Homemade Ladyfingers for Tiramisu

This ladyfingers recipe started with a tiramisu. We were making our tiramisu without raw eggs and wondered whether we could make the ladyfingers at home too. It turns out we could, and they’re much easier than they look: about 20 minutes of hands-on work and just three ingredients, eggs, sugar and flour 🤗

They’re those long, light sponge biscuits you layer in tiramisu, charlottes and so many cream desserts. In Italy they’re savoiardi, in the UK they’re usually sponge fingers, and in Spain, soletillas. Further down we list what they’re called around the world.

There’s no baking powder and no butter. All the air comes from whipping the egg whites and the yolks separately, so the secret isn’t in the ingredients but in the technique. That’s why we take our time explaining it: how to tell when the meringue is ready, how to add the flour without deflating the batter, and how to bake and dry them so they come out crisp, like store-bought, and hold up to the coffee in a tiramisu.

Ours have just those three ingredients. If you have a package at home, flip it over and compare 😉

The full recipe is right below, and under it you’ll find every step explained in detail, in case it’s your first time whipping egg whites.

Homemade Ladyfingers Video

How We Make Them at Home, Step by Step

Before You Start: The Bowl and the Eggs

With this recipe, what happens before you switch on the mixer decides half the result. Three details, and they take two minutes.

Which Bowl to Use for the Egg Whites

You need two bowls: a large one, 2 to 3 liters (2 to 3 quarts), for the whites, and a smaller one for the yolks. The bowl for the whites matters more than it seems:

• No plastic. Plastic is porous and holds on to traces of fat even after washing, and fat stops egg whites from whipping.
• Stainless steel is the best option. It doesn’t hold fat, it’s light and it won’t break. With an electric mixer it’s very easy to knock the beaters against the side of the bowl.
• Glass and glazed ceramic work too, because they don’t hold fat. Just be more careful with the beaters.
• Avoid uncoated aluminum, which can turn the whites grayish.

Clean the Bowl and the Beaters

They need to be perfectly clean and dry. A single drop of fat is enough to stop the whites from whipping properly: the fat gets between the proteins in the white and keeps them from forming the walls that hold the air bubbles. You end up with a foam that won’t rise, or that rises and collapses right away.

If in doubt, wipe the bowl and the beaters with a paper towel and a few drops of lemon juice or vinegar, then dry them well. Ten seconds that save you from starting over.

Separate the Eggs One at a Time

Not a single drop of yolk can get into the whites. Even a tiny amount makes the meringue whip worse and come out softer.

That’s why it’s worth separating each egg over a separate small bowl and only adding the white to the large bowl once you see it’s clean. That way, if the third yolk breaks, you don’t lose the first two whites.

How to Tell When the Meringue Is Ready

Start by beating the whites with the pinch of salt on medium speed for 1 or 2 minutes, until they’re white and foamy, with small bubbles, like soap suds. The salt is only for flavor: in this amount it doesn’t help or hurt the whipping.

Then add the 60 g (¼ cup + 1 tbsp) of sugar a little at a time, in 4 or 5 additions, without stopping the mixer, and keep beating on medium-high for another 3 to 5 minutes. If it takes longer with your mixer, that’s fine: keep going until you reach the right point. With this much sugar, it’s very hard to overdo it.

An optional trick: for the last 30 seconds, drop to medium-low speed. Almost no new air goes in, but the beaters break the big bubbles into smaller ones, and the meringue holds up better when you fold it with the yolks and the flour.

Signs It’s Ready

It still needs more time if the tip droops and curls over when you lift the beaters, or if the whites slide when you tilt the bowl.

It’s ready when:

• the beaters leave clear marks on the surface that don’t fade on their own;
• when you tilt the bowl, the meringue stays put;
• when you lift the beaters, the peak stands up without falling;
• it looks smooth and glossy, like thick shaving foam.

The tilted bowl is the most reliable test. And if you’re feeling brave, the extreme version: hold the bowl upside down over your head 😄

If You Overbeat It

The meringue loses its shine, looks matte and lumpy, like cotton, and sometimes leaks liquid at the bottom of the bowl. Then it’s hard to fold in and leaves little white lumps in the batter. As long as it’s smooth and glossy, you can keep beating without worry.

Whipping the Yolks to the Ribbon Stage

Don’t leave the meringue waiting long: go straight to the yolks. You can use the same beaters without washing them. Traces of meringue don’t bother the yolks, while the other way around would be a problem, because the fat in the yolk would stop the whites from whipping. That’s why the meringue goes first.

Add the 30 g (2½ tbsp) of sugar to the yolks and start beating right away. If you leave the sugar sitting on the yolks for a few minutes, it pulls water out of them and forms hard little lumps where they touch. Those lumps never fully dissolve.

If you’re using vanilla, add it now, with the sugar. Yolks contain fat and hold on to aromas well. Vanilla never goes into the whites, because the alcohol in the extract destabilizes the meringue. If you’d like to make your own, here’s our homemade vanilla extract with 2 ingredients.

Beat for 3 or 4 minutes. They’re ready when:

• they’ve turned pale yellow, much lighter than at the start;
• they’ve roughly doubled in volume and look thick and creamy;
• when you lift the beaters, they fall in a thick ribbon that sits on the surface for a couple of seconds before sinking. That’s the ribbon stage.

The yolks are whipped so they become light and close to the meringue in texture. That way they blend in with far fewer strokes and the batter deflates less. Runny yolks sink to the bottom of the bowl and force you to overmix.

You can also whip them by hand with a whisk, in about 6 to 8 minutes. They’ll be a little less airy, but it works, because most of the volume comes from the meringue.

How to Fold Without Deflating the Batter

This is where the result is won or lost. All the air you’ve beaten in can disappear here in half a minute.

First, add half the whipped yolks to the meringue and fold. When it’s almost blended, add the other half and keep going. The yolks go onto the meringue and not the other way around, because the meringue has much more volume and is already in the large bowl: moving it into the yolk bowl would knock air out just in the transfer. Stop when it’s almost even. A few white streaks are better than overmixing.

What Folding Actually Means

You don’t stir in circles, like you would a coffee. You fold, and the motion goes like this:

1. Slide the spatula down the side of the bowl, vertically, until you touch the bottom.
2. Drag it across the bottom to the opposite side.
3. Come up the side of the bowl, scooping batter, and let it fall over the top as you turn the spatula over.

Every stroke should bring batter from the bottom to the top. Go slowly: slow, wide strokes deflate the batter much less than quick, short ones. And use a wide spatula, because the more batter you move with each pass, the fewer passes you need.

Adding the Flour in Batches

The flour doesn’t go in all at once. The technique is to sift a little over the top, cover it with batter and repeat:

1. Hold the sieve right over the bowl and add a little flour to it.
2. Fold just 1 or 2 strokes, only enough to cover that layer of flour with batter. Don’t try to blend it in completely.
3. Sift a little more on top and cover it again. Keep going until it’s all in.
4. At the end, give it a few more strokes, until you can’t see any dry flour. Check the bottom of the bowl with the spatula, because that’s where it hides.

It takes a couple of minutes.

What the Batter Should Look Like

Voluminous and thick: it falls from the spatula slowly and in clumps, not in a stream. If it has turned runny and flattens out on its own in the bowl, it has deflated. Either the meringue wasn’t stiff enough or it was overmixed.

From here on, don’t leave it waiting. Go straight to piping.

Piping the Ladyfingers

You can use a piping bag with a plain round tip, 1.2 to 1.5 cm (½ in) wide, or a zip-top freezer bag. To fill it without making a mess, stand the bag in a tall glass with the top folded down over the rim.

Transfer the batter gently, without pressing it. Twist the top to close it and push the batter toward the tip to get the air out. If you’re using a zip-top bag, cut it now that it’s full: a straight cut across one corner, about 2 cm (¾ in) measured on the flat bag, gives you an opening of 1.2 to 1.5 cm.

To pipe them:

• hold the bag at about 45°, 1 cm (⅜ in) above the paper;
• squeeze with steady pressure and move along to make strips about 2 cm wide and 10 cm long (¾ x 4 in);
• leave 2 to 3 cm (1 in) between them, because they spread a little in the oven.

The faster, the better, because the batter keeps losing air. But if you find it tricky, don’t stress: at worst they’ll come out a little flatter.

With 10 cm strips you get about 20 ladyfingers. The ones in our photos are bigger and we got 12, so make them whatever size suits your tiramisu dish: only the baking time changes a little.

To make them all the same length, draw parallel pencil lines 10 cm (4 in) apart on the parchment paper and flip it over, so the pencil is underneath. And don’t grease the paper or the mat: oil makes the batter slide and the strips spread.

The powdered sugar is optional, and we use very little. A single 5 g (2 tsp) layer, sifted through a fine sieve from about 20 to 30 cm (8 to 12 in) high so it falls evenly, and straight into the oven.

You’ll see many recipes that use two layers of powdered sugar, with a few minutes’ wait in between. They usually contain baking powder, and with baking powder the batter keeps rising in the oven, so there’s time to wait. Ours doesn’t: all the air comes from the whipped egg whites, and it slowly escapes while the batter sits. That’s why speed matters here, and one light layer is enough to give the tops a little crunch. Without powdered sugar they come out just as well, with a smooth, matte top and exactly the same crumb. In a tiramisu you’ll hardly notice, since they’re dipped in coffee and covered in cream.

Baking and Drying Them for Tiramisu

Bake at 150 °C (300 °F), conventional setting with top and bottom heat and the fan off, with the tray on the middle rack or one lower, for 15 minutes. One tray at a time works best.

Turn the oven on when you start the recipe, not at the end. Even if it says it’s at temperature within a few minutes, what heats up that fast is the air. The walls and floor of the oven take longer, and until then the temperature goes up and down. Switching it on at the start gives you those 20 minutes of margin.

Don’t open the oven for the first 10 minutes. Until the structure has set, the change in temperature can make them collapse.

After 15 minutes they’re baked: pale golden, with no white patches, and the surface is dry and firm, without the shine of raw batter. If in doubt, give them a couple more minutes. For tiramisu, overbaking a little is better than underbaking.

But for tiramisu you want them much drier, because fresh out of the oven they still hold moisture inside. The traditional way is to let them air-dry on a wire rack until the next day. If you want to use them the same day, or your home is humid, dry them in the oven instead: 15 more minutes at the same temperature.

To keep them from browning too much during those extra 15 minutes, you have two options:

• place a sheet of aluminum foil on the top rack of the oven, leaving a few centimeters free on each side so air can circulate;
• or, if your oven has it, switch to bottom heat only.

With these 30 minutes in total they come out ready to use, crisp and dry inside. The edges and tips end up a little crunchier than the middle, because they’re thinner. That’s normal.

If your oven keeps giving you trouble, it’s worth checking its real temperature with an oven thermometer. Many home ovens run 20 or 30 degrees hotter or cooler than the dial says.

How to Get Them Off the Paper

With a silicone baking mat: slide the mat off the hot tray onto the counter, so the heat of the tray doesn’t keep baking them from below. After 5 minutes, when they’re just warm, lift one end of the mat and slowly bend it downward. As the mat curves, it comes away from the bottom of each ladyfinger and they release on their own.

With parchment paper: let them cool completely on the tray, about 15 to 20 minutes. While warm, the bottoms are still soft and they stick. Then, instead of lifting each ladyfinger, which is how they break, do it the other way around: bring the paper to the edge of the table and pull it downward, a little at a time. The ladyfingers stay on top and it’s the paper that peels away from them.

If they still stick and a thin layer stays on the paper, lift the paper with the ladyfingers on it and run a damp brush or cloth underneath, without soaking it. Wait 1 or 2 minutes: the moisture loosens the paper and they come right off. If they stick a lot, they needed more time in the oven. Next time, give them 1 or 2 more minutes.

Once they’re off, move them to a wire rack until they’re completely cool. On a flat surface, the steam they still release gets trapped underneath and the bottoms soften. If you haven’t dried them in the oven and your home isn’t humid, the rack is also where they air-dry until the next day.

How to Store Homemade Ladyfingers

In an airtight container at room temperature, they keep for a couple of weeks. What ruins them isn’t time but humidity: sealed well they stay perfect, and sealed badly they go soft in two days.

• A zip-top freezer bag works just as well as a container and takes up less space. Press the air out before sealing.
• Separate them with parchment paper if you stack them.
• A small silica gel packet, the kind that comes in shoe boxes, helps a lot.
• Don’t store them in the kitchen right after using the oven: at that moment it’s the most humid room in the house.

They also freeze well, sealed, for up to 3 months. Thaw them at room temperature, then dry them for 10 minutes in the oven at 100 °C (210 °F).

Why Humidity Matters

Ladyfingers contain a lot of sugar, and sugar draws moisture from the air. That completely changes how you should dry and store them:

• In low humidity, below 60%, you can let them air-dry on a rack until the next day and they come out perfect.
• In high humidity, above 65 or 70%, on rainy days or near the coast, air-drying doesn’t work: instead of drying out, they soften. Dry them in the oven with the extra 15 minutes, or at 90 to 100 °C (195 to 210 °F) for 15 to 20 minutes if you’ve already taken them out.

If your home is humid, don’t wait for them to cool completely before storing them: as soon as they’re just warm, into the container. If they’re still a bit warm, leave it open for a few minutes before closing it, so no steam condenses inside.

If They’ve Gone Soft

You can fix them. Put them in the oven at 100 °C (210 °F) for 20 to 30 minutes and let them cool completely, because they harden as they cool, not while hot. If they’re still bendy once cool, repeat for another 10 to 15 minutes.

Cornstarch: For Ladyfingers Like Store-Bought

Our recipe uses three ingredients, but if you want a texture even closer to store-bought ladyfingers, swap 15 g of the flour for 15 g (2 tbsp) of cornstarch (cornflour in the UK): 75 g of flour and 15 g of cornstarch. Mix them well in the bowl before sifting them over the batter, so the cornstarch is evenly spread and you don’t have to overmix later.

Cornstarch is pure corn starch, without the proteins that form gluten. With less gluten, the ladyfingers come out more tender and lighter, with a drier, more crumbly texture. The trade-off is that they’re a bit more fragile when you peel them off the paper and dip them in coffee. That’s why 15 g is a good middle ground: more makes them too crumbly.

Potato starch works too, and it’s widely used for savoiardi in Italy. It gives a slightly more tender crumb and keeps them a little paler. Use the same amount.

If Your Eggs Are Bigger

The ratio in this recipe is roughly 1 part sugar, 1 part flour and 1.7 parts egg. With more egg you need more flour, or the batter turns runny and the strips spread on the paper. The best thing is to weigh your eggs without the shells and pick the matching row:

Eggs	Weight without shells	Flour	Or with cornstarch	Sugar for the whites	Sugar for the yolks
3 US large / EU medium	150-160 g	90 g	75 g + 15 g	60 g	30 g
3 US extra-large / EU large	170-180 g	100 g	85 g + 15 g	65 g	30 g
3 US jumbo / EU extra-large	190-200 g	115 g	95 g + 20 g	70 g	35 g

If you can, weigh everything. In this recipe a few grams of flour make a real difference, and cups can easily be off by that much.

Troubleshooting

What happens	Why	What to do
They spread and come out flat	The meringue wasn’t stiff, the batter was overmixed or the eggs were too big for that amount of flour	Check the meringue with the tilted bowl test and adjust the flour to your egg size
They puff up and then wrinkle	They’re underbaked: the outside set before the inside, and the center gives way as they cool	Lower the temperature and bake longer. Break one open when it comes out: the center should look dry
They collapse in the oven	The oven is too hot and they rise before setting, or the meringue had large bubbles	150 °C (300 °F), tray on the middle rack or lower. And beat the last 30 seconds on medium-low
They’re soft the next day	They didn’t dry inside, or they’ve picked up moisture from the air	Dry them in the oven at 100 °C (210 °F) for 20 to 30 minutes and store them airtight
They stick to the paper or the mat	The bottoms didn’t dry, or you peeled them off while warm	1 or 2 more minutes in the oven, and wait until they’re cool to peel them off
They have little white lumps	The meringue was overbeaten or not fully folded in	Stop beating as soon as the meringue is smooth and glossy, before it loses its shine

Ladyfingers, Savoiardi, Sponge Fingers: Names Around the World

If you’ve ever followed a recipe from another country, you’ve probably come across a few of these:

• United States and Canada: ladyfingers or lady fingers
• United Kingdom and Ireland: sponge fingers or boudoir biscuits
• Australia: savoiardi or sponge fingers
• Italy: savoiardi
• France: biscuits à la cuillère
• Germany: Löffelbiskuits
• Spain: soletillas or bizcochos de soletilla
• Mexico: soletas
• Argentina: vainillas
• Chile: galletas de champaña
• Uruguay and Venezuela: plantillas
• Colombia: lenguas

And in Catalonia there are close cousins called melindros, usually dipped in thick hot chocolate.

Homemade Ladyfingers FAQ

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