Meringue Cookies Recipe

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Good morning, good readers. As you rest, vacation and simply live life in the middle of summer, please tend to today's requests: Porter's creamed spinach, white wedding cake with almond extract, Thai crab cakes with lemon grass and an accompanying sauce and peach brandy made from fresh peaches.

Judy Jones is a fan of Porter's restaurant, where "everything always has been great. My request is for their version of creamed spinach, which is divine. I always have favored Calhoun's spinach Maria, but this is subtler and richer."

From a faraway beach came the next two requests. E.E. and her husband, E.E. too, have been married 19 years and still are regretting that they missed their own wedding cake, a delicious version that was "a white almond-flavored cake made by a Chattanooga cake maker. We have not been able to find a recipe for such a wedding pound cake."

Another couple sampled, on a trip to Thailand, Thai crab cakes made with rice and lemon grass, with a tasty sauce to accompany them. They solicit your help in making something similar right here at home.

Jim Webster has made peach brandy in the past "by putting skinned whole peaches in a quart Mason jar, filling it with sugar, screwing the lid on loosely and wrapping the jar in brown paper for several weeks while the yeasts did their work. I can't find the recipe; all other recipes include adding peach brandy to the mix, and I don't recall this. The result tasted like a peach liqueur, particularly good over vanilla ice cream."

Barbara found the following meringue recipe in a 2005 issue of Taste of the South, attributed to Frances Norwood, owner of Simply Delicious Bakery in Decatur, Ala. She affirmed that "I have never made a decent meringue until I found this recipe, and it now is the only one I use." This is a meringue to be used on the top of a pie.

Meringue

In a small saucepan, combine 2 tablespoons sugar with cornstarch; add water. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is thick and clear. Beat egg whites with salt and vanilla until soft mounds form. Add remaining 6 tablespoons sugar, beating well. Add hot mixture, and continue beating until meringue stands in stiff peaks. Spread on the pie, being sure it spreads to the edges.

A second meringue recommendation came from Helene Langlois, who got this from a family collection. This one is for a meringue cookie.

Frugal Mom Digest: Meringue Cookie Recipe-So Easy to Make!

-Reduce oven to 225°. Wet a paper towel with white vinegar and wipe the bowl and whisk of a mixer to insure that there is no egg yolk on them from any previous baking. Place egg whites in bowl, add cream of tartar and salt, then whisk on medium-high speed until foamy, about 1 minute. Gradually add granulated sugar while whisking, until meringue is glossy and forms stiff peaks, about 2 minutes. Gently fold in the sugared almonds with a spatula. Drop tablespoons of batter onto a cookie sheet. Bake 1-1/2 hours. Turn oven off. Let meringues stand in closed oven with the light on at least 4 hours or overnight. Garnish with the remaining almonds. Store in an airtight container. Makes 2 dozen cookies. You can add a drop of food color to your mix if you want pastel meringues.

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