Lady Fingers or Biscuits Cuilleres

When you live in Europe or France, and you need an ingredient for a recipe, you can go to any supermarket and just get it because they would have the item that the recipe demands. Unfortunately, most American supermarkets does not carry all the ingredients that i was accustomed to work with, or play with in Europe which can make your cooking experience a bit of a challenge or a scavenger hunt. Over the years that I have been in the USA, I have learned to either bring those coveted items back with me, or find internet sites that either sell them, or explain how I can make them myself.

So this is how, I learned to make pistachio paste, Pralin, Chestnut Puree.

This weekend I wanted to make a Buche de Noel ( Yule Log) and the recipe called for Boudoirs, or Lady Fingers… But I could not find them in any store so I had to make them.

So here is the recipe. It is one of the easiest thing to make, it is fast and you make lots of cookies at once that keep really well in an airtight container.

Ingredients for about 50 individual cookies:

3 eggs separated
63 grams of sugar
1 tsp of vanilla extract ( I am using the vanilla bean Paste from Nielsen Massey found at the Fresh Market)
32 gr. of flour
32 gr. of corn starch or even potato starch
powdered sugar

Separate the eggs and place the egg whites into a mixer. Beat the egg whites into hard peaks.
When you have reached this texture, add the egg yolks and blend them in.
Then sift the corn starch and the flour and add it gently to the egg whites.
Add 1 tsp of vanilla extract.
Fill a pastry bag and draw small sticks of about 1/2 inch by 2 inches on large silpat that you would have placed on a large perforated sheet.
Dust some powdered sugar all over the “cookies”.
Bake the cookies in the oven for 12 minutes at 338 or until they become a very pale yellow.
Remove them from the oven and let them cool down at room temperature. Keep in an airtight container so that they will stay hard ( can keep for several weeks).

And with those wonderful cookies, I was able to make my Vanilla and Chocolate Buche de Noel. Yum….

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!