One of the most important ingredients in your tiramisu is the ladyfingers, as they are the only durable ingredient to give any variety in texture to the dessert. When ladyfingers are made fresh they have a soft, cake-like texture, but store-bought varieties are often much drier and must be implemented into tiramisu differently.

In Italian ladyfingers are often called savoiardi, and searching for proper savoiardi cookies should help ensure that you're getting the more firm variety of biscuit. This style of ladyfinger is more durable than the soft variety, so they can handle a quick dip into the coffee without much worry about breakage.

The moisture of the coffee and cream can easily cause a softer ladyfinger to fall apart on its way into your preferred pan or dish, so arrange your unsoaked cookies into a layer in the pan before brushing them with coffee. This way you won't have to worry about them falling apart and will have more control over how much coffee is added.