Vegan Ladyfingers
These vegan ladyfingers are delicious, easier to make than you might think and so versatile!
Servings 17 cookies
Equipment
- electric whisk or stand mixer
- large piping bag
Ingredients
- 200 g (1 ½ cups + 2 Tablespoons) plain (all-purpose) flour
- 50 g (5 Tablespoons) fine semolina
- 20 g (2 packed Tablespoons) cornflour (cornstarch)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 120 g (½ cup) aquafaba
- ½ teaspoon cream of tartar
- 125 g (½ cup + 2 Tablespoons) caster (superfine) sugar plus extra for dusting
- 3 Tablespoons oil (I use olive)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- icing (powdered) sugar for dusting
Instructions
- Ppreheat the oven to 180℃/160℃ fan/350℉/gas mark 4. Line two baking sheets with baking parchment.
- Sift together the plain flour, semolina, cornstarch and baking powder well. Set aside.
- Place the aquafaba and cream of tartar in a large, spotlessly clean bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat with an electric whisk until it forms soft peaks.
- Add the caster sugar a spoonful at a time, whisking well after each addition. Continue to whisk until the meringue is thick and glossy and forms stiff peaks.
- Add half of the dry ingredients and fold through very gently with a spatula until mostly combined, it doesn't matter if there are still some dry patches. The meringue will deflate a bit, this is normal.
- Add the oil and vanilla extract and fold through a couple of times, it does not need to be fully combined.
- Add the other half of the dry ingredients and gently fold in until just combined, with no dry patches; do not over-mix. The batter should be thick, sticky and full of air bubbles.
- Transfer the batter to a large piping bag fitted with a large round nozzle. Alternatively you can just snip the end off of a disposeable one.
- Pipe lines of the batter well spaced apart on the baking sheets, about 2.5 cm (1 in) wide and 8-10 cm (3-4 in) long.
- Sprinkle with caster sugar then generously dust with icing sugar using a fine mesh sieve.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden. This will produce ladyfingers that are crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. For drier, crunchier cookies, recuce the oven temperature to 150℃/130℃ fan/300℉/gas mark 2 and bake for a further 10-15 minutes.
- Carefully transfer the ladyfingers to a wire cooling rack and leave to cool completely. Once cool, store in an airtight container.
Notes
- While these vegan ladyfingers are quite straightforward to make, this isn't a very forgiving recipe. For the best results follow the recipe closely, weigh your ingredients and make it exactly as written. I recommend reading through the post above and checking out the step-by-step photos before you start.
- All of my recipes are developed using grams, and as with all of my baking recipes I really do recommend using the metric measurements with a digital scale rather than the cup conversions. Cups are a wildly inaccurate measuring system and you will get far better, more consistent results using a scale, not to mention that it is also easier and less messy than cups!
- Use a large piping bag to pipe the ladyfingers. I prefer to use large disposable ones, which you can either fit with a large round nozzle, or simply snip the tip off.