Have you ever wondered who eats those dreadful ladyfingers they sell in the grocery store? They are so bad; you really have to make them yourself. The good news is, they are super easy to make.
There are two uses for ladyfingers. Eaten as is, or soaked in desserts such as trifle, charlotte, or tiramisu. On their own, ladyfingers are not overly exciting and that is why they feed them to babies in Hungary; hence the name babapiskóta or baby sponge. The rich buttery, sometimes chocolaty cookies shaped the same way go by a different name; those are called macskanyelv or cat tongues.
But for now, let’s stay with our everyday, multipurpose ladyfingers. These can be soft or hard depending on the type of flour used. Change the flour in the recipe and you get completely different ladyfingers. For a very small baby, who gums the cookie with a couple of teeth, the safest is hard ladyfingers. Same with a trifle or a tiramisu, you need tough ladyfingers that will not turn to mash right of way. For these, bread flour works the best. If you want to give a snack to an older child or dunk the ladyfingers into your coffee, make the exact same recipe with all-purpose or cake flour. Cake flour ladyfingers will be too soft to use in a tiramisu, but will have a delightful texture as a snack. Using the middle of the road all-purpose flour will give you the most versatile type of ladyfingers. All of these taste delicious of course, only the texture is different.
I made these ladyfingers with all purpose white flour. I used a pastry bag to shape them, but a strong freezer bag with one corner cut off will work just as well.
Watch the video how easy this is:
LADYFINGERS
3 large eggs
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup flour
parchment paper
icing sugar for sprinkling
3/4 cup flour
parchment paper
icing sugar for sprinkling
• Preheat the oven to 350F.
• Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form.
• Gradually add the sugar beating all the while.
• Beat until hard peaks form, but do NOT overbeat. The peaks should retain a gentle softness.
• Add the egg yolks and beat to combine.
• Gently and gradually, fold in the flour.
• Fill a large piping bag with the batter and without using a tip, pipe the batter on the prepared baking pan.
• Lightly sprinkle the top with icing sugar.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 12 minutes.
• Remove from the oven and enjoy.
