Ladyfingers: Tiramisu Base

To make Tiramisu you need the base and middle "cake" layer. These are traditionally made from "Ladyfingers". The quick & easy way is to use store-bought cookies. The slow & difficult method is to make your own. Actually, it's not so slow nor very difficult.

Recipes

Joy of Cooking

Ingredients

• ½ C cake flour (we don't have this in Spain) - well sifted, 3 times, set aside
  
• 1/3 C confectioner's sugar (nor this either)
• 1/8 t salt (yes, this we have) - sift sugar & salt, set aside
  
• 1 egg (this too - w/o the salmonella fears)
  
• 2 egg yolks - beat egg & the 2 yolks until thick & lemon coloured
• 2 egg whites - beat until stiff (the whites, not your wrist)
  

Procedure

1. Fold sugar mix into white.
   
• Beat until thick again.
2. Fold egg mix in.
3. Fold flour in
4. Pipe into finger forms
   

- Done -

Professional Baking

Ingredients

• 180 g egg yolks [6 oz, about 9 large]
  
• 90 g sugar [3 oz, big 1/3 C]
  
• 270 g egg whites [9 oz, about 9 whites]
  
• 150 g sugar[5 oz, small 2/3 C]
  
• 1 ml lemon juice [¼ t]
  
• 300 g pastry flour [10 oz, 2½ C]
  

Procedure

1. Separated-egg sponge

Notes

1. Really, yes, that's the entire procedure from the professional baking guide's instructions. The idea is that we're supposed to know what a "separated-egg sponge" entails.
   Which amounts to:
1. Beat yolks and sugar (ingreds 1&2) over hot water & beat until it's 43C [110F] (that is, make a sabayon)
   
2. Whip whites, sugar & lemon juice (3&4&5) until firm, moist, peaks (lemoned meringue)
   
3. Fold these 2 mixes alternately into the flour (sabayon and meringue with flour)
   
4. Pipe into fingers or a sheet-pan
2. And we actually weigh the ingredients instead of using measuring cups or counting eggs because eggs vary in size and measuring cups are imprecise.
3. This recipe makes a load more mix than the JoC one because it eventually tuns into a square shaped Tiramisu with 24 pieces

Pic will come tomorrow when I actually bake the thing. I forgot to get lemons today so my plans to manufacture it tonight are dead.