For meringues, fourth time's a charm!

Normally I find meringues too sweet, but a few years ago I tried Trader Joe's Chocolate Meringues and fell in love. Of course since I loved the product it must have been discontinued, at least our Trader Joe's has not had them for about 6 months. I have tried some other meringues but they just haven't been as good.

I have been feeling more inspired to make meringues since we got an awesome stand mixer for our wedding, it whips egg whites into stiff peaks in just a few minutes. Above is my culinary triumph (I found the recipe here), the fourth time I made the meringues was a charm. I didn't know how to make meringues and was doing it all wrong. The first time I tried them, they came out too soft. It turns out I didn't let them dry out, and I probably used sugar that was too course to dissolve. And apparently you can only add the sugar 1 tablespoon at a time or the batter will become too moist (I don't pretend to know why this happens but I've decided to follow the rule). The last two times I tried to make meringues they came out like crackers. So the egg white part is very important. One, you cannot use pasteurized eggs, the heat damages the protein so it doesn't stretch as much. I tried this shortcut with the egg whites in a carton. Also, after separating the egg whites they have to sit at room temperature for a half hour. This also lets them expand more than they would if they were cold. Other things that meringues are really sensitive to: fat. Any fat and the eggs won't whip up. This means ditching an egg white that gets even a little yolk in it, and it means no plastic mixing bowls, since they can absorb fat. Anyway, if you have the patience for all of this, I highly recommend it, it was "easy" the fourth time, and I am also excited by how simple and cheap the ingredients are.

I also made a few other things this weekend:

Veggie pepperoni, a great high protein snack (recipe in Vegan Vittles, good cookbook too). I sliced it with the slicing blade in my food processor, which made the pieces thinner than I could slice.

Cinnamon granola with almonds and coconut, also yummy.

Wild mushroom risotto. The picture does not do it justice. We should've doubled the recipe because there wasn't much left it was so good!