With all the eggs the girls have been providing, I needed to branch out into sweets from main dishes. Meringue kisses are in the food stores everywhere, but I thought it would be fun for little ones to make beautiful fluffy clouds.
While simple and easy, the transformation from runny egg whites into clouds can be a little magical. Recently I was sharing these cookies with a friend who is in her late seventies and her eyes immediately lit up. Her mom used to make cloud cookies when she was a little girl and the memory stuck with her all these years.
Cloud Cookies:
- 8 Egg whites at room temperature
- a pinch of salt
- 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 2 cups superfine sugar (I've made them with 1/2 cup less and the work quite nicely as well)
*Working with eggs before they are cooked, requires care and lots of hand washing.
Beat the egg whites until frothy and then add a pinch of salt and the cream of tartar. Continue to beat at high speed adding the sugar slowly until it holds the twirl left by your spoon. You can reduce the sugar by 1/2 cup and still get the same results. I'm still testing to see if you can reduce the sugar even further.
Once your batter is done, drop a spoonful at a time on a parchment lined cookie sheet. To make the cloud shape, swirl three spoon dollops together. All of a sudden, a cumulus could appears right before you.
Bake at 225 for 60 minutes. They are done when the crust is hard, just before they start turning brown on their edges. Pop them off of the parchment paper (kids love doing this) and enjoy!
Rainy Days are not cloud making days, there's too much moisture in the air for the meringue.
To Cumulus Clouds and all the wonder they give. . .
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With the Kids:
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~Deb
*Last time in Barn Stories: Plant Dyeing Wool
