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Ladyfingers
Beat the whites of three eggs till dry, add one-third of a cup of powdered sugar gradually and continue beating.
Then add the yolks, beaten till lemoncolored, and a quarter of a teaspoon of vanilla. Cut and fold in three-quarters of a cup of flour mixed with one-eighth teaspoon of salt. Shape with a pastry bag and tube on unbuttered sheets of paper. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and bake eight minutes in a moderate oven. Remove from the paper with a knife. Stella A. Downing.
A plain sponge batter piped into fingers — the whole thing hinges on how you fold the flour in and how fast you get it into the oven.
- Fold, do not stirThe only leavening here is air beaten into the eggs. Cut and fold the flour in with a spatula in as few strokes as will incorporate it; a batter that has been stirred slack will spread into puddles instead of holding a finger shape.
- "Beat till dry"This is period language for stiff peaks that hold their shape and no longer slide in the bowl — not literally dry. Whites beaten past that point turn grainy and break down when the yolks go in.
- Powdered sugarIn turn-of-the-century American books "powdered sugar" often meant a finer-ground sugar, closer to today's superfine than to confectioners', though usage varied from book to book. Either will work in the batter; confectioners' is the usual choice for the sprinkling on top.
- Moderate ovenPeriod tables reckon a moderate oven at roughly 350-375F. The recipe gives no size for the fingers; at that heat eight minutes suits small ones, which should be set and pale gold at the edges, still soft in the centre.
- The paper"Unbuttered sheets of paper" meant plain white paper laid on the baking sheet. Use parchment, and the knife step becomes unnecessary — the cooled fingers lift straight off.
- PipingA plain round tube of about half an inch. Pipe fingers three to three and a half inches long, spaced a good inch apart, and bake immediately; batter left standing in the bag deflates.
- YieldAbout twenty to twenty-four fingers from three eggs. They stale quickly — use them the day they are baked, or dry them out deliberately if they are going into a trifle or charlotte.
Ladyfingers are the English name for the biscuit e biscuit, so called because before pastry bags were common the batter was dropped into shape with two spoons; the Italian savoiardi of the same family are traditionally traced to the court of Savoy. Their purpose in a book like this is structural rather than standalone: a charlotte russe needs a wall of them, a trifle needs a layer, and a household that could pipe its own avoided buying them. The signature at the end, Stella A. Downing, marks this as a reader contribution.