When I was a child, my mother reigned in the kitchen. I was her willing sous chef for the main course, but dessert was my gig. Baking didn’t interest her very much and I was (and still am) a chocoholic. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement.
Fast forward to my adulthood and the roles have changed. I now reign in my kitchen and my tween is the dessert queen. While I whip together dinner, she creams together butter and sugar to create the greatest dessert concoctions. If Instagram had been around when I was a kid, I probably would have gone for baking focused handle like hers.
In the summer, when we travel to my mother’s kitchen in France, all the generations come together in the kitchen. But now, there are two dessert queens: my mother and my daughter. They banish me to set the table while they whip up egg whites and share baking tips. Their meringues, whipped together as they share secrets, taste like no other. They melt on the tongue, leaving behind the most amazing sweetness. When we go back to the States, although we duplicate the recipe step by step, some of the magic disappears, leaving delicious yet ordinary meringues.
Ingredients
- 5 Egg Whites
- 250 grams of granulated sugar (1 cup)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit (150 centigrade).
- Pour the egg whites (preferably at room temperature) into a bowl or stand mixer and whip with beaters (not paddle) on medium speed.
- When the eggs first turn white and begin to thicken, add all the sugar at once.
- Continue beating until the eggs are stiff. When you pull the egg beaters out, the eggs should keep their shape, peaks pointing to the ceiling.
- Put the stiff egg whites into a piping bag with a wide tip or a ziploc bag with a corner cut out. Pipe the meringues onto a silpat or a piece of waxed paper in large ovals or other shapes you desire.
- Cook at 300 degrees Fahrenheit (150 degrees centigrade) for an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes, keeping a close eye to make sure they don't burn. Meringues should be white, nor brown at all.
- These will keep in a sealed box for up to a week.
Want to know how to build a successful restaurant? Check out BonAppetit.com’s “Out of the Kitchen”, a glimpse into the inner workings of two successful restaurants. Meet the back of the house inner circle and see how face-face relationships keep customers coming back for more.
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Bon Appetit. The opinions and text are all mine.