This vegan ladyfinger recipe creates a deliciously airy vanilla sponge cookie, perfect to use in tiramisu or serve with coffee. It’s eggless and dairy free without losing the classic flavors and texture of ladyfingers.
Open a can of no salt added chickpeas and drain the liquid into a measuring cup. One 19-ounce can should produce at least ½ cup aquafaba.
½ cup aquafaba
Pour the ½ cup aquafaba into a stand mixer bowl and turn onto the highest speed setting.
Whip for 3-4 minutes, until the aquafaba becomes fluffy and white.
Scrape the edges of the bowl and add cream of tartar. Return to whipping the aquafaba at your mixer’s highest speed setting.
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
While whipping, very slowly pour in granulated sugar, about 1 tablespoon at a time. It should take about one minute to pour in.
¼ cup sugar
After all the sugar is in, scrape the edges of the bowl and whip for another 1-2 minutes until the aquafaba is a stiff foam (should hold its shape on the whisk head).
Transfer the whipped aquafaba to a large mixing bowl.
Step 2: Whip Vegan Margarine
Place vegan margarine into the bowl of the stand mixer along with some more sugar.
½ cup sugar, ½ cup vegan margarine
Whip, scraping the edges down a few times, until the margarine mixture has become fluffy and lighter in color.
Next, add vanilla extract and whip until incorporated.
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Once fluffy, carefully add ¼ of the whipped aquafaba and whip this in, on high speed, for about 1 minute. Stop whipping and scrape the edges down.
Add another ¼ of the aquafaba (⅓ of the aquafaba remaining).
Again, whip this second round of aquafaba into the margarine at high speed.
Step 3: Fold Ingredients Together
Carefully transfer this whipped margarine-aquafaba mix into the mixing bowl with the remaining aquafaba. Slowly fold the ingredients together.
When about half mixed, sift in corn starch and about half of your all-purpose flour.
2 tablespoons corn starch, 1 ¼ cups all purpose flour
Once this is about half mixed in, sift in the remaining all-purpose flour.
Fold extremely carefully to allow the batter to hold its whipped in air content.
Step 4: Pipe and Bake
As soon as there’s no clumps of dry flour left in the batter, stop mixing.
Transfer this mixture into a piping bag with a ½ inch round tip (if you don’t have this tip, just cut a ½ inch hole into a piping bag).
Prep a baking tray by covering it with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
Pipe the ladyfingers onto the baking tray. They should be about ¾ inches wide and 3 ½ inches long; and at least 1 ½ inches apart.
When all the batter is piped, place the baking tray into an oven preheated to 350 °F.
Bake for 17-20 minutes, until the bottoms of the cookies are very lightly browned.
Step 5: Cool and Serve
The cookies will be quite soft straight out of the oven. Let the cookies rest on the baking tray for about 2 minutes, then carefully transfer to a wire cooling rack.
As the cookies cool, they will firm and become crunchy in texture.
Once cooled, serve your ladyfingers or use them in a tiramisu! If using for tiramisu, leave the ladyfingers as-is. If serving on their own, it’s optional to top with icing sugar (scoop a tablespoon or so into a wire strainer and sprinkle on top).