Can pillows be crunchy? If so, these deceptively brittle, melt-in-your-mouth treats are the most breakable sleeping accessory I’ve ever baked.
They look like pillows—or clouds or hills or pudding—but they’re crunchy and soft and creamy all at the same time. It’s the miracle of egg whites. You whip them to soft peaks, then add sugar a teaspoon at a time, and then bake at a low temperature for a period of time much longer than cookies. If you do this all correctly and there’s not too much humidity in the oven and you didn’t beat too quickly and the egg whites were at room temperature and were stabilized with a little cream of tartar, then maybe, just maybe, you meringues will be that wonderful mix of soft and crunchy and creamy.
They’re not modern miracles, meringues. In my 1947 Joy of Cooking, Irma Rombauer had already perfected the recipe. Any modern variation is just a publisher looking for an excuse to print a new cookbook. It probably won’t be as failsafe or as instructive. Stick with Irma. While I don’t share her love of jello-molded puddings, I trust her one great book more than the veritable library of Jamie Kennedy’s. There’s nothing wrong with Kennedy, but Irma but her soul into The Joy, and try as the publishers did to remove her voice a little more from each subsequent edition, she’s still there, emphasizing jam yield over low-sugar and teaching generations of us know-nothings how to serve a dinner party.
And, of course, how to make meringues. Perfectly.
Vanilla Meringues
adapted from the Joy of Cooking by Irma S. Rombauer
Rombauer says to beat the egg whites “on a dish or in a large bowl” and to use a flat-wire whisk. I used an electric mixer on low speed and held my breath. My forearms don’t have her dexterity from a lifetime of meringue-making. She also gives an electric mixer method, which I recap below.
2 egg whites
1/8 salt
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
4 tbsp granulated sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Preheat the oven to 200F. Whip the egg whites and salt until frothy at medium speed. Add the cream of tartar and whip to stiffer than soft peaks but before the hills of egg whites are dry (3 minutes). Turn the speed to high and beat in the sugar approximately 1 tsp at a time (yes, 1 tsp…or just incredibly slowly) for a total of 4 to 5 minutes. The peaks should now be stiff and hold their shape well when you turn off the mixer and lift it from the whites. Beat in the vanilla.
Dollop the batter by the heaping tablespoonful onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and either smooth the tops with a spatula or don’t. This should make about ten cookies. If you want to fill the meringues with jam or fruit (pavlova-style) later, try to make an indentation where the jam will sit without spilling. Bake for 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours, rotating the sheets carefully during baking to ensure even cooking. The meringues shouldn’t brown. If they do start to brown, turn the heat down 25 degrees. Turn off the oven, open the door a little and leave the meringues to cool inside for a few hours or overnight. Store them at room temperature for a couple days. They’ll be very brittle in the fridge, though perfect with coffee or bitter hot chocolate…
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