In which Rebekah makes meringues

A couple of weeks ago we decided that we would decrease the amount of sweet stuff we bought, and instead we would, once a week, either buy a fancy dessert at the bakery or I would make something special. Two weeks ago I made pear clafoutis. Last weekend I made an apple tart (which was really not all that good. I should have gone with my instincts and made apple pie, midwestern or not.) The recipe called for 6 egg yolks, which meant of course that I was left with 6 egg whites.

The obvious thing to do with large numbers of leftover egg whites is to make meringues. Obvious, that is, so long as you have a massive stand mixer and cookie sheets and piping equipment. I, on the other hand, didn't have a stand mixer (or even a hand mixer) or cookie sheets or piping equipment. I also didn't have cream of tartar, nor could I find any at the Auchan. But I did have six leftover egg whites in the fridge, and a whisk.

After lunch yesterday, Cherry and I sat down on the kitchen floor and proceeded to try to make meringues. First, we dumped the egg whites into the bowl, and we took turns whisking them. I'd whisk until my arm got sore, and then Cherry would take a turn while I recovered. 15 minutes later, we had something that looked like it could pass for (very) soft peaks. At any rate, the whisk marks in the egg white were taking a while to disappear.

The next step was to begin to add the sugar, a little bit at a time, and continue to whisk until we got something that looked like stiff peaks. Since I was using medium egg whites instead of the large ones called for in all of the recipes, there was a bit of guesswork involved in figuring out how much sugar to use. I guessed that 6 medium whites was probably the equivalent of 4.5 to 5 large whites, and accordingly measured out a generous 3/4 cup of sugar. Since I didn't want plain meringues, I added some cinnamon to the sugar.

Cherry and I redivided the work load as follows: She used a tablespoon measure to carefully dump cinnamon sugar into the egg whites when I asked her to. And I whisked. And whisked. And whisked. It took about 5 minutes to add all the cinnamon sugar, and a further 5 minutes of additional whisking to get something that could even vaguely be construed as stiff peaks. By that point my arm was starting to feel like it was going to fall off, and I was concerned that I would begin to look lopsided due to all the excess muscle development on one side of my body. I was also beginning to sweat, so I changed into a T-shirt and shorts. After 5 more minutes, I decided that it was never going to get any stiffer, and that I might as well bake and see what happened.

Now, the second problem. I don't have any cookie sheets in this apartment. I've been baking cookies as bars, but part of the appeal of meringues is the crispy outside, which makes baking them as bars pretty unappealing. I decide that I can just plop spoonfuls inside the baking dishes, and that should work. I fill the first baking pan with plops of meringue, and slip it into the oven, setting the timer for 40 minutes. The second pan, filled with more plops is left on the counter. (The oven isn't big enough to have two pans of cookies baking at the same time.)

After 40 minutes, we take the first pan out of the oven, and put it on the counter to cool. The cookies are nicely puffed and brown. The second pan goes into the oven, and the timer is reset. After I read a couple of books to Cherry, I go back into the kitchen to see how things are going, and discover that the meringues cooling on the counter are now looking rather sticky, and they've lost much of their volume. Perhaps I should have left them in the oven for longer? I add 20 minutes to the time for the meringues still in the oven, and decide that I will leave them in (with the oven turned off of course) while we walk to the school to pick up Sapphire and Ezio.

I pull the second batch out when we get home. They hold up somewhat better, but they aren't great. Clearly, making meringues without my heavy equipment is more difficult than I expected.