September 7, 2010 | Desserts

I’ve been meaning to post this since last week’s cooking lesson with my daughter (she comes down from CU Boulder with a friend on Wednesdays this semester to cook with me), but with the holiday weekend and a trip to Aspen (really nice – thanks Teresa!) time just got away from me. Last week’s class was about eggs, so we hard-boiled them, made a classic French omelet, made aioli with the yolks, and then made meringue with the whites.This is a cooked meringue and the technique is simple. Just whip up some eggs in the mixer until frothy, slowly add half of the sugar until it’s glossy and makes stiff peaks, then fold in the other half of the sugar and pipe. The girls used plastic bags with a corner snipped off to pipe the meringue into neat little shells……which they filled with freshly sliced Colorado peaches when they were cooked and cooled.They piped the leftover meringue into all sorts of shapes of cookies, letting their creative juices flow and trying various shapes to see what worked best. This is an easy dessert to make that will impress your guests – and the leftover cookies just melt in your mouth!

Egg White Meringue
Yields about 3 dozen shells

1 cup egg whites
2 cups sugar

Beat egg whites in a mixer on high until slightly foamy. Slowly add half of the sugar with the mixer on medium until the meringue is glossy and forms stiff peaks. Fold in the second half of the sugar then fill a pasty bag or plastic bag with the corner snipped and pipe onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper. To create shells to fill later, start in the middle and pipe rings of meringue in concentric circles that touch; when you reach the desired diameter, continuing piping for 1-2 layers on top to create a small bowl. For cookies, pipe into any desired shape, but try to keep sizes fairly consistent for even baking. Bake at 200 degrees for 2 hours. Cool before serving. Store cooled meringue shells or cookies in an airtight container.