We got the recipe from the All Recipes website, but changed it a little. Of course. Like how we made a trillion cookies, so tripled the recipe, and stuff.
The stuff:
6 egg whites (separating eggs is really easy-- save the yolks for making custard or maybe bread pudding!)
1 1/2 cup sugar (we used organic Florida Crystals)
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1 TB vanilla extract
1 cup Heath Bar crunchy bits from a bag
The how:
Preheat the oven to 250 & cover your cookie sheets with parchment paper. Parchment paper rawks. I love parchment paper, and even forgive it for always trying to roll itself back up.
In your stand mixer (because you have a stand mixer if you like to cook, and if you don't, go steal one) beat the egg whites up until they yell "Uncle!" at which point they will be stiff and dry. We yelled at them some first, because you're s'posed to yell at someone yer beating up, according to William. Toss the cream of tartar in while you're beating them, it will humiliate them even more.
Now turn the mixer to low and slowly start adding the sugar, and at some point in the midst of this, also the vanilla extract. Then beat the hell out of the mixture some more until it is poofy and glossy. Sprinkle the Heath Bar crunchies on top, and fold them in.
Use two spoons to scoop and plop-- the second spoon will be useful to get that sticky stuff off the first one and shape them into little lumpy things. You can get fancy if you like, but I prefer free form meringues. Because they are easier and look less pretentious. Pretentious looking cookies never taste as good. Plus sometimes they even taste kind of like some florally soap or something.
Anyway, each one should be somewhere between the size of an acorn and the size of a ping pong ball. Too small and they will be dry and crumbly, too big and they will be too gooey and fall apart.
Put them in the oven and cook them for about 30-60 minutes. Yah, it's variable. Just keep checking them, and if they feel dry and are starting to get a little brown, they are prolly done. If you take them out too soon, that Heath Bar crunchy stuff will still be melty in the middle and they will fall apart. If you wait too long, they could be unbearably dry. Take them off the pan and cool them on a rack.
Now, while you are making these, you might see your muffin tin, the one for tiny muffins? And you might think, "Hey, I'll bet that would work perfectly for meringues! Just the right size and shape, and so much easier to dollop into..."
Don't. It doesn't work.
And then you will have 24 perfect meringues you can't get out of the tins, and you will have to let your son and husband scrape them out with a spoon. And then they will complain about feeling sick from too much sugar. But then they go back and do it again.
Store the meringues you don't eat right away in a sealed jar in your pantry. Not open, and not in the fridge. These little suckers suck up humidity like a mofo.
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