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Naples, or Finger, Biscuits
Take eight eggs, divide the whites from the yolks, and put them into separate bowls. Beat the yolks thoroughly, and mix with these half a pound of finely-sifted loaf sugar, a small pinch of salt, two or three drops of almond, lemon, or any other flavouring, two ounces of best flour, and two ounces and a half of cornflour. Beat thoroughly to a thick smooth batter. Whisk the whites to a solid froth, add them a little at a time to the rest, beating briskly all the while. Place them on a baking-sheet, in fingers four inches long and three-quarters of an inch wide, sift a little sugar over them, and bake in a moderate oven. They should not be allowed to brown. Time to bake, a quarter of an hour. Probable cost, 1s. 6d. per pound.
These are sponge fingers — the savoiardi or ladyfingers used to line charlottes and trifles. The batter is almost all egg, so the whole recipe hinges on how much air survives from bowl to oven.
- Fold, do not beatThe instruction to add the whites "beating briskly all the while" will knock out the air you just whisked in. Loosen the yolk mixture with a spoonful of the whites, then fold the rest in gently in three additions, alternating with the sifted flours.
- Loaf sugarSugar came as a hard cone to be broken up and sifted; "finely-sifted loaf sugar" means caster sugar today. Half a pound is 225 g. The sugar sifted over the piped fingers is additional to this.
- CornflourBritish cornflour is American cornstarch, not cornmeal. Two ounces flour (55 g) to two and a half ounces cornstarch (70 g) is a deliberately low-gluten mix, which is why the fingers stay tender and dry rather than chewy.
- Moderate ovenRead this as 350F/180C. Because they must not colour, watch from ten minutes; a quarter of an hour is the outside limit for fingers this size, and larger ovens with a fan will want 325F/160C.
- PipingUse a plain nozzle about 1.5 cm across and pipe onto parchment. Four inches by three-quarters of an inch is a true ladyfinger; a spooned blob will spread and bake unevenly.
- The sugar dustingSift sugar over the piped fingers, wait a minute for it to dampen, then sift again and tip the sheet to shed the excess. That double dusting gives the pearled, crackled top of a proper savoiardo.
- FlavouringTwo or three drops of modern almond or lemon extract is right — these are concentrated and will dominate at more. Vanilla or a little grated lemon zest suits the batter equally well.
- Yield and keepingEight eggs give roughly 36 to 40 fingers. They soften quickly in humid air; dry them briefly in a cooling oven and store airtight, or leave them a day to stale if they are going into a charlotte or tiramisu.
"Naples biscuit" was the English name for the dry, sugared sponge finger that appears in cookery books from the seventeenth century onward, usually as a component rather than a treat in itself: crumbled into custards and possets, laid round the walls of a charlotte russe, or soaked with wine for trifle. Whether the name records an actual Neapolitan origin or simply the period habit of attaching Italian cities to sweet baking is not settled, though the biscuit is plainly a relative of the Savoy or Savoiardi finger, generally traced to the ducal court of Savoy. The listed cost of 1s 6d a pound reflects a confection that is mostly eggs and sugar — modest in labour, not in ingredients, for a late-Victorian household.