boudoir biscuits are in effect the same as sponge biscuits or sponge fingers, ladyfingers (N. America) and savoy biscuits (an older term). They are long, finger-shaped, crisp sponge biscuits based on whisked egg and sugar mixtures with a crystallized sugar topping. In France they are also called biscuits à la cuiller.
Helen J. Saberi (1995a) has investigated the history and significance of the unusual name ‘boudoir biscuits’. Although boudoir entered the English language from French long ago and its application to these biscuits could therefore have arisen in England, it seems clear that the French were the first to use the name. Boudoir comes from the French verb bouder, to pout, and normally refers to a woman’s private room where she would receive only her intimate friends—who could pout and nibble sponge fingers as much as they wished in this cloistered environment.
