Home › Cake-Making › Lady Fingers
Lady Fingers
Beat the yolks of four eggs with a quarter of a pound of sugar until smooth and light; whisk the whites of the eggs and add to these, and sift in a quarter of a pound of flour. Make into a smooth paste, and lay it on buttered paper, in the size and shape the cakes are required. Bake quickly. While hot, press two of the cakes into one on the flat side.
A four-ingredient sponge that lives or dies on how much air you keep in the eggs. Everything else here is timing.
- The hinge: fold, do not stirOnce the whipped whites go into the yolk-sugar base, and again when the flour is sifted in, work with a spatula in as few strokes as possible. There is no baking powder in this batter; every bit of lift comes from air already beaten in, and a slack, over-mixed paste spreads into flat wafers.
- WeightsA quarter pound of sugar is about 115 g, roughly 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated. A quarter pound of flour is also 115 g, a scant cup. Weigh if you can, since ladyfingers are unforgiving of a heavy flour hand.
- Beat the yolks to the ribbon"Smooth and light" means the yolks and sugar should fall from the whisk in a thick pale ribbon that sits on the surface for a second or two. This usually takes three to five minutes with a mixer, longer by hand.
- WhitesWhisk to soft-to-medium peaks, not stiff and dry. Stiff whites break into lumps when folded and leave streaks that bake as tough spots.
- "Bake quickly"Period sources that gloss a quick oven usually put it in the region of 400-425F, which is hot for so thin a cake. Around 400F for 8 to 10 minutes gives a pale gold shell with a dry surface and a soft interior; watch them closely, as they colour in the last minute.
- Buttered paperParchment does the job now and needs no butter. Pipe with a plain half-inch tip in fingers about three inches long, spaced well apart, and use a dab of batter under each corner of the paper to stop it sliding.
- Pressing the pairsThey must be joined flat-to-flat while still hot and slightly tacky, straight from the oven. Once cool they are crisp and will simply snap. If you want them single, for lining a charlotte mould or for trifle, skip this step and let them dry.
- Yield and keepingFour eggs give roughly 24 to 30 fingers, so a dozen or so joined pairs. They stale fast; use the same day for eating, or leave them out overnight to dry if they are going into a soaked dessert.
Ladyfingers are the English name for the Italian savoiardi, a light egg sponge generally traced to the court of Savoy and made across Europe under a variety of names — boudoirs and biscuits à la cuiller in France, the latter recalling the days when the batter was spooned rather than piped onto paper. Their place in a turn-of-the-century cake chapter has less to do with eating them plain than with what they build: charlotte russe, trifle and moulded creams all depend on a dry, absorbent finger of sponge that soaks up liquid without collapsing. The instruction to press two together while hot produces a plump double biscuit.