Ladyfingers are easy to make and can satisfy anyone’s sweet tooth. Light and unique in taste, this is a delicious dessert or tasty snack food that most people love, but what if you go to the store and can’t find any ladyfingers?
Don’t panic. There are popular substitutes you can use. The best ladyfingers substitutes are sponge cake, pound cake, biscotti, biscuits, wafers, panettone, Pavesini cookies, and margarita cookies.
Below are some of the most popular ladyfinger alternatives that should make it simple for you to make your recipe even without actual ladyfingers.
Sponge Cake
Sponge cake is a great substitute when making a dessert with ladyfingers, especially if you want something a little lighter. If you like to put ladyfingers in tiramisu, sponge cake is a great replacement for ladyfingers. You can even make sponge cake at home: all you need is eggs, milk, flour, and sugar. Sponge cake can be easily made into other shapes, too.
Biscotti
This is a great alternative to ladyfingers. Why? For one thing, their dry texture is very much like the texture of ladyfingers, and the taste isn’t that far off, either. Biscotti is very popular in Italy and is made with ingredients such as butter, flour, eggs, sugar, and oil. Sometimes, almonds and other foods are added to it. Even though their shape is a little different, they still make for a great substitute.
Pound Cake
If you want your ladyfinger dessert to be more cakey in texture, pound cake is what you want to use. This flavorful cake is made with basic ingredients such as sugar, butter, flour, and eggs, but you can easily find it in stores and bakeries as well. It is an inexpensive cake to make, and since it has a fairly neutral flavor, you can sweeten up your ladyfingers with any topping you like.
Margarita Cookies
Some people have never heard of margarita cookies, but they can be found in a lot of supermarkets, especially if you live in Italy. You can think of them as an Italian biscuit, because they resemble a biscuit more than they do a cookie. You can also use these cookies for other desserts and snacks, so they’re a handy food to have in your kitchen.
Panettone
Panettone is a delicious Italian cake that you can use in a dessert recipe or eat by itself. It is a sweetbread often used at Christmas time in Italy, and it is now popular in other parts of Europe as well. It is cylindrical in shape and you can slice it in any size necessary for desserts such as tiramisu and certain other types of desserts.
Pavesini Cookies
While Pavesini cookies are a little different in both taste and texture compared to ladyfingers, they look so much like ladyfingers that some people have trouble telling them apart. They are lower in fat and protein than ladyfingers, which is why they taste a little different, but if you’re using ladyfingers for a tiramisu recipe, this is a great alternative to choose. They’re also perfect for when you add your favorite topping!
Italian Biscuits
There are several types of Italian biscuits, and you can easily use them instead of ladyfingers in numerous recipes. What you need to look for is a biscuit that is sweet and that doesn’t have a herb or bread-like flavor. Ladyfinger desserts are sweet, so stick to the Italian biscuits that have a sweet flavor.
Waffles
If you use waffles instead of ladyfingers, consider using Belgian waffles for an even better taste. You can purchase waffles plain or in different flavors, and they are super-easy to find and inexpensive to boot. Regardless of which ladyfinger recipe you’re using, waffles make for a suitable ladyfinger substitute every time.
Wafers
If you use wafers as a substitute for ladyfingers, you can use either plain ones or the ones filled with different flavorings, including chocolate and vanilla. The only thing you need to watch out for is a type of recipe that has a lot of syrup in it. Syrup and syrup-like foods can make wafers very mushy, which means you can’t enjoy their nice crispy texture. If you use wafers in a recipe with cream in it, it’s especially delicious!
Madeleines
Madeleines are similar to sponge cake, so you can definitely replace traditional ladyfingers with madeleines if you like. One of the biggest advantages to doing this is that madeleines come in many different shapes, and you can easily cut them into several pieces to fit your recipe. Madeleines originated in France and can be used as a ladyfingers substitute in tiramisu.
Make Your Own Ladyfingers
You can indeed make your own authentic ladyfingers. Just beat the whites of four eggs and 2 tablespoons of sugar until glossy and thick. In another container, beat the four egg yolks with 2/3 cup of regular sugar until thick. In a third container, mix 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda and 1 cup of flour, then gradually add the whites and the yolk mixture to this container until you get a soft texture.
Next, shape the homemade ladyfingers and place them in a 400-degree (Fahrenheit) oven for 8 minutes. Once they’re removed, let them cool down before you add them to your recipe or eat them plain. This is a fast and simple recipe that you can use anytime you’re looking to make a great-tasting homemade dessert or delicious snack.