Ladyfinger Cookies
Ladyfinger cookies, also called savoiardi, are an egg-based sponge cookie used as a component in desserts like tiramisu. They’re easy to make and home-made ladyfinger cookies taste so much better than the stale ones from the store.
This is a great skill building recipe. If you’re intimated by folding whipped egg whites or piping – even if they come out flat, weirdly shaped, or with lumps of flour they will still taste great in tiramisu. And you’ll learn!
Many of the whipping and mixing techniques here are used in tiramisu filling, so this is great practice!
Ingredients
150g | 1-1/2 cups flour (plus more for dusting your baking sheet)
140g | 1 cup sugar
5 large eggs, separated
1-1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1 tbsp butter or olive oil (to grease baking sheets)
Optional, 1/4 cup superfine sugar or powdered sugar
Chocolate variations
Replace 30g | 1/4 cup flour with cocoa powder for a chocolate cookie
Replace 30g | 1/4 cup flour with black cocoa to make an Oreo-flavoured cookie (make Oreo tiramisu!)
Method
Prep work
If you have two oven racks, set them in the top third and lower third of the oven, otherwise bake in two batches. Preheat oven to 325F.
Grease two baking sheets with butter, then dust lightly with flour. Do this even if you’re using non-stick coated baking sheets. Otherwise the cookies will stick. Alternatively use parchment paper or a slipat, but the butter/flour encourages crispy browning.
You’ll need a large pastry bag, you can make a pastry bag from a sheet of parchment paper as well (see below). Cut a 3/4” wide opening. Place the pastry bag in a large mason jar and fold the top of the bag down by 2”. Set aside.
Make the batter
In a small bowl, beat the egg yolks and vanilla. Beat for at least 1 minute until the egg yolks become pale and fluffy.
Whip the egg whites
You can do this by hand or with a hand mixer, but it’s easiest in a stand mixer.
Wipe down the bowl of a stand mixer to ensure there’s no fat present in the bowl (fat is the enemy of egg whites. Add the egg whites, salt, cream of tartar. Mix on slow until the egg whites are broken up and foaming, then increase to high. When the egg whites reach soft peaks, begin to add the sugar 1 tbsp at a time. Stop mixing at firm peaks, the eggs should still be glossy.
If your egg whites look dry and curdled you can add another tsp of egg white to re-emulsify them.
Fold the batter together
Fold the egg yolks into the egg whites, trying to keep as much of the air in the mixture as you can.
Sift 1/3 of the flour in. Sifting is important to help fold in without clumps and to prevent the weight of the flour from collapsing the mixture. Fold the flour in. Repeat two more times until all the flour is mixed in.
Pipe
Use a spatula to move the mixture into your pastry bag. You may need to do this in two batches depending on the size of your pastry mag.
Pipe cookies that are 1” wide, around 4” long, 1/2” space between. Pipe in a 4x5 grid on your baking sheet, 20 cookies per sheet, 40 cookies total.
To get really nice shapes for your cookies:
Hold the pastry tip slightly above your baking sheet and let the batter fall onto the sheet. This will help you make a straight line.
Put pressure from the back of the piping bag, twisting the end of the bag as you use the batter.
As you finish the shape of each cookie, release pressure, lift up slightly, then reverse the direction of the piping bag slightly to push the tiny bit of filling left back into the cookie
If you really want to smooth this out you can gently tap the top of the cookie with a lightly wet finger
Optionally sprinkle with superfine or powdered sugar. I skip this if I am making tiramisu as it tends to be sweet enough. If you’re using these cookies to decorate the outside of a cake the sprinkled sugar adds a really nice look.
Bake for 16–18 minutes. If you’re baking two trays at once you need to change the top/bottom layout. I didn’t do this the first time I made this recipe and half the batch was very pale.
Bake until golden brown, the surface is dry, and cookies spring back when pressed. Allow to cool fully on the baking sheet.
Storing
These cookies can be made ahead and frozen. Freeze in single layers separated by parchment paper. They will stick together if you do not use parchment paper. Thaw on the counter.
Piping bags made from single-use, fossil-fuel based plastic are harmful to the environment. Look for re-usable, washable silicone piping bags or make a piping bag from unbleached parchment paper – which is compostable and biodegradable.
To make a parchment piping bag:
Roll out 24” of parchment
Fold the parchment parchment diagonally, lining up the bottom right corner to the top left corner and crease this
Fold it in half again, creasing it again
Unfold the parchment then roll it up into a cone shape (the folds should help with this.
Fold the top down to hold it in place
Place in a tall jar and fill as usual