Hi,
I am making tiramisue with rose lee recipe , I am little confuse about how long we have to whisk the egg yolks,it says until it triple in volume and begins to thick,3 to 5 min , so can we use electric hand beater for that or we have to whisk it by hands as for me it takes too long ,as how we we sure that we are at the right point of thickness , do it resemble like custard? I did it few min before but not sure that i did it right or not.
2nd thing few recipes call for using egg whites instead of heavy cream,why is that,or can we use whip cream in the place of heavy cream?

zille, when the yolk mixture is done it should be 165-170F with an instant read thermometer AND be tripled in volume.  The texture should be light and whipped, a thick egg foam rather than a thin, liquid custard.

I imagine it might be difficult to use an electric mixer with a double boiler.  If you have an immersion blender that might work if it has a slower setting.  The problem with a mixer/blender is that it whips the egg mixture so fast that it doesn’t heat up to the right temperature.  When hand whisking, go slow enough that you still see the temp rising.

Yes, you can use whipping cream, which is usually heavy cream with emulsifiers added.

Ok , Thank you Julia, the first attempt was not perfect but i did it again and at that time it was perfect.Actually don’t have thermometer,will buy one soon.

Hello Julie,

Is there an another way to see if the bated egg is at its right temp without using a thermometer?