Today I attempted crème brulée, with sad results. In fact, I had to toss the whole lot into the garbage disposal. Sigh. However, I did make good use of the big bowl of egg whites I had left over from that fiasco. I decided to try to make meringues like the cookies I'd seen in French pastry shops, and those turned out beautifully.Son Erik helped me dissect what went wrong with the crème brulée, by the way. When I added hot vanilla-laced cream to my beaten egg yolks, I got distracted and didn't get to stirring things up soon enough. So my egg yolks started to cook and everything turned into a sugary scrambled egg mess. I will try again after dinner tonight; I want to serve crème brulée tomorrow night and apparently it's best to prepare it a day ahead of time.
Here's the recipe for my cocoa meringue cookies. If the crème brulée fails again, these will have to serve as dessert tomorrow.
Cocoa meringues
Let six egg whites reach room temperature. Preheat oven to 225 degrees. Beat egg whites 'til soft peaks form. Keep beating, and add 1 teaspoon vanilla. Slowly add 1-1/2 cups powdered sugar. Continue beating. Add 1/2 cup cocoa powder. Beat until very stiff. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Drop dollops onto the cookie sheets. Bake for two hours. Turn off oven, let cookies cool in oven, for several hours. Serve with whipped cream and berries if you like.
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