Published: · Modified: by Silvana Nava · This post may contain affiliate links
Here you can find out all the secrets to make Ladyfingers (Savoiardi) recipe at home! You will find out that homemade ladyfingers are easy to make and taste much better than the ones you usually buy! Try this step-by-step recipe!
Ladyfingers or Savoiardi are typical cookies of Italian pastry. Savoiardi are called "ladyfingers" because of their elongated shape that resembles a lady's fingers and are very popular all over the world.
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Only few ingredients for homemade ladyfingers recipe: eggs, flour and sugar. Ladyfinger cookies have a golden color, with a crumbly, spongy consistency, covered with a delicious crunchy crust!
Delicious with a good cup of coffee, they are often used to make spoon desserts. For example, you can use my Ladyfinger recipe to make tiramisu. They are even perfect with pudding or creams such as Pastry Cream or Mascarpone Cream.
Follow my ladyfingers recipe with all the tips and tricks I'll show you and you'll get some delicious Italian cookies!
Ingredients
- Prep Time: 20 Min
- Cook Time: 8 Min
- Servings: about 20 Savoiardi Ladyfingers
- 2 large whole eggs
- 1 tablespoon of powdered sugar to sprinkle
- 60 g (4 tablespoons) of granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar to sprinkle
- 40 g (about 3 tablespoons) of "00" flour
- 20 g (2 tablespoons) of potato starch
- 1 grated lemon peel (optional)
- Essential for the success of the recipe is a good electric electric stand mixer such as KitchenAid Artisan Series, like the one used to make ladyfingers in this recipe.
- You can also use ahand mixer to perfectly beat the egg whites.
- A pastry bag with a smooth and wide tip is essential to give the right shape to the biscuits.
- Useful could be a large cookie jar with an airtight seal. In fact, if properly stored, ladyfingers remain fragrant for up to two weeks.
Ladyfingers Recipe: Instructions
The Dough
Step 1) - You will need 2 large eggs. Separate the yolks from the whites. Using an electric mixer or hand whisk, beat the egg whites for a few minutes on high speed. When the whites begin to get stiff, add 60 g (4 tablespoons) of granulated sugar. Continue to beat the egg whites until you get a very firm, shiny and hard meringue.
IMPORTANT: You must make a mixture that can be put in the pastry bag and that can be perfectly shaped. If you beat the egg whites too little, the dough will be too soft. The dough will lose its shape and volume as soon as it is placed on the baking sheet with the bag. The dough will expand and you will end up with a real crap.
WHIP THE EGG WHITES UNTIL SUPER-STIFF!
Step 2) - Now beat the egg yolks with a fork and add them to the whipped egg whites, stirring with a spatula, moving from the bottom upwards.
PLEASE NOTE: The more air you will be able to incorporate during this hand work, the softer, lighter and more perfect the lady fingers will be for soaking in coffee or liquors in your recipes.
Step 3) - Then add 40 g (about 3 tablespoons) of “00” flour and 20 g (2 tablespoons) of potato starch, together with 1 grated lemon peel (optional) or other flavoring of your choice, and mix until you get a hom*ogeneous mixture.
The Baking
Step 4) - Place the mixture in a pastry bag with a smooth and wide tip, and form sticks of about 10/12 cm (about ⅘ inch) on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. During cooking the ladyfingers will expand and swell a little, so it's important that they are spaced apart on the baking sheet. Sprinkle the lady fingers cookies first with the granulated sugar and then with the icing sugar.
Step 6) - Bake at 200 °C (390 F) for 7 minutes. Open to let the steam out and cook for another 2 minutes. Let them cool well before using your homemade Ladyfingers bisquits for your recipes. For example serve them with pastry cream or simply with a good coffee. They are perfect to make Tiramisu.
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How to Store Homemade Ladyfingers
You can keep your homemade ladyfingers, even for 15 days, in an airtight box or in a cookie jar with lid. However, we recommend that you leave them in the open air at least 1 day before storing, so that they harden slightly and don't stick to each other.
If you want a consistency more similar to packaged Savoiardi, therefore harder and crunchy, perfect for soaking, just leave them in the air for a couple of days.
The Sardinian Savoiardi
Among the local Italian pastry traditions, one of the best known versions of Savoiardi is the Sardinian one. In Sardinian Dialect, Lady fingers cookies are called "Pistoccus" or "Pistokkus" or "Pistokkeddus".
They call them also Savoiardi di Fonni, from the town that is best known for this recipe. The town of Fonni, in the province of Nuoro, is a small mountain town. The climate is cooler than in the rest of the island and… they make Savoiardi so good that they have become famous.
Traditionally in Sardinia they serve Savoiardi together with a good coffe, especially during wedding, baptism or family celebrations. For this reason the Sardinians call them "Pistoccus de caffei".
The Sardinian Savoiardi compared to the traditional one is slightly larger and more flattened. Sometime they add a spoonful of honey in the dough.
Savoiardi History: the Italian Cookies with Royal Origins
Savoiardi have very ancient origins. They were born in the late Middle Ages in the Piedmont region at the time of the Savoy kingdom.
The chef of the court of Amedeo VI made them for a sumptuous lunch, organized in honor of the royals of France.
Thanks to the success they had in that famous lunch, they "officially" attribuited these biscuits to the Royal House of Savoy.
A sixteenth-century recipe indicates its composition: "They are made with a little flour, egg white and sugar". These are the ingredients of "El Biscotin" in Piedmontese dialect, that is "The Small Biscuit".
Widespread in all areas of Savoy influence especially in France. We can find Savoiardi biscuits mentioned in the Dumas cooking dictionary and in Sardinia.
