Ladyfingers with strawberries and cream

I'm finally back to Gale's book. These turned out to be quite divine... they were like little cakes with a sweet, slightly crunchy exterior but a warm, soft, velvety delicate "cakeness" inside. They are definitely pretty different from the crunchy ones you can buy at like Trader Joes... I hope they will hold up in a tiramisu because I'm set on making one. :)

Since the only leavening in these cookies is the egg whites, I was pretty careful about not overbeating the whites. I did this by using an egg method I had read about in one of Chris Kimball's books. For soft peaks, a raw egg placed in the beaten egg whites will fall to the bottom; for medium peaks, the raw egg falls into the egg whites but not all the way to the bottom; and for hard peaks, the egg sits right on top of the beaten egg whites. I wouldn't recommend using this test each time you need to beat egg whites but if you're not familiar with the egg whites being at one of these stages you can try it. By the way, when I stuck my hand in the egg white foam it felt like I was touching cotton... or a cloud. It was actually something I wasn't expecting but nice. :)

Ladyfingers

(from Chocolate & Vanilla by Gale Gand)

5 large eggs, separated (Note: I think you will need to let these go to room temperature before beating them)

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup powdered sugar, plus extra for dusting the ladyfingers

1 scant cup cake flour

On a piece of parchment paper, draw 2 parallel lines 4 inches apart to use as a guide for piping the ladyfingers. Draw a second set of lines 1 1/2 inches from the first set. Turn the paper over and place pencil-side down on a cookie sheet.

Preheat the oven to 375F. Have a large pastry bag fitted with a large (1/2-inch) plain tip ready.

To make the ladyfingers, in a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the egg yolks and granulated sugar on medium speed until the mixture is light and thickened and falls back in a ribbon when the whisk is lifted from the batter, about 5 minutes. Stir in the vanilla.

In another clean, dry bowl, whip the egg whites on low speed until they're foamy, then increase the speed to medium and whip while adding the powdered sugar gradually, increase the speed to high and whip until the whites hold a stiff peak.

Sift half of the cake flour over the yolks and fold in the flour using a rubber spatula. Fold the whipped whites into the yolks and then sift and fold in the remaining flour.

Fill the pastry bag with the batter and pipe finger-thick stripes 1 1/2 inches apart between the sets of parallel lines.

Sift powdered sugar heavily over the tops of the lady fingers.

Bake until golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes. Let the ladyfingers cool on the cookie sheet before lifting them off the parchment paper.

Serve with sweetened whipped cream and strawberries. :)