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Savoiardi surface

2K views 6 replies 4 participants last post by  mandorla 
#1 ·
A friend just told me this: her Italian New York mother adores an Italian cookie called a Savoiardi. Apparently it has a distinctive "crackly" surface appearance. She baked batch after batch, trying all kinds of tricks, but could not reproduce the surface. Finally she called a local Italian bakery and asked, and they said, "no, we won't tell you that, it's a trade secret." And they hung up on her.

Anyone willing to break omerta on this?
 
#2 ·
One day, and this day may never come, I'll call upon you to do a service for me. But, until that day, accept this justice as a gift........

Savoiardi cookies are the ubiquitous "lady finger" cookies used in desserts like Tiramisu. They can be found in just about any store and range in price from a couple bucks per bag to over $30 (u.s.) for the "high end" stuff.

There really isn't a "secret" to getting a "crackle" surface. The cookie is light and dry by nature, so the crackly surface should be automatic when made properly. Without knowing your friend's recipe or what "tricks" she has tried, figuring out where she's gone wrong is impossible. But, if I were to take a blind stab at the dart board here, I would guess the problem is with her wet ingredients - probably the eggs - at the egg white folding phase.

More details = better answer.

Cheers! :)
 
#3 ·
Thanks!

While I wait to hear more about my friend's various attempts--I know she tried powdered sugar--as well as her recipe, let me follow up: Supposing you're right that it's about how she mixed the wet ingredients at the folding stage, what sort of technical problems would you guess might have caused the difficulty?
 
#4 ·
If the problem is with the folding stage, it could be one or a combination of factors such as too much or too little of one or more ingredients, too much or too little folding, not beating the meringue to the right consistency, the altitude where she lives, the oven temperature etc. Its rather impossible to say.
 
#6 ·
Being at high altitude my recipes will most likely (definitely) differ from most recipes that others have.

I only have 4 ingredients for this cookie, no separation of eggs, and I fold in the flour into the wet ingredients, not the egg. Very similar to a sponge cake. Oven runs right around 400 to spring and set the sponge quickly. Rapid expansion= crackly surface.
 
#7 ·
Being at high altitude my recipes will most likely (definitely) differ from most recipes that others have.

I only have 4 ingredients for this cookie, no separation of eggs, and I fold in the flour into the wet ingredients, not the egg. Very similar to a sponge cake. Oven runs right around 400 to spring and set the sponge quickly. Rapid expansion= crackly surface.
Dueh, I would be so grateful if you shared your recipe. I've been trying ladyfinger recipes and adjusting it based on my (NY Italian) dad's memories. So far, my cookies have been spongy and uniform like grocery store ladyfingers, sometimes slightly cracked, but definitely not the crackly, glossy, almost glazed cookie we ordered in Brooklyn bakeries. Sounds like a high heat would produce that.
 
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