Recipe - Ladyfingers (Savoiardi)

1 cup Sifted unbleached flour
4 Eggs graded "jumbo";
separated and at room
temperature
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
One fourth teaspoon Salt
1/8 teaspoon Cream of tartar
One half cup Superfine sugar; plus
3 tablespoon Superfine sugar
Confectioner's sugar for
dusting tops before baking

From: michelle MCWright@worldnet.att.net

Newsgroups: rec.food.baking

Makes about 25 5inch or 32 4inch ladyfingers

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Note: Be sure to use extra large cookie sheets if you have them.

Prepare your cookie sheets with shortening and flour as you would a cake
pan. Set aside. Sift your flour and salt together, and then set aside. I
like to sift mine three times. Adjust two racks to divide the oven into
thirds, and preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

In an electric mixer, beat your egg yolks, One half of your sugar and vanilla
until mixture is pale yellow. The mixture will be very light in texture,
and the volume seems to triple. Transfer to another large mixing bowl. Wash
your mixer bowl and beaters thoroughly with hot water and soap, rinse, then
wipe bowl and beaters with vinegar which will cut any remaining traces of
egg yolk. Rinse again with hot water and then dry. Pour in your egg whites,
and whip on low until frothy. Add your cream of tartar. Increase the speed
of the mixer to mediumhigh and beat until soft peaks begin to form. Now
add your remaining half of sugar and beat until whites are stiff and shiny.
You can tell it is ready if you turn your mixer bowl upside down, and the
whites do not fall out.

Briskly folk in about 1/3 of the whites to your mixing bowl with egg
yolks/sugar mixture to lighten. Gently fold in the rest of your whites
until just combined, and then sift flour over egg mixture and gently fold
until combined. Your sponge batter will appear like soft clouds.

Fill a large pastry bag with a large plain tip (about a #6) with your
sponge batter. Working quickly, pipe 4inch long, about 1/2inch wide
strips to your prepared cookie sheets leaving about an inch between
savoiardi. It's allright if you pipe them a little closer. Gently dust your
savoiardi by sifting powdered sugar over them. Put your cookie sheets in
the oven. The savoiardi should be baked for about 15 minutes, but at the
halfway mark, I reverse my sheets from front to back, top to bottom oven
rack and then bake until they are turning brown and springy to the touch.

Posted to MMRecipes Digest by eyesopen@ix.netcom.com (Linda/Tennessee) on
Nov 26, 1998, converted by MM_Buster v2.0l.