Homemade Ladyfingers

Step 1

Preheat your oven to 350ºF.

Step 2

Place your egg yolks into the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment. Turn the mixer on low and sprinkle in your 1 ounce measurement of sugar.

Step 3

Once it's combined, increase the speed to medium high and whip until the mixture triples in volume, is pale in color and forms a thick ribbon on the surface of the batter when you drizzle it onto itself. This will take about 3-4 minutes.

Step 4

Combine your flour and salt together in a separate bowl.

Step 5

Sift half of the flour mixture over the egg mixture and gently fold it using a spatula.

Step 6

Once it's incorporated, sift in the second half of the flour and continue folding until everything is combined. Set aside.

Step 7

In a separate mixer bowl, add in your egg whites with your whisk attachment.

Step 8

While mixing on medium speed, sprinkle in the second measurement of sugar, then increase the speed to medium high. Continue whipping until you reach medium-stiff peaks.

Step 9

Fold ⅓ of the meringue into the egg yolk mixture using a spatula to lighten its density. This might take a few minutes to work all the meringue in but just keep folding.

Step 10

Then add in the rest of your meringue and continue folding carefully until it's homogeneous. Be careful not to over mix because you will knock out the air inside your batter and your lady fingers will not rise well.

Step 11

Place your printed templates under parchment paper on 2 sheet pans (one for rounds and one for fingers)

Step 12

Fit a large piping bag fitted with an 806 piping tip then fill it with the batter. ( If you don't have a piping tip you can just cut a decent sized hole in the piping bag).

Step 13

Pipe the batter on top of the circle template while holding the tip about ½ away from the pan so that the batter is not too thick. Stop piping about ¼” away from the outline of the circle because the batter will spread.

Step 14

Place your 8.5”x11” sheet of paper on top of the baking sheet and place some parchment on top. Pipe your batter in 8” long lines, leaving about ⅛” of space in between each line. You will have leftover batter, I suggest piping extra cookies or another tray of lady fingers as a backup just in case you have gaps (like I did).

Step 15

Sift an even layer of powdered sugar over all of the lady fingers and let it soak in for about 2 minutes.

Step 16

Without the powdered sugar the fingers don’t rise as much. Place the tray in a 350” oven for 15-18 minutes. Rotate the tray halfway through baking to ensure even browning.

Step 17

Remove the ladyfingers from the oven and let them cool. Once they have cooled gently remove them from the parchment paper to avoid them sticking and tearing later.