My Cup Runneth Over - I Made Meringue Cookies!

My first baking project for my blog was a success! Hurray! To understand my excitement, a background story: When I was in college I tried to make Baked Alaska. I'd had it before, helped my mom make it, and was (in my opinion) a competent baker. No problem, right? WRONG! I don't know what I did wrong with the meringue (I'm guessing several things) but it never got hard, so it didn't form a protective layer between the ovens heat and the ice cream. I'm sure you can imagine what a mess it made. A BIG one, if you can't. I decided to wait a while to try meringue again, and four years later I gave it a second whirl!

Voila!

Now that I know that I can make meringues I plan on making them prettier. Hopefully next week I'll have a creative meringue idea for you.

Before I got started I looked up some meringue tips, and learned some interesting things about meringue. Did you know there are three kinds? French, Swiss and Italian?

"There are 3 types of meringue, the one made most commonly at home is French meringue which is made by whisking sugar into beaten egg whites. Swiss meringue is made by beating egg whites and sugar together over a pan of hot water until the sugar has dissolved, then beating until the mixture reaches stiff peaks. Italian meringue is made by whisking a hot sugar syrup into beaten egg whites - it is the most difficult to make but is popular with bakers and caterers as it tends to hold its volume well." - From Nigella.com

Some tips I found and followed were:

1) Eggs - Should be fresh, but at least 3-4 days old
2) Separating eggs - It's easiest when they're cold, so do it then. Make sure there is NO YOLK in the egg whites, the meringues don't like it. After they're separated let the whites sit out till they're room temp, about half an hour.
3) Meringue will not work if there is any grease in the bowl so use a glass or stainless steel bowl and make sure it is clean and dry! (a couple places recommended spritzing it with lemon juice and then drying it out)

Once I had all the tips I gave it a whirl! I used Haniela's recipe:

<3 Meringues <3

4 large egg whites
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon meringue powder
pinch of salt
1 t Vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 180*

1) Use a whisk to combine the egg whites, pinch of salt, sugar and meringue powder in a heat proof bowl.
2) Set the bowl over a pan of simmering water (the bowl should not touch the water). 3) Whisk constantly, until sugar dissolves and the mixture is hot to the touch, about 6-8 minutes or so.
4) Remove the bowl from the double broiler and beat with mixer gradually from low to high until stiff peaks form. About 8-10 minutes.
5) Add the flavorings and mix for a minute or so to incorporate the extract.
6) On a baking sheet lined with parchment paper drop spoonfuls of the meringue. They won't spread so they can be close to each other, but not touching.
7) Bake for 2.5-3 hours, or until dried through. Baking times will vary depending on the size of the meringue. Leave them in the oven to cool.
8) Enjoy!

6 out of 6 people who had these cookies thought they were good, I hope you do to!