…and without a KitchenAid mixer, electric beater, or even a mechanical eggbeater. Yep, it is possible to whip up egg whites by hand, just be prepared to put in a little elbow grease.

After making lemon-lime curd with 5 egg yolks, I couldn’t let those egg whites go to waste, and meringues sounded lovely. So I pulled out the whisk, and started to work. Let me tell you, it is quite a bit of work to beat egg whites by hand, but I think it was worth it. The meringues turned out light and airy and a mere five egg whites turned into two full cookie sheets of meringues. My oven temperature needs a little perfecting, as they browned just a little more than I would have liked (se picture below), but they got eaten up quickly anyway. My husband was a big fan, especially since gluten-free cookies like meringues are the only cookies can eat.

As usual, I pulled together a recipe from various sources around food blogs. Instead of the usual vanilla, I opted for a little almond extract, which turned out to be a good choice. And you know, there’s all sorts of fancy techniques out there, like straining the egg whites, aging the egg whites in a bowl in the fridge, rubbing the bowl with a lemon, squirting the meringues out of a pastry bag, and I skipped all of them, and these turned out just fine. (And to tell you the truth, I even just eyeballed the sugar, so I’m estimating the measurement here. I really recommend just using your judgment, especially when it’s not crucial to the chemistry of the recipe, as there’s no better way to hone your skills in the kitchen, or at least to end up with food YOU want to eat.)

Meringues

• 6 Egg Whites
• 1/2 C. Sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon Almond or Vanilla extract

Start by whipping the egg whites. If you do this by hand, be prepared to whisk for about 20-30 minutes. I’m not sure how long it will take in a mixer, but whip until they are stiff. I found that if I stopped whisking, the egg whites began to separate out again, so I really had to keep going. Add the sugar and flavoring and keep beating or whisking until the sugar is dissolved. Spoon (or pipe) onto a cookie sheet lined with a silpat (or parchment paper), and bake in a low oven (220 degrees) for an hour and a half or more, until the meringues have dried out.

For more traditional, pure white meringues, this recipe looks good. Let me know if you try it!

I never really get an urge to make banana bread, or a craving for the taste of it; it’s always some overripe bananas that need to get used that remind me to make things banana-related. This Friday there were quite a few bananas left over from my office’s biweekly fruit delivery, and I hate to let good food go to waste, especially if it was shipped across continents to get to me, so I grabbed a few to bring home for baking.

I was looking around for something a little different than the standard banana bread with walnuts, and I came across this recipe at Molly Wizenberg’s Orangette. Chocolate Chips and Crystalized Ginger were just the thing!

Unfortunately, my oven may run a little cool, or I should have just poked it to check for doneness like the recipe told me to do, but either way the center came out a bit doughy, which isn’t really what you want in a quick bread. In my youth I licked as much blueberry muffin mix off a wooden spoon as the next kid, but it’s somehow WAY less appealing in the middle of your slice of banana bread than it was scraped out of the bowl as a kid. (If you look closely at the photo, you may see the mushy spot near the center.) So, sadly, I threw away the middle slices of this loaf, after spending the evening picking at the crusty edges. The ends provided a couple delicious pieces each.

I used the crystalized ginger from Trader Joe’s, and since I don’t keep milk at my house, some almond milk in place of the milk. I also used Toll House mini chocolate chips, which were very nice. I also pretty much always use salted butter, I just don’t taste the difference in baking, but I hate it when I accidentaly buter my bread with unsalted butter, yuck.

Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips and Crystalized Ginger

1 C. sugar
1 large egg
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature
2 ripe medium-size bananas
3 T. milk (or soy milk, or almond milk)
2 C. unbleached all-purpose flour
1 t. baking powder
½ t. baking soda
1 C. chocolate chips
1/4 -1/2 C. small chunks of candied ginger, to taste
½ C. chopped walnuts, optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a 9- by 5-inch loaf pan with butter or cooking spray, and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, cream sugar, egg, and butter.
In a separate bowl, mash bananas; then mix with milk.
In another separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Add flour mixture to butter mixture in three parts, alternating with banana-milk mixture in two parts, stirring by hand until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips, ginger, and optional nuts.

Turn batter into loaf pan, smoothing top with the back of a spoon, and bake for one hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool for a few minutes; then remove bread from pan and cool on a wire rack

I was invited to my first Cookie Party this year. What fun! Everyone brings 5 dozen of one kind of cookie, and leaves with a giant tupperware container filled with a cornucopia of cookie variety. The only danger for me is my drive to try a bit of everything.

I wanted to make something that I could count on no one else bringing, so I paged through my grandma’s old recipe book. As soon as turned to the potato chip cookies, I knew this would be the one. There’s something special about the combination of salty and sweet. My mom used to put salty peanuts on our ice cream sundaes to the same effect. Chocolate-covered pretzels have the same yummy combination.

Potato chip cookies remind me of the 50s, when jello was a reasonable ingredient for a salad, and cool whip could constitute most of a pie. These cookies translate well to the modern day however. The cookie is crumbly, a bit like shortbread, with the salty potato chip bits and the toasted pecans to add a bit of crunch. Definitely one of my favorite cookies.

Potato Chip Cookies

1 1/2 C. butter
1 C. sugar
2 egg yolks
2 C. crushed potato chips
3 C. flour
1 C. chopped toasted pecans
1 t. vanilla

Cream butter and sugar well. Mix in each of the rest of the ingredients in order. Drop by teaspoons on greased cookie sheets. Press each cookie once with a fork dipped in sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes.

These cookies have lots of good stuff in ‘em. I’ve been told by a friend with some food biz cred that I could start a cookie-business with these. The friend produces those delicious candied pecans and walnuts that you’ll find at Trader Joe’s, and she offered me kitchen space and business advice if I wanted to start my own cookie business. I’m not interested in a cookie business, and who knows how serious she really was, but what I do know is that these cookies are damn good.

The recipe is based on one I found in a Cooks Illustrated magazine a few years back, and the basic idea is a perfectly chewy oatmeal cookie, with bittersweet chocolate chunks, tart dried cherries, and freshly toasted walnuts. It has no cinnamon or other spices, relying on the chunky stuff, and a healthy shot of vanilla, for its flavors. There’s no white sugar, only brown, and I prefer to use a gourmet dark brown sugar like Billington’s. I also like to use a bit of steel cut oats to vary the texture a little, but that’s completely optional. If you don’t use steel cut oats, just replace them with more rolled oats.

Best Oatmeal Cookie

Makes 5 or 6 dozen cookies.

2 C. rolled oats
1/2 C. steel cut oats
6 oz. bittersweet chocolate
1 1/2 C. walnuts, toasted and chopped
8 oz. dried sour cherries, chopped
2 1/2 C. flour (I like to use “white whole wheat”)
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
1 1/2 t. salt
3 sticks of butter, softened
3 C. dark brown sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 T. vanilla extract
Parchment Paper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Mix all the chunky stuff up in a medium bowl. (That’s the oats, chocolate, cherries, and walnuts.)

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in another medium bowl.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar, till there aren’t too many lumps. Then add the eggs and the vanilla and blend. Add the flour mixture bit by bit, blending as you go.

Then, fold in the chunky stuff. Don’t worry, it’ll look like there’s more chunky stuff that cookie dough, but it will work.

Drop dough onto parchment lined cookie sheets, I like to portion out a bit more than 1/4 cup per cookie.

Bake for 9 or 10 minutes, but if you like them chewy, take them out when the edges look done, but the middles don’t. They’ll firm up as they cool.

I organized a baby shower at work the other day, and picked up fancy cupcakes from the local gourmet grocery, Draeger’s. Like I’ve been saying, the macro setting on our little point & shoot does a pretty decent job when there’s good light. Aren’t these cute?