Meringue Ghosts

Party! Party! Party! Party! Party! Party!

Ok, so Halloween is not officially here yet, but my students don't have school the day of. Normally I hate Fridays, but with a party to occupy the second half of the day, I can tolerate it...just this once.

I wanted to make something awesome for my students. Not the usual cupcakes or bags of candy. I decided to do a cake with meringue ghosts. Making the ghosts was very simple and took few ingredients - room temperature egg whites, confectioners sugar, cream of tartar, and vanilla extract.

These ghosts look amazing - my only regret is not having time to make eyes. If you have the time, use chocolate chips or candy eyes - whatever you have on hand.

Ingredients
4 large egg whites
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup confectioners sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
candy eyes (if you'd like...I didn't have any on hand)

Directions

Preheat oven to 200 degrees F (105 degrees C) and place the rack in the center of the oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Have ready a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2 inch (1.25 cm) plain tip. 

Using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites on low-medium speed until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and continue to beat the whites until they hold soft peaks. Add the sugar, a little at a time, and continue to beat until the meringue holds very stiff peaks. Beat in the vanilla extract.  

The meringue is done when it holds stiff peaks and when you rub a little between your thumb and index finger it does not feel gritty. If it feels gritty the sugar has not fully dissolved so keep beating until it feels smooth between your fingers.

Before placing the meringue ghosts on the cookie sheet, place a little of the meringue on the underside of each corner of the parchment paper. This will prevent the paper from sliding.  Transfer the meringue to the pastry bag and, holding the bag perpendicular to the baking sheet, pipe, with even pressure, about 2 inch (5 cm) high mounds of meringue.

Bake the meringues for approximately 1 - 1 1/2 hours or until they are dry and crisp to the touch. Turn off the oven, open the door, and leave the meringues in the oven to finish drying several hours, or even overnight. The Meringue Ghosts will keep several days at room temperature.

Source: Joy of Baking

Vanilla Bean Sugar

My students know that if it's before 10am and I do not have a mug in my hand, it is not in their best interest to talk to me. Drinking that much coffee, my coworker and I fly through flavored creamer like you would not believe. 

I have been trying to use plain old milk in my coffee, but something was missing - flavor. What so happened to be in the mail today? The vanilla beans that I ordered last week - score. As I perused the internet looking at all kinds of recipes to use my newly acquired beans, I was missing an ingredient or two for every single one I found. Flour? Don't have enough. Eggs? Nope, none. Then I happened across a recipe for vanilla sugar. Then it hit me like a mac truck - instead of the flavor coming from creamer, it could come from the sugar that I use. Sweet! 


Scraping a vanilla bean is relatively easy once you cut through the outer covering of the bean. For more intense vanilla flavor, I put the scraped vanilla bean in the bottom of the airtight container where I keep my new vanilla sugar.  
Directions
If vanilla bean is whole, slice down side of bean with back of knife and scrape seeds into airtight container with the sugar. Bury bean in sugar and seal tightly with lid. Let sit for 1 to 2 weeks. Use as regular, granulated sugar. 


Source: Alton Brown, Food Network

Ingredients
1 vanilla bean, whole or scraped
1 cup granulated sugar

Soft Snickerdoodle Cookies

On Christmas, the first thing my brother in law asked me when I when I walked into the door was where the snickerdoodles were. My brother in law is the pickiest of all the family eaters. When he was a baby, my mother in law claims that he would only eat chicken fingers, grilled cheese, and french fries.
I've tried several recipes for snickerdoodles, and this is the best one that I found so far. They remind me of the packaged snickerdoodles that my mother in law always would buy, except more delicious.

Ingredients
1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 3/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sugar
3 teaspoons cinnamon

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Mix butter, 1 1/2 cups sugar and eggs thoroughly in a large bowl.
3. Combine flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl.
4. Blend dry ingredients into butter mixture.
5. Chill dough, and chill an ungreased cookie sheet for about 10-15 minutes in the fridge.
6. Meanwhile, mix 3 tablespoons sugar, and 3 teaspoons cinnamon in a small bowl.
7. Scoop 1 inch globs of dough into the sugar/ cinnamon mixture.
8. Coat by gently rolling balls of dough in the sugar mixture.
9. Place on chilled ungreased cookie sheet, and bake 10 minutes.
10. Allow to cool on pan for 5 minutes and transfer cookies to cooking rack.

Source: Juju Bee on Food.com