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Dessert

Lady Fingers

A light sponge cake made with eggs, powdered sugar, flour, rose water, baked into finger-shaped cookies.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Lady Fingers

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Whisk the egg whites and yolks separately until fluffy.

  3. Mix the yolks with powdered sugar and flour until smooth.

  4. Gently fold in the egg whites and then add the rose water.

Shape and bake

  1. Butter a baking tin and spoon the mixture into 'fingers' that are 3 inches long and ¾ inch wide.

  2. Sift a little powdered sugar over the fingers and let them sit for 5-6 minutes.

  3. Bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes or until lightly browned.

Store

  1. Once cool, store in a tightly covered tin canister.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whisked eggs trap air, giving the sponge its light, airy structure.
Flour
Provides the starch that sets during baking to give the cake its firm structure.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the batter and dissolves smoothly into the yolks for a fine crumb.
Rose water
Adds moisture and a floral aroma to the batter.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Gentle folding keeps the air whisked into the egg whites. Stirring vigorously deflates the batter, which leads to a flatter, denser sponge.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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