Cookie Collection Recipe 5

Here is another flourless-cookie recipe for you all...

Meringues are a favorite of my niece and all of the friends she made while visiting us one summer when I hosted a little ladies tea party for her (picture five 7-year-olds, one 4-year-old, tiaras and feather boas with their accompanying cloud of pink feathers). Adding one drop of red food coloring per ½ cup of egg whites makes meringues with a very nice, young girl-pleasing, light pink color.

("Meringue" also happens to be the same way I always misspell a certain Latin dance with that has a fast one-two, one-two beat... the Merengue.)

Meringues
Makes ~48 cookies

½ cup of egg whites
pinch cream of tartar
1 cup sugar

1 drop food coloring (optional)

Preheat oven to 200 degrees and line a couple of half-sheet pans (or cookie sheets) with parchment paper.

In a very clean bowl, whip the egg whites and cream of tartar to soft peaks. Gradually add the sugar and whip to stiff peaks. If using food coloring, add it and mix at low speed until incorporated. Pipe (or drop by the spoonful) the meringues onto prepared pans and bake at 200 degrees for 1 to 2 hours or until completely dry. Do not let the meringues brown.

Helpful Hints:

Any oil in your bowl, on the beaters or bits of egg yolk can prevent the whites from being beaten to their full air-holding capacity. Make sure everything is very clean.

If you have a problem with meringues slumping and losing their shape in the oven, try beating the egg whites longer or increasing your oven temperature a smidgen. I usually cook mine at ~200 degrees.

Or, if the issue is that they hold their shape but are just not dried, you may need to bake them longer. I bake mine for around 1½ hours, then turn off the oven, leave the oven light on and let the meringues sit in the oven overnight. If you are living someplace humid, you will definitely need to bake them longer and might have to leave them in an oven set on "warm" for several hours or overnight (that is the only way I can get them to dry while in the D.C. area during the summer). Basically, as long as the oven is low enough not to brown the meringues, they can stay in there as long as is needed to fully dry them.

Meringues can be formed in pretty much any shape or size (within reason). The only thing to watch for with the bigger shapes is that they will take considerably longer to completely dry out.