Sunday, February 25, 2007

Authentic French Meringue Cookies



For Valentine's day, I made my boyfriend mint meringue cookies. They're wonderful, simple and tasty - the recipe itself does take a lot of energy, but it's a wonderful treat in the end. Taken from All Recipes.

INGREDIENTS

4 egg whites
2 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F (95 degrees C). Butter and flour a baking sheet.
2. In a glass or metal bowl, whip egg whites until foamy using an electric mixer. Sprinkle in sugar a little at a time, while continuing to whip at medium speed. When the mixture becomes stiff and shiny like satin, stop mixing, and transfer the mixture to a large pastry bag. Pipe the meringue out onto the prepared baking sheet using a large round tip or star tip.
3. Place the meringues in the oven and place a wooden spoon handle in the door to keep it from closing all the way. Bake for 3 hours, or until the meringues are dry, and can easily be removed from the pan. Allow cookies to cool completely before storing in an airtight container at room temperature.

My own notes:
* Instead of flour and butter on the baking sheet, I used unbleached parchment paper.
* I used organic sugar and free-range eggs
* I used 1tsp of mint extract to add some flavor and 1/4 cup more sugar to make up for the added liquid.
* You can also set the oven to 185 instead of using the spoon/door method.

Mmmm! Enjoy!
|

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I love meringues! Your recipe doesn't have cream of tarter in it? I think I've always made mine with CoT (an old betty crocker recipe)

susan yee said...

Yep, no cream of tartar needed! People who've reviewed this recipes says it's much better version - apparently it's straight from France so who knows!

Unknown said...

Hello! I'm in the process of making these now actually! Thanks for the recipe! I'm trying 2 different ones at the same time...yours with powdered sugar and another with regular granulated sugar...just curious the difference. :) Why did you choose to make this one with powdered sugar..curious :)