small bowl; Drummond adds that “you can add brown sugar to sweeten it up.” Each ladyfinger is “completely submerged” in the coffee and rum mixture and then placed in the small glass or container in which you’re building your mini Tiramisu. For this recipe, Drummond used a “teeny-tiny pint mason jar…or is it a half-pint? It might be a half-pint.” If you need to, the ladyfinger cookies can be cut in half in order to fully dunk them in the espresso liquid.

A couple of spoonfuls of the cream mixture are dolloped on top of the soaked ladyfingers (“It’s a little lumpy from the mascarpone but I actually love it that way, that just excites me”). The mother of five then grates “a nice layer” of a bar of dark chocolate onto the whipped cream in the jar. “Then, you repeat the process”: soak the ladyfingers in the espresso, place in the jar; whipped cream layer on top of the cookies; and grate the chocolate. As a flourish on the final layer of whipped cream, cocoa powder is dusted on top.

The dessert can be refrigerated and in doing so, soaks up even more of the espresso and rum flavors. “The longer these sit in the fridge, the more the ladyfingers soften and the more everything becomes a Tiramisu miracle,” Drummond promised.

Mixed reviews for Drummond’s portable Tiramisu

Many reviewers for Drummond’s creation on the Food Network’s Instagram post clearly felt strongly about the presentation of the classic Italian dessert.

“This is not Tiramisu,” said one follower about the dessert.

Another home cook added, “Lady Fingers are cake, like not crispy.”

One viewer took issue with Drummond leaving her hair down while preparing the dessert: “You play with your hair and keep touching the food. Put your hair up!”

Still, there were more supportive comments such as “Yummy, delicious!” and “Love Tiramisu!! That would make a perfect to-go dessert.”