Cooking with Toti
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Easy Homemade Ladyfingers
Soft, light, and perfect for tiramisu — hard to go back to store-bought.
Time
30 min
These homemade ladyfingers are surprisingly easy to make. They turn out soft, light, and delicious — perfect for tiramisu, trifles, or just enjoying with coffee.
Instructions
- 1
Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- 2
Beat egg whites until foamy. Gradually add half of the sugar and beat to stiff, glossy peaks.
- 3
Whisk egg yolks with the remaining sugar until pale, thick, and creamy. Add vanilla.
- 4
Gently fold the whipped whites into the yolk mixture.
- 5
Sift flour, cornstarch, and salt over the batter and gently fold until smooth — do not overmix.
- 6
Transfer to a piping bag and pipe finger-shaped strips onto the baking sheet, leaving space between them.
- 7
Dust the tops lightly with powdered sugar, wait about 1 minute, then dust again.
- 8
Bake 12–15 minutes, until lightly golden, soft, and slightly springy.
Toti’s Tips
- ✓No piping bag on hand? A zip-top bag with the corner snipped off pipes just as evenly, since all that matters is a controlled opening to shape the strips.
- ✓Whip the egg whites to stiff, glossy peaks separately, since that trapped air is what gives ladyfingers their light, airy structure once baked.
- ✓Fold the flour in gently and stop as soon as it disappears — overmixing knocks the air out of the whipped whites and leaves you with flat, dense cookies instead of light ones.
- ✓Dusting the tops with powdered sugar twice, with a short pause between, gives the classic bumpy, sugar-crusted bakery look because the sugar partly melts in first before the second coat.
- ✓Pipe the strips with space between them, since they spread slightly in the oven and can bake together if placed too close.
- ✓Bake just until lightly golden and slightly springy — pulling them too early leaves them wet inside, while overbaking dries them out and makes them too crisp to hold their shape in tiramisu.
More photos
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