Vegan Ladyfingers (Savoiardi Cookies)

freshly baked vegan ladyfinger cookies on a baking tray with a dusting of powdered sugar.

Vegan Ladyfingers (Savoiardi Cookies)

These light and slightly crunchy vegan ladyfingers (Italian Savoiardi biscuits) are perfect to use as the base for tiramisu, trifle, or to simply enjoy with a cup of coffee. They are perfect made with or without a mold!

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 13

Total Time 33

Servings cookies

Author Christina Leopold

Equipment

Silicone ladyfinger molds optional

Ingredients

120 g aquafaba *see note 1
½ teaspoon cream of tartar or lemon juice or vinegar
115 g granulated or caster sugar (superfine sugar) separated into ⅓ cup + ¼ cup (70g + 45g)
45 g vegan Greek-style yogurt or coconut cream/vegan sour cream
40 ml olive oil or sunflower oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
200 g plain flour sifted
30 g cornstarch sifted *see note 2
2 teaspoons baking powder sifted
¼ teaspoon sea salt
50 g powdered sugar (icing sugar)

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Note: A silicone ladyfinger mold is completely optional for this recipe - they work perfectly piped by hand. One thing to note is, the cookies will be slightly softer when baked in silicone.
I recommend measuring the recipe in grams and reading through the tips in the blog post above to get the most accurate results.
Prepare: Preheat your oven to 180°C (356°F) and line 2 cookie sheets or baking trays with a sheet of parchment paper. You can very lightly grease the baking sheet with oil as this will make it super easy to remove the baked cookies, oil spray works best.
Take a large clean bowl, and make sure it's completely dry and free of any grease.
Whisk the aquafaba: Add the aquafaba and cream of tartar to the large bowl or stand mixer and whisk on high speed for 5 minutes until soft peaks form.
Add the sugar: Slowly add in ⅓ cup (70g) of sugar, one dash at a time while continuing to whisk and incorporate the sugar into the aquafaba. Continue whisking for another 3 minutes until it reaches stiff peaks.
Whisk the ingredients: In a separate bowl, whisk together the remaining ¼ cup (45g) sugar, vegan yogurt, olive oil, and vanilla extract until combined.
Use a spatula to carefully fold the whipped aquafaba into the bowl with the wet ingredients, in 3-4 increments. Be careful not to over-mix.
Mix the dry ingredients: Mix together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt and carefully fold them into the aquafaba mixture in 2-3 increments, again be careful not to over-mix.
Pipe the cookies: Transfer the batter to a piping bag fitted with a ½-inch round tip, or simply snip the top from a disposable piping bag.
Pipe the cookies in 3.5-inches long and no more than 1-inch wide onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Leave around another inch of space between each cookie as they will spread in the oven.
Just before baking, generously dust them with powdered sugar.
OR
Using silicone baking molds: Lightly grease the mold with vegetable oil or vegan butter, and dust with a thin layer of powdered sugar. Pipe the batter into the molds (only filling them half-way) and dust them with more icing sugar before baking.
Bake: If using a tray, bake for 13 minutes, until the cookies begin to brown on the edges. If using silicone molds, they will take 14-15 minutes to bake through.
Cool the cookies: Allow them to cool on the tray for about 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack to cool completely. If using silicone molds, allow them to cool completely before removing them from the molds.
Clean and dry the molds and repeat the process with the remaining batter *the full recipe will make about 2-3 cookie sheets in total depending on the size).
Storage: For crisp ladyfinger cookies, keep them stored at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 5 days. After a couple of days, they may soften a little.
You can also freeze them in a sealed container for up to a month. So you can make them ahead of time to use in our favorite recipes.

Notes

Aquafaba: The liquid part from tinned chickpeas.
Cornstarch - This helps the ladfingers from spreading too much, you *can* replace it with extra flour, but you will be left with slightly thicker cookies.
Bake trays one at a time. As this recipe makes 32 ladyfingers, it's likely you'll need more than one tray. Make sure you pipe the second tray of cookies just before baking - don't pipe them out and leave them hanging around while you wait for space to free up in your oven.

Nutrition