Saturday, June 22, 2013

Ladyfingers

Ladyfingers piped too far apart, but looking good
I have a ton of mascarpone cheese left over from The Wedding that I did desserts for. I need to work on my math skills. At any rate, I figured that tiramisu was a good use of mascarpone, so I decided to try my hand at ladyfingers. They're sot of like the ones I get in the store, but not quite as soft. Next time I think I'll add a little cake enhancer and actually mix in the egg whites a little more because if you look closely at these ladyfingers, you'll see they sort of look like lava rock. Too much air, in my opinion. I still have three more containers of mascarpone after making three tiramisu semifreddos...so I might make some more ladyfingers to use that up.
For now, I'm posting this recipe I got from epicurious.com, and then I'll post the semifreddo recipe I got from my friend at Man Bakes Cake. These ladyfingers were relatively easy to make, in my opinion. I'm no expert, but they did the job.

Ladyfingers
   --adapted from epicurious.com

Ingredients:
  • 5 large eggs, room temperature
  • 2/3 cup sugar, divided
  • 7/8 cup all purpose flour
  • (confectioners sugar for dusting--I inadvertently left this out)
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit with the rack in the middle of the oven.
Separate eggs, placing the yolks in a large mixing bowl. Beat yolks with an electric mixer (or in the bowl of a standing mixer) at medium speed until pale yellow. Then gradually beat in all but 1 1/2 tablespoons of sugar.
Beat yolks and eggs on medium-high speed until pale yellow, tripled in volume, and thick, about 5-7 minutes. Transfer this egg-sugar mixture to another bowl and sprinkle flour over mixture and stir until just combined. Now you have to clean the mixing bowl (if you're using the stand mixer).
Beat egg whites with clean bowl and clean beaters until they just hold soft peaks. Add remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar in a low stram and then beat whites until they hold stiff peaks.
Stir one third of the whites into the yolk mixture to lighten, and then fold in remaining whites gently but thoroughly
Spoon batter into a pastry bag fitten with a large circle tip. Line a large baking sheet with parchment, piping a dab of batter under each corner to hold it in place. Pipe rows of batter 3 1/2 inches long and so that they almost touch each other (I placed mine too far apart). (Dust with powdered sugar if you can remember.)
Bake at 350 degrees until pale golden, dry, and soft, but still springy to the touch, about 14-16 minutes. Cool completely on baking sheet before removing (I skipped this step and regretted it, so be sure to let them cool on the baking sheet.)

Makes a lot of ladyfingers, like over 50



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