Kind of Meringues

Some people call it meringues. I call it a lazy Sunday afternoon.

So, I was making custard style ice cream. Coffee flavor, obviously.

And I had a bunch of leftover egg whites. Five, to be exact.

All of a sudden, the voice in my head mysteriously whispered “meringues....”

”What?!” - I said in disbelief, since I’d never made meringues before.

”Use those egg whites before they go bad, woman!” the voice in my head demanded.

And I knew it had a point.

(Things rarely go bad in my refrigerator.)

(Still more often than I wish.)

(Somehow the voice in my head knows that about me.)

Well anyway!

I used:

• 5 egg whites (you absolutely don’t have to make ice cream prior to this step) (but you can if you want! plus, if you don’t, you’ll have to figure out what to do with 5 egg yolks... don’t you hate that?)

• 4 ounces of sugar. That’s too little sugar! - you might say. Yep, that’s true. I don’t use a lot of sugar. It helps me deceive myself into thinking I’m cooking quasi-healthy food. If you have a sweet tooth, double the amount of sugar here. Also, people will tell you to use confectioners sugar. Or powered sugar. Which is the same thing. I don’t bother buying confectioners sugar, since it’s extremely easy to make at home if you have a good blender. Just throw the sugar in the blender and let it grind it to fine powder for you.

• a pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 200 (-ish) Farenheit.

Start beating the egg whites with a pinch of salt. Increase the speed and beat them until they start start firming up. Or something like that.

Slowly add sugar while continuing to beat the egg whites. They should look firm and double in size.

Carefully place the mixture into the bakers bag that you might have forgotten to prepare beforehand.

Pour not so neat buttons onto the cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

Place it in the hot oven for a two hours.

Now, the French know what they are doing. I don’t. Which is part of the reason why my meringues ended up deflated. Deflated, but oh so delicious! Especially with the coffee ice cream! Yum-oh!

See how I managed to screw this up all on my own? Lesson of the day: you don’t need your kids to mess things up. I take it back, lesson of the day #2: don’t blame it all on your kids. Oh, and very important, lesson of the day #3: enjoy desserts with your kids! Even when desserts don’t look so appealing, they are delicious in good company. <3