Meringue Powder

Yikes it's been a long time since I posted anything! I've been working on a couple of other things at the moment so there hasn't been much time. I started the following blog post a few weeks ago and I hope you don't mind me posting it. Maybe you're still in the mood for sugar cookies or still in the Christmas spirit. I don't know.

Here it is a few weeks late:

With Christmas just around the corner I thought it would be a good time to blog about a sugar cookie recipe I found that is perfect for the holiday season. I found this recipe in the Good Housekeeping book and I used an icing recipe I found online. Before I tell about my sugar cookie adventure I think its important to tell you that this is not one of the recipes that just happens. What I mean by this is, is simply that in no way shape or form will you make this with perfection unless you are God or Martha Stewart. (Keep in mind I made these cookies on the Monday before Thanksgiving)


In my mind, I pictured the following scenario:

(No exaggeration)

I made the cookies wearing a super fabulous apron. I didn't spill a thing. My hair was perfect. My makeup was perfect. Christmas songs played in the background. I say along to the songs in a voice that was unrealistically harmonious, kind of like Ariel in the Little Mermaid. I cut leaf shaped cookies out and they cooked perfectly in the oven. I painted them in fall colors with homemade icing I had dyed. The icing went on smooth. It was glorious. Jason came home from work, kissed my forehead, and tasted the cookies and said they were delicious.Why wouldn't they be, I made them. I placed them in cute bags, labeled them with tags that said "Happy Thanksgiving! Love, The Yarbroughs" and tied them with neat perfect bows, because I'm an excellent bow tier so this would make perfect sense. I delivered them to my neighbors and family who were delighted by them. It was magical. ____________________________________________________________

Here's how it really went... I'll start from the beginning. Filled with the spirit of the holiday season I decided to bake some sugar cookies and ice them with homemade icing with the above mentioned scenario in my head. I really believed it would be effortless and it would take me an hour at most. I used a sugar cookie recipe from the Good Housekeeping book and an icing recipe I found further down the page that called for Meringue Powder. What the heck is meringue powder?! Of course, I didn't have it and had never heard of it anyway so off to the Casey Jones (our local supermarket) I went.


SIDENOTE: Have I told you how much I love our Casey Jones? I can't remember. Well I do. I love it. It's not like Wal-mart where I dodge carts like I'm in a bumper car cage and people ram into you like they're on speed. And God forbid you actually fall over because at Wal-Mart they would roll their cart right over your body. People at Wal-Mart scare me. At the Casey Jones its like you stepped into Mayberry well a different kind of Mayberry anyway. People know each other there and ask about your family and how your tomatoes plants did this year. Once when I was there, a woman hollered down the isle, "how's your mama" and a girl yelled back, "she's good, she's in jail." and everyone smiled and chuckled a little. Local New Orleans grocery stores. I wouldn't change a thing about them.

Back to the main story: So I'm here at the Casey Jones and one of the managers comes flying by with a very big mission, who knows what. I say excuse me, I can't find meringue powder and he drops everything he's doing. Meringue powder?.....he scratches his chin. He's walks one way then he walks the other way. He scans the shelves. More determined then ever he calls over other employees. Suddenly I felt like I was on a battlefield where troops were being dispatched to war-ridden area by the general. He barked out orders 'John! miscellaneous baking goods isle!" "Frank! isle 8!" The manager takes off on his own mission and I am left standing there blinking. I follow John to the miscellaneous baking isle and begin scanning shelves. Turns out none of the store's troops could find it. Finally we give up and the manager comes flying over with pages in hand. "Here", he says handing them over to me. "I googled it." Pages about Meringue powder and what to use instead. He apologizes for not having it and tells me some stores to check. If they don't have it come back and I'll order it, he says.

Wow.

This is customer service. :)

I go home and flop myself on the couch, not defeated but amazed.

After alot of thought, I decided not to go with Meringue powder (which seems to exist only on Google) but I googled a pretty great icing recipe that seemed to work just fine.

On the day I finally made the cookies, it took the WHOLE day. I was covered in flour all over my super cute apron, my face, my baseball cap that covered my not so cute hair. I made a horrible mess of the kitchen. I played Christmas songs but I sang them with no hope of a singing career. The cookies tasted awesome but God love them they didn't look like leaves and the icing colors were too bright to be considered fall colors. The icing was a mess, I had a tough time painting it on the cookies and I ended up with more on me than on the cookies. In the end, I ziplocked bagged them, I never attached a cute note to them and I never distributed to my friends and family, because I was pretty tired of looking at them. And Jason? Jason came home to my wonderful cookies. My wonderful mess. It turns out he thought they were perfect. And me, I think I'll buy cookies from the store next time :)


The Recipe for Sugar Cookies -

Ingredients:

• 1 cup(s) (2 sticks) butter (no substitutions), softened
• 1/2 cup(s)sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tablespoon(s) vanilla extract
• 3 cup(s) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon(s) baking powder
  
• Ornamental frosting

Directions:

1. In large bowl, with mixer at low speed, beat butter and sugar until blended. Increase speed to high; beat until light and creamy. At low speed, beat in egg and vanilla. Beat in flour and baking powder just until blended.
2. Divide dough into 4 equal pieces. Wrap each piece with plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hour or until dough is firm enough to roll. (Or place dough in freezer for 30 minutes.)
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. On lightly floured surface, with floured rolling pin, roll 1 piece of dough 1/8 inch thick. With floured 3- to 4-inch assorted cookies cutters, cut dough into as many cookies as possible; wrap and refrigerate trimmings. Place cookies, 1 inch apart, on ungreased large cookie sheet.
4. Bake cookies 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Transfer cookies to wire rack to cool. Repeat with remaining dough and trimmings.
5. When cookies are cool, prepare Ornamental Frosting if you like; use to decorate cookies as desired. Set cookies aside to allow frosting to dry completely, about 1 hour. Store cookies in tightly covered container (with waxed paper between layers, if decorated) at room temperature up to 2 weeks, or in freezer up to 3 months.

Recipe for Sugar Cookie Icing:

Ingredients:

1 cup confectioners' sugar 2 teaspoons milk 2 teaspoons light corn syrup

1/4 teaspoon almond extract assorted food coloring

Directions:

1.	In a small bowl, stir together confectioners' sugar and milk until smooth. Beat in corn syrup and almond extract until icing is smooth and glossy. If icing is too thick, add more corn syrup.
2.	Divide into separate bowls, and add food colorings to each to desired intensity. Dip cookies, or paint them with a brush.