Meringues--The Magic of Egg Whites

Meringues

It’s amazing what egg whites and sugar can create.

INGREDIENTS

• whites of 6 large eggs
  
• 1 ½ cups super fine sugar
  
• small pinch of salt

DIRECTIONS

1. Separate eggs. Put egg whites in bowl of mixer and allow to come to room temperature. Use yolks for another recipe or discard.
   
2. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
   
3. Add small pinch of salt to whites. Using the whisk attachment of your mixer, start beating the whites on medium to high speed. As the whites begin to take shape, but are still quite droopy, add 1 cup of sugar while beating constantly. Beat for one or two minutes. As the mixture starts to become stiff and shiny, add remaining ½ cup sugar and continue to beat until meringue can form stiff peaks that retain their shape.
   
4. Preheat oven to: 180 F.
   
5. To form cookies: 1. Remove a teaspoonful of meringue from the bowl and push it on to the cookie sheet with another spoon. You will probably have a peak on top which you can leave or gently press down with your finger. Repeat process until mixing bowl is empty. You can place the meringues right next to one another as they do not spread while cooking. 2. Fill a pastry bag with meringue and attach the tip of your choice. Pipe cookies on to the cookie sheet.
   
6. My personal preference is to have snow white meringues but their taste does not suffer if they look toasty. Bake meringues for about 90 minutes (take them out sooner if they start to take on color.) and then turn off the oven and leave them in the oven overnight. Carefully, remove meringues from cookie sheets and store in an air-tight container.