Lady Fingers

Lady fingers can be piped individually, for cakes or cookies. They can also be piped in a line or a sheet to go under or around a cake. Below are two examples of how to prep a pan and pipe the lady fingers for two different examples of the sheet method. These examples and instructions will accompany the assembly instructions for a Tiramisu Cake where the sides and bottom of the cake are lady fingers.


Separated-egg sponge method, panned in full sheet tray

Formula*: yields 2lb 1 oz. (enough for one tiramisu cake)
6 oz. (60%) Egg yolks
3 oz. (30%) Sugar
9 oz. (90%) Egg whites
5 oz. (50%) Sugar
1/4 t. (0.4%) Lemon juice**
10 oz. (100%) Pastry flour

Tools:
Piping bag, 804 circle tip (medium sized), 7" baking ring, sharpie

*This formula is from Gisslen, Professional Baking, Ed. 5, Pg. 412
**Can substitute for lime juice or cream of tartar


MOP: separated-egg sponge method
Prep tray to start with. The batter is going to be very time sensitive so you will want to have your tray prepped and your pastry bag ready to go before you start mixing the batter. On a long side of the parchment use the side of your ring template from the edge of the paper and measure the width of the ring. Fold your parchment over three times to get two long rows. On the other side of the parchment mark one 7" circle with the same ring. Turn the parchment over so that you you bake no ink gets on your product.

Sift pastry flour and set aside. In the mixer start mixing your egg yolks with sugar (3oz.) on high until it forms a very pale yellow almost off white colour. Stop the mixer and transfer this to a stainless steel bowl, set aside. Clean the mixer bowl throughly. In the clean mixing bowl add your egg whites and lemon juice together. Mix until it starts to foam, slowly add sugar to the foamed egg whites. Mix until it reaches a soft to medium peak. If its any harder then a medium peak you have to start over.

Fold your egg whites and flour into your egg yolks. Fold with your

hands to throughly mix. Do not over mix or you wont be able to pipe the batter.

Fill your a large piping bag with the cake batter, the batter will be runny so twist your bag when filling with the batter so that it doesn't drip. Dot each corner of the parchment with batter so that the parchment is "pasted" down when baking. Using the line guides that you made with the parchment paper pipe lady fingers in either straight lines or at an angle all the way across. Make sure you apply even pressure and create fingers with dimension all the way across.

In the circle template on the parchment, start to fill in the circle with the same pressure and dimensionality as you did for the strip. Pipe from the center out to the edge. If you have any left over batter pipe either more strips, or you can pipe individual fingers on the pan.
Bake immediately. 375 degrees in a conventional oven, 350 in a convection oven. Bake until it reaches a light brown, or dark gold colour. Do not over bake or it will be too stiff to apply to the sides of a cake.