Be A Good Cookie! Meringue Cookie Flavors for the Holidays and Cookies for Kids’ Cancer

I had a very hard time writing this post.  Striking the right tone seems important, yet it is eluding me.  My children at this moment are watching the classic Santa Claus Is Coming To Town and honestly every time I think about pediatric cancer it strikes cold terror into my heart–so I do what every lucky parent does, I avoid thinking about the various possibilities, even though I of all people know just how possible bad things are.  Pediatric cancer specifically is not a topic I am intimately familiar with-thank goodness-but it is a topic I have been affected by.  2 of my cousins have died of pediatric cancer, one before I was born, and 1 of John’s cousins has too (I am not sure if her cancer qualified as pediatric but whatever).  I myself have had a brain tumor removed and faced that weird sense of relief you get when you realize that even though you have faced catastrophe, for whatever inexplicable stupid reason, you were the lucky one.

Because I find myself unable to find the words, I have taken the following from an earlier page at Cookies for Kids’ Cancer, that page no longer seems to exist [as of October 2015] but you can find the current version of it here.:

Facts about Kids’ Cancers

Cookies for Kids’ Cancer is not about one child or one type of pediatric cancer. It is about changing the facts of pediatric cancer for the better, forever. Important statistics to know:

Cancer claims the lives of more children annually than any other disease “[sic] more than asthma, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis & AIDS combined.

46 children per day are diagnosed with cancer totaling nearly 13,000 new cases per year.

Cure rates have improved dramatically and advances in childhood cancer research has provided seminal insights into the cancer problem in general. Today, 4 out 5 children diagnosed with cancer can be cured.

While long-term goals for the pediatric cancer community will focus on securing more federal funding for childhood cancer research (more than the 2% of the National Cancer Institute budget that is currently expended), philanthropy plays a critical and essential role in the ongoing battle against childhood cancer.

About the Founders

Gretchen and Larry Witt founded Cookies for Kids’ Cancer in 2008, just a few short months after the success of their first cookie sale during the holidays 2007. Their efforts have always been inspired by their son Liam who was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in 2007 at the age of 2. Tragically, Liam came to the end of his courageous 4-year fight with cancer on January 24, 2011 at the age of 6. Though devastated by his loss, the Witts remain more determined than ever to continue the fight against pediatric cancer.

So why am I writing about all of this (aside from a general desire to get the word out)?

I wrote about attending Eat Write Retreat back in May.  It was a fabulous experience–and I think I covered all the important bases in my review–but one thing I did not discuss was how much I regretted being so distracted by my crazy summer once in a lifetime trip to Morocco that I honestly did not take the time to absorb many of the tips and techniques I picked up as well as the connections I made (which is just another reason for me to try to go again, right?).  One of the connections I especially regretted not following up on was OXO’s Blogger Outreach Program, whereby bloggers receive new and existing OXO products to test and review.  The honest truth is I forgot all about it.  What can I say?-as much as I love this blog in general, not even it could really compete with tagines and the Sahara.

So when I was reminded of it one day via a FoodBuzz ad I immediately signed up!

The first product I received is particularly timely for me, the limited edition Be A Good Cookie spatula.  It is timely for me because as far as I am concerned it is not the holidays without loads and loads of cookies, which gave me loads and loads of opportunities to try it out!  Of course to claim I would not have plenty of opportunities any other time of year might be, ahem, a fib about just how much I love cookies and how often I bake them.

This spatula is extra special because OXO designed it for Cookies For Kids’ Cancer,which I discussed above.  The purchase of this spatula goes toward the up to $100,000 that OXO has committed to Cookies for Kids’ Cancer!  OXO–and other companies working with Cookies for Kids’ Cancer–have provided other ways to get involved.   To find out how you can contribute–from something as simple as sending a virtual cookie over the internet to hosting your own bale sale–be sure to check out both OXO’s Cookies for Kids’ Cancer page as well as the actual Cookies for Kids’ Cancer page.

The spatula itself is adorable.  I would not call it the perfect all around cookie spatula because it is small and not metal.  But for cookies that fit its size and are not too stuck to the pan it works wonderfully.  Above you can see Sammy using it to dump Orange Snowballs into a sugar mixture, and then using the spatula to roll the cookie around in the sugar (which did not stick so well, which is why I am not sharing that recipe!).

Now, about the actual cookies!  My mom came down to my house for 5 days, and pretty much all we did was bake cookies(!).  At the end of the week we had pizzelles, peppermint chocolate biscotti, espresso mandelbrot, orange snowballs, clove snaps, hazelnut lace cookies, bizcochitos, peppermint, mint chocolate chip and coffee meringues, peppermint marshmallows, mint chocolate chip marshmallows, and shortbread.  I was planning to share the nut lace recipe this post, but, ah, my husband ate them all.  So I guess when I do share them you will know they are good!  Instead, I am sharing how I came up with the meringue variations–which the Good Cookie spatula works wonderfully on, by the way. The meringue cookies are all adapted from my adaptation of Alice Medrich’s meringue cookie recipe.

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Mint Chocolate Chip Meringue Cookies

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Cookies

Keyword: meringue, mint chocolate chip

Author: TheSpicedLife

Ingredients

• 5 oz mini chocolate chips semi sweet
• 2/3 cup (4.625 oz) sugar
• 1/4 t fine sea salt
• 3 large egg whites
• 1/8 t cream of tartar
• 1/4-1/3 t pure creme de menthe extract mine was green--if it had not been I might have added a drop or 2 of green food coloring

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 200 F. Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven.
2. In a clean, dry bowl place the egg whites with the cream of tartar. Using a whip attachment, beat at medium high speed with a stand mixer or high speed with a hand mixer until the egg whites are creamy white and hold a soft peak. Add the creme de menthe--start with 1/4 teaspoon, but if it does not seem very minty add a drizzle more. Continue to beat, adding a little sugar at a time, until you've used all the sugar. This should take 1 1/2 - 2 minutes, until the whites are very stiff.
3. Sprinkle mini chocolate chips and the 1/4 teaspoon salt over the stiff egg whites. Gently fold the chocolate chips and salt into the egg whites.
4. Drop heaping teaspoons of batter 1 1/2 inches apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet. You may also choose to pipe the batter, but unless you have a wider tip than me, the chocolate chips will plug up your tip (this is experience speaking!).
5. Bake for about 2 hours, rotating the pans front to back and top to bottom halfway through. Remove a test cookie and let it cool completely--warm meringue cookies are apparently always soft. You are testing for crispiness. At such a low temperature, the remaining cookies will not burn while they wait for your test. If the cookie is not completely crisp (it should not be chewy or stick in your teeth at all), continue baking and test at 15-20 minute intervals (note that if it is extremely humid, it may take quite a bit longer--I finally left mine in the oven overnight).
6. When the cookies are crisp, turn the heat off and let them cool in the oven. If you have a new oven, like me, it may take forever for them to cool; I took them out after about 1 1/2 hours, when the pans were still warm and let them cool on my counter.
7. Cool completely before storing but do store in an airtight container immediately after cooling. I won't claim they store indefinitely (Medrich says several weeks) but they definitely store well.

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Peppermint Meringue Cookies

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Cookies

Keyword: meringue, peppermint

Author: TheSpicedLife

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup (4.625 oz) sugar
• 1/4 t fine sea salt
• 3 large egg whites
• 1/8 t cream of tartar
• 1/4-1/3 t pure peppermint extract
• several drops of red food coloring optional

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 200 F. Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven.
2. In a clean, dry bowl place the egg whites with the cream of tartar. Using a whip attachment, beat at medium high speed with a stand mixer or high speed with a hand mixer until the egg whites are creamy white and hold a soft peak. Add the peppermint--start with 1/4 teaspoon, but if it does not seem very minty add a drizzle more. Continue to beat, adding a little sugar at a time, until you've used all the sugar. This should take 1 1/2 - 2 minutes, until the whites are very stiff.
3. Sprinkle the 1/4 teaspoon salt over the stiff egg whites. Gently fold the salt into the egg whites.
4. Fill a pastry bag with the batter--every dollop or 2, add a few drops of the food coloring. Do not mix it or otherwise purposefully disturb it--the act of piping it will cause the swirls. Pipe approximately 2 inch cookies onto a parchment or silicone lined cookie sheet.
5. Bake for about 2 hours, rotating the pans front to back and top to bottom halfway through. Remove a test cookie and let it cool completely--warm meringue cookies are apparently always soft. You are testing for crispiness. At such a low temperature, the remaining cookies will not burn while they wait for your test. If the cookie is not completely crisp (it should not be chewy or stick in your teeth at all), continue baking and test at 15-20 minute intervals (note that if it is extremely humid, it may take quite a bit longer--I finally left mine in the oven overnight).
6. When the cookies are crisp, turn the heat off and let them cool in the oven. If you have a new oven, like me, it may take forever for them to cool; I took them out after about 1 1/2 hours, when the pans were still warm and let them cool on my counter.
7. Cool completely before storing but do store in an airtight container immediately after cooling. I won't claim they store indefinitely (Medrich says several weeks) but they definitely store well.

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Espresso Meringue Cookies

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Cookies

Keyword: espresso, meringue

Author: TheSpicedLife

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup (4.625 oz) sugar
• 1/4 t fine sea salt
• 3 large egg whites
• 1/8 t cream of tartar
• 2 t instant espresso powder dissolved in 1 T water
• additional 1/4 t instant espresso powder

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 200 F. Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven.
2. In a clean, dry bowl place the egg whites with the cream of tartar. Using a whip attachment, beat at medium high speed with a stand mixer or high speed with a hand mixer until the egg whites are creamy white and hold a soft peak. Continue to beat, adding a little sugar at a time, until you've used all the sugar. This should take 1 1/2 - 2 minutes, until the whites are very stiff.
3. Sprinkle the salt, dissolved espresso and espresso powder over the stiff egg whites. Gently fold them into the egg whites, making sure the espresso and espresso powder are evenly distributed.
4. Fill a pastry bag with the batter and pipe approximately 2 inch cookies onto a parchment or silicone lined cookie sheet.
5. Bake for about 2 hours, rotating the pans front to back and top to bottom halfway through. Remove a test cookie and let it cool completely--warm meringue cookies are apparently always soft. You are testing for crispiness. At such a low temperature, the remaining cookies will not burn while they wait for your test. If the cookie is not completely crisp (it should not be chewy or stick in your teeth at all), continue baking and test at 15-20 minute intervals (note that if it is extremely humid, it may take quite a bit longer--I finally left mine in the oven overnight).
6. When the cookies are crisp, turn the heat off and let them cool in the oven. If you have a new oven, like me, it may take forever for them to cool; I took them out after about 1 1/2 hours, when the pans were still warm and let them cool on my counter.
7. Cool completely before storing but do store in an airtight container immediately after cooling. I won't claim they store indefinitely (Medrich says several weeks) but they definitely store well.