Meringue

Before being baked.

This is not the recipe we had planned to post. Yesterday for dinner, Kay and I made a Rachael Ray recipe. I know, I know. I've never made any of her recipes and had them turn out good. But this one had broccoli (and you know how often we eat that!), noodles, and emmentaler cheese (one of Kay's favorites) so I figured it couldn't be too bad. Well it was. We were able to eat it but it was completely bland and used just about every pot and pan I own. Hopefully now I've learned my lesson! Here are some funny pictures of Kay eating it that I didn't want to waste.

So to make up for our dinner, we decided to make meringues (we also made and ate vanilla crepes with nutella and caramel apples but that is really beside the point!). I've been promising Kay we would make these for months now but it has always been too humid or we didn't have time. Finally we had the chance. They turned out perfect and were even cooled in time to have one before bed. They were a great ending to our nine million dessert courses for the night.

We combined several recipes in order to get to this one. Next time we might try reducing the sugar a little bit.

A half eaten meringue.

Meringues

4 egg whites

1 cup sugar

1/2 tablespoon cornstarch

1 tsp white vinegar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.

In an electric mixer with a whisk attachment, beat the egg whites for about 4 minutes until you start to get soft peaks. With the mixer on medium-high, slowly spoon in the sugar and the cornstarch. Then add the vinegar and vanilla. Increase the mixer to high and whip about 3 more minutes until it is glossy.

On a parchment lined cookie sheet, drop meringue by large spoonfuls. Smooth out any peaks so that they won't burn.

Bake 1 hour 15 minutes or until the outside is dry and they are starting to turn a very light golden color. Turn off the oven and leave them in there for 1 hour. Remove the pan from the oven and allow them to complete cool before storing them.

They should have a nice crunchy outside that crumbles when you bite into it and a soft, marshmallowy inside.

Makes 6-8 depending on the size.

Kay today after soccer.

Kay: These taste really good but eat them all together. Don't break the top off and eat that first because the inside doesn't taste as good without the outside. It was very cool watching the eggs whip up. I've never seen our mixer on that high of a speed before.

Mom (Dana): I don't really have any comments. I'm still a little comatose from all those desserts last night!!