Publised on 23/02/2022. Last Updated on 06/12/2024 by Richard
Simple vegan ladyfingers, aka savoiardi sponge fingers. Ideal for trifle and tiramisu, or just for dunking in coffee!
The recipe to unlock all your dream desserts: it's vegan ladyfingers (aka savoiardi, aka sponge fingers). You'll need these guys to master my vegan tiramisu recipe, but they're also essential for English trifle and also just make a really delicious snack!
This seems like one of those recipes you'd imagine was SUPER EASY to develop - tiny little fingers of sponge, what could possibly be tricky about that?! I'll tell you: EVERYTHING! These guys have literally taken me TWO YEARS to get right, but I guarantee you, this recipe is easy and involves very few ingredients and YOU'RE BLOODY WELCOME!
I also have two slightly different methods for you today, depending on the kind of kit you've got to hand. I bought silicone ladyfinger moulds especially for this recipe, but I also wanted to make sure that the results are equally amazing baking on a simple baking sheet.
And I have to say - these ladyfingers turn out IDEAL every time - with or without silicone mould. They're deliciously vanilla-y with a gentle snap (more like a cookie than a sponge) which means they're ideal for soaking up espresso in a tiramisu WITHOUT going soggy. That's right - I even did a soggy bicky test and found that these guys keep their structure even when triple OR quadruple dunked in espresso. Again, YOU'RE WELCOME!
How do I make vegan ladyfingers?
If you don't need your hand holding by your lovely, supportive older vegan brother (me) then feel free to scroll RIGHT to the bottom of this page and get cracking with the recipe. If you love me like a real sibling and trust my guidance and love to read all the stupid trash I write in these recipe intros, then you're in the right place!
Here's a little walkthrough for making vegan ladyfingers:
1. Combine your dry ingredients
I'm not really one ton insist you use a sieve when baking. Usually it's not necessary, but this recipe is different. Not only does it remove lumps of baking powder or flour from you mixture (which helps to guarantee an even rise) but it also helps to blend together your ingredients nicely. So please don't skip this step.
Sieve together then set aside for later.
2. Whip your aquafaba
I'm going to stick my neck out here and assume you've already heard of NAY used aquafaba - that liquid from a can of chickpeas. It's going to act like whipped egg whites in this recipe which will help to put some microscopic airbubbles in our batter which gives everything lightness and lift.
The key to great aquafaba is to use a stand mixer with a SPOTLESSLY clean bowl. I even rub a wedge of lemon around the bowl and over the whisk attachment because the acidity dissolves any small grease particles which will stop the aquafaba reaching its full potential. You're then going to add your sugar, vanilla and a little oil to the mix and beat like crazy.
3. Fold in flour mixture
Now we've got a gorgeously fluffy, glossy aquafaba mixture, we're going to fold in our flour mixture. Don't worry about being SUPER gentle. I tried gentle folding AND vigorous folding and it really had little impact on the final ladyfinger.
What is important, however, is that you leave the ladyfinger batter to rest for a minute. When first folded together, the baking powder goes crazy as it reacts to the moisture or the aquafaba and the acidity of the sugar. Let it calm down for a few minutes then transfer it to a piping bag.
4. Pipe out your ladyfingers
Whether you're using a ladyfinger mould or not, it's important to use a piping bag to form your ladyfingers. If just using a baking tray, make sure it's lined with greaseproof paper and try to keep the piped ladyfingers as uniform as possible.
If using a silicone mould, you can be a little more careless, but try to ensure you put the same amount of batter into each well.
5. Dust with icing sugar
Again, whether using a mould or not, it's best to dust your ladyfingers with icing sugar BEFORE you bake them. This was, as they bake, the icing sugar that's in contact with the batter liquifies and creates a lightly glazed, crackly surface on the top of the ladyfinger.
You can brush it off after baking, to reveal the glazed surface if you wish, but I think it looks quite pretty!
6. Bake until crisp
Because of the very low amount of fat in this recipe, the ladyfingers won't brown dramatically. They will, however, crisp up beautifully. They'll be slightly soft when you remove them from the oven but as they cool, they'll become firm and suitable for all your tiramisu/trifle/dunking needs!
And that's how to make vegan ladyfingers!
Bingo! You're ready to go! If you'd like to make a DELICIOUS tiramisu now, why not head over to my recipe and whip one up!
If you love the look of this recipe PLEASE DO ME A MASSIVE FAVOUR AND RATE IT 5 STARS BELOW! You can also leave a nice comment or review if you like!
Vegan Ladyfingers (Savoiardi)
Simple vegan ladyfingers, aka savoiardi sponge fingers. Ideal for trifle and tiramisu, or just for dunking in coffee!
- 240 g plain white flour
- 2 tablespoon cornstarch (aka cornflour in the UK)
- pinch fine sea salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 120 g aquafaba (the liquid from a can of unsalted chickpeas)
- 140 g caster sugar (aka superfine sugar in the USA)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 30 g vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoon icing sugar (aka confectioners sugar in the USA)
- Preheat the oven to 150c (fan) and line two baking trays with greaseproof paper. Alternatively, if you have silicone ladyfinger moulds, grease lightly with vegan butter and place them on the baking trays.
- In a medium bowl, sieve together the plain white flour, cornstarch, fine sea salt and baking powder. Set aside.
- In a spotlessly clean bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, place the aquafaba and whip on high speed until stiff peaks form. Stop the mixer, add the caster sugar and whisk again until the mixture is glossy and falls in ribbons.
- With the mixer still running, drizzle in the vanilla extract and the vegetable oil. Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and fold in the flour mixture until just combined and no lumps remain. Set aside on the counter to rest for 10 minutes.
- Transfer the batter to a piping bag fitted with a round nozzle and pipe the mixture into thick lines around 6-8 cm long on the lined baking trays or directly into the silicone ladyfinger moulds. This recipe makes around 20 lady fingers and I’d advise splitting them between two separate baking trays.
- Before baking, dust the tops of the batter with icing sugar.
- Place in the oven to bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven, leave to cool for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool and crisp up fully.
Angel
To anyone who had problem with the dough being too thick and hard to pipe I got the solution.
I made a batch a few hours ago and it was horrible, than went grocery shopping and tried again and it was magic.
The most important thing is the flour and aquafaba. The first one I used was too thick, you want it to be quite runny, I remembered it turned out better with a different brand so I went and got it. The second thing is the flour. You want a low protein flour, preferably pastry flour but not mandatory. Plain flour would work fine, you just need one that is fresh, not heavy and dense and room temperature. Oh one more thing, I have no idea if it did anything but this time I whipped the aquafaba less, only until soft peaks and also after adding the sugar, just until glossy. probably a good idea to not overwhip. Good luck!
Agnes
Werner
Martha
I did use potato protein (Orgran) instead of aquafaba because I'm tired of constantly opening cans of chickpeas, and potato protein can be bought as powder to mix into water! It might need a bit of pectin to truly form stiff peaks--which I did not have--so I only beat them to soft peaks (using an immersion blender fitted with a whisk attachment) and then moving onto the next steps. Also used vanilla paste (1:1) mixed into my vegetable oil (sunflower).
WHICH IS TO SAY, made all those changes and the cookies still came out fantastic--I used a Ziploc bag with a hole cut out as I don't own piping bags (I reinforced the sides with some packing tape due to everyone talking about the dough being hard to work with).
Larissa
Sarah
Thanks for the recipe! How long would these keep for if I’m trying to make them ahead of time for a tiramisu please?
LB
For me, they lasted a few days in an airtight container, in a cool, dry place - that is, they were great until I ate all of them after. I think they might gradually become a bit less crunchy if you keep them longer, but I don't think that's a big problem for tiramisu, since they become soggy anyway.
Margot
Laura Rosa
LB
These are pretty spot on! I reduced the sugar to 100g, and they were still on the sweet side for me, so I think next time I'll reduce it further.
One issue I had was that they were rather difficult to pipe as the dough was pretty solid, so a lot of them ended up looking more like... spoons? Any tips would be greatly appreciated!
LB
Okay so this will be my last comment, but just for others who come across this comment-section: my final iteration was with 200g of flour, only 1 spoon of starch, 2 teaspoons of baking powder and 40g of oil. This improved the piping dramatically! I like them more brown, and it seemed to me that 150C wasn't really giving me the maillard reaction I was looking for, so I did 12 min at 180C to get them fluffy and brown, and then 8 min at 130C to dry them out further. Anyway, thanks a ton, Richard! This recipe really helped me get started on how to make lady fingers just as I like them.
kate
Could you do this recipe with a manual whisk and a lot of muscle power?
LB
I don't think so, Kate. Aquafaba needs quite a lot of power to firm up. As in, multiple minutes on medium high. I never tried but I can't get that kind of power with a whisk.