Since I’ve written a couple of blog posts about the trifles I’ve made with homemade ladyfingers, I figured it was time to post the only ladyfingers recipe I’ve ever used.

I’ve never bought pre-made ladyfingers at the store so I really can’t tell you how much better they are. But I assume they’re better. In my opinion, pretty much everything tastes better homemade.

I’ve made them from scratch for the last 5 or 6 years. They require very basic ingredients and are really easy to make as long as you own a good electric mixer.

If you’re nervous about using a pastry bag, don’t be. If you’re using this in a trifle, they don’t have to be all that pretty…they just need to taste good. If you don’t own a pastry bag, that’s okay too. Use a Ziploc as instructed in the recipe below.

I own a pastry bag and tips but for this particular recipe, I’ve started using the pastry tip in a Ziploc. All of the batter fits in a single Ziploc and doesn’t squirt out the top as it often does when using a real pastry bag.

I’d like to give the proper source for this recipe but I can’t. I copied it from a magazine or printed it from the internet years ago and didn’t write down the source at the time. I kinda-sorta-maybe think it was Epicurious. Maybe. All I know is that I happened upon this recipe and thought I’d give it a try. Little did I know that it would turn out to be a fantastic ladyfingers recipe that I would use again and again and again.

Use these in any recipe calling for ladyfingers or sponge-cake cookies. I use them in trifles instead of the heavy pound cakes often prescribed. If you want to make tiramisu at home, make it with these. See the trifles I made with them here and here. And the tiramisu I made here.

Ladyfingers

(Sponge-Cake Cookies)

Makes about 4 dozen cookies

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 4 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
• 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
2. Sift together the flour and salt. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the egg whites on high speed until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and continue beating until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in 1/4 cup of sugar and continue beating until the whites will hold a 2-inch peak. Transfer beaten whites to a large bowl.
4. In the same bowl used to beat the whites (the bowl does not need to be washed first), beat the egg yolks and the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar on high-speed until very thick and light-colored, about 5 minutes.
5. Fold 1/4 of the yolk mixture into the whites. When almost incorporated, fold the rest of the yolk mixture into the whites.
6. Fold the flour into the mixture.
7. Prepare a pastry bag with a fairly large plain tip (about 1/4-inch) or place the batter in a large plastic freezer bag and cut off one corner so that the hole is 1/4 inch in diameter. Pipe the ladyfingers onto the prepared cookie sheet in strips about 5 inches long and 1 inch apart.
8. Bake about 10 minutes, rotating the sheet front to back halfway through the baking time. When done, the ladyfingers should be golden brown. Remove the ladyfingers, still on the parchment, to a wire rack.
9. Pipe remaining batter onto a fresh sheet of parchment, slide onto cookie sheet, and bake.
10. When all cookies are baked and cooled, remove them from the parchment and store in an airtight container.

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I wanted tiramisu. I haven’t made it in over a year. I make a mean tiramisu.

I didn’t make tiramisu. I made this trifle instead. I had eggs and cream and espresso and assorted liqueurs. I had all of the ingredients for homemade ladyfingers. But I needed one other ingredient and that ingredient is the reason I made the trifle.

Mascarpone cheese was what I needed and quite frankly I was too cheap to buy it. At the grocery store I stopped in on my way home from work, it was $5 per package and I needed two packages of it. I didn’t want to spend $10 on mascarpone cheese…so I made this hazelnut trifle as it didn’t require anything I didn’t already have at home.

For the record, I can now buy mascarpone for $3 a package at our newly opened Trader Joe’s. There will be tiramisu in the near future…and when I make it, I can spend that extra $4 on a cheap bottle of wine from Trader Joe’s.

My trifle is adapted from a recipe in Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey. It’s the first thing I’ve made from the book because most of the recipes in that cookbook seem ridiculous, expensive and over-the-top…and their trifle is no exception. Yet I still made it. I think it was the lure of Kahlua whipped cream.

Their recipe called for hazelnut pound cake. This sounded excessively heavy to me so I made ladyfingers. They’re pretty easy to make and much better than the store bought ones could ever hope to be. Not that I’ve ever knowingly eaten a store bought ladyfinger. I’m better than that…and anyone reading this should be better than that, too.

To assemble the trifle, I sandwiched ladyfingers together with Nutella. I then dipped them in a mixture of Frangelico hazelnut liqueur, Kahlua coffee liqueur and espresso. On top of the ladyfingers, I added alternating layers of chocolate pastry cream and Kahlua whipped cream as well as chopped hazelnuts.

The pastry cream was made with Nutella, melted chocolate and Frangelico. The whipped cream was made with Kahlua and espresso powder. Yes, this trifle was a little rich and boozy…but what’s wrong with that?

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