Foodie

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Ladyfingers



According to Wikipedia, Ladyfingers, are light and sweet sponge cakes roughly shaped like a large finger. They are called savoiardi in Italian (meaning "from Savoy"), or in French biscuits à la cuillère or boudoirs. In the UK they may be called sponge-fingers, trifle sponges or boudoir biscuits. In Dutch, they are called lange vingers, literally translating to "long fingers". In Germany they are called Löffelbiskuit, which translates to "spoon biscuit".





Ingredients:

3 eggs, separated
6 tbsp fine granulated sugar
¾ cup all-purpose flour
2 tbsp cornstarch
A pinch of salt
Confectioners' sugar for dusting


Method:

Preheat your oven to 450 f.

Make a template to guide the size of the fingers,  by folding the parchment paper into half lengthwise(length of half sheet baking pan) and then fold into half and half again making four approximately 3 1/2 inches - 4 inches markings 

Lightly grease 2 baking sheets and line with this folded parchment paper. 
Whisk the egg whites using a stand mixer with the whisk attachment on the medium speed until foamy then gradually add the 6 tbsps of fine granulated sugar, one tbsp at a time and continue beating until the egg whites become glossy, smooth.and in soft peaks.
Beat the egg yolks lightly with a fork (so that the yolks can easily incorporate into the whites) and using a  large spatula,  fold the lightly beaten egg yolks into the meringue,.

Sift the flours and salt, to aerate and then sift over this egg mixture.  Fold gently until just mixed.(It is important to fold very gently and not overdo the folding, otherwise the batter would deflate and lose volume resulting in ladyfingers which are flat and not spongy). The batter would be thick and a plastic bench scraper would not flip when placed in the middle of the batter..

Fit a large pastry bag with a plain 1/2 inch tip and fill with all the batter.

Pipe the batter following the template 3 1/2 inches to 4 inches long and 3/4 inches wide strips leaving about 1 inch space in between the strips.

Sprinkle confectioners' sugar over the ladyfingers and let it rest for 10 minutes. The sugar will pearl or look wet and glisten. Again, sprinkle with more confectioners' sugar and let rest for another 5 minutes. The confectioners' sugar and resting  give the crispness.to the ladyfingers.

Bake the ladyfingers for 8 minutes, or until the fingers turn lightly golden brown and are still soft.  Rotate the sheets halfway through baking.

Allow them to cool slightly on the sheets for about 5 minutes before removing the ladyfingers from the baking sheet.  Remove with a metal spatula  and cool on a rack.

Store them in an airtight container till required. They should keep for 2 to 3 weeks.

1 comment:

Elin said...

Lily ...this is wonderful...homemade ladyfingers !!! I must make this someday :) Thanks for sharing the recipe. Into my list to do :))

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