What could go wrong?
Dec. 15th, 2020 05:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
plonqOn our last order for grocery delivery, I sneaked in a 500ml carton of egg whites. I wanted to do things with egg whites, but I hate separating them (and also, that leaves me with yolks to deal with).
My first thing was to make some meringue cookies. I'd been working on those when I first retired, but I gave it a break after getting pretty good at them. It's been long enough that I think I can tackle them again without becoming "that crazy meringue guy".
When I looked up a recipe for them, I noticed that they listed alternatives for Italian and Swiss meringue as well. I've heard of the latter, but not the former. They all call for the same ingredients - it's just the process that is different. Swiss meringue looks like it would be too fiddly for my tastes, but the Italian variety looked like something I could do with only a moderate risk of personal injury. The main difference from regular meringue is that the Italian variety requires you to melt the sugar and bring it to up to a dangerously hot boil before you add it to the raw egg whites.
Simple. Nothing could possibly go wrong with that.
This also gave me an excuse to use the candy thermometer that we bought 5-10 years ago. It had been languishing in its original packaging, just waiting for one of us to to something interesting that involved melted sugar or boiling oil.
Heating up the sugar to (I think it's called "soft ball"?) state brought back a lot of childhood memories of Mom making Christmas treats. She didn't have a candy thermometer - she would just spoon a bit of the sugar into a glass of cold water occasionally and check its consistency when it cooled. She always had at least one of the kids "helping" with the process in hopes of getting one of the test blobs as it came out of the water. I have to admit that the thermometer made the process easier, though it removed a bit of the fun.
The cookies are still in the oven, so I won't know how well this process worked until after dinner. On the other hand, it was hard not to eat the meringue straight out of the bowl once it was ready for piping. It had an amazing, firm, silky texture. From what I have read, adding the sugar magma cooks the eggs enough to make them safe to eat without further baking. I resisted the urge.
If the misshapen cookies turn out any good, expect a picture or two of them up here tomorrow. I piped them out of a sandwich bag with the corner removed, so they're not pretty.
On another note, look at who I found when I was digging through the basement for some winter gear.
My first thing was to make some meringue cookies. I'd been working on those when I first retired, but I gave it a break after getting pretty good at them. It's been long enough that I think I can tackle them again without becoming "that crazy meringue guy".
When I looked up a recipe for them, I noticed that they listed alternatives for Italian and Swiss meringue as well. I've heard of the latter, but not the former. They all call for the same ingredients - it's just the process that is different. Swiss meringue looks like it would be too fiddly for my tastes, but the Italian variety looked like something I could do with only a moderate risk of personal injury. The main difference from regular meringue is that the Italian variety requires you to melt the sugar and bring it to up to a dangerously hot boil before you add it to the raw egg whites.
Simple. Nothing could possibly go wrong with that.
This also gave me an excuse to use the candy thermometer that we bought 5-10 years ago. It had been languishing in its original packaging, just waiting for one of us to to something interesting that involved melted sugar or boiling oil.
Heating up the sugar to (I think it's called "soft ball"?) state brought back a lot of childhood memories of Mom making Christmas treats. She didn't have a candy thermometer - she would just spoon a bit of the sugar into a glass of cold water occasionally and check its consistency when it cooled. She always had at least one of the kids "helping" with the process in hopes of getting one of the test blobs as it came out of the water. I have to admit that the thermometer made the process easier, though it removed a bit of the fun.
The cookies are still in the oven, so I won't know how well this process worked until after dinner. On the other hand, it was hard not to eat the meringue straight out of the bowl once it was ready for piping. It had an amazing, firm, silky texture. From what I have read, adding the sugar magma cooks the eggs enough to make them safe to eat without further baking. I resisted the urge.
If the misshapen cookies turn out any good, expect a picture or two of them up here tomorrow. I piped them out of a sandwich bag with the corner removed, so they're not pretty.
On another note, look at who I found when I was digging through the basement for some winter gear.
