SC - weekend cooking trials

[Karen O]

    Hello  fellow cooks!!

    Having most events nearby cancelled due to wildfire danger,  I started
experimenting in the kitchen . . . . .

>From  a llooooooonnng ago post  (feb 16 1998) between Rebecca Tants &
Meliora de Curci,  about French Biscuit Bread from  Elinor Fettiplace, how
it reselmbled almond cookies from an italian cookbook,  and their redactions
as well as Spurling's.

    So, since I had leached out almonds, and frozen egg whites,  and *TIME *
I gave this a go.

So:  2 cups (maybe less) of egg whites   2 cups of almonds ground
        3 cups of sugar (divided 2 & 1)        a tad of almond extract

 I whipped the egg whites to soft peaks *, with 1 cup of sugar,  beaten in
slowly
Mixed the almonds &  2 cups sugar together**, then slowly blended this into
the meringue.
put about 1/4 cup into cupcake papers (2 dozen)  and dropped by tablespoons
onto waxed paper on cookie sheets ***  Baked in preheated 250F oven for
approx 1 hour until edges were brown.

*  Shoulda been stiff  -- egg whites may have been too cold still, I was
hurrying
**  almond & sugar mixture was very wet  -- drier  *may*  have been better
***  Learned my lesson about subsituting  wax paper for parchment  -- could
have greased the cookie sheets  as stated for the italian cookie recipe.

All in all,  there are only 3 cupcake survivors, and 1 cookie this am.
Maybe the ratio of egg to almonds should be less  -- this was very  chewy
macaroon-ish.   There was no way I could have  molded/ rolled this stuff
with my hands.  (as meliora says she did)   It's a great way to use up egg
whites, when the Head Cook only needs the yolks,  and it is perfect for the
gluten free diet.

Comments?  Questions?

Caointiarn