Kisses
Follow the recipe for meringues, arranging in smaller mounds; when done do not remove the inside but press two pieces together, dipping the flat sides lightly in white of egg to make them stick.
This is a variation entry rather than a standalone recipe: it assumes you have already turned to the meringue recipe in the same section. Everything here depends on getting small, evenly sized shells that dry rather than bake.
- The base recipeMeringue is generally made in the proportion of about 1/4 cup granulated sugar per egg white, beaten to stiff, glossy peaks with the sugar added a spoonful at a time; check the book's own meringue entry for its proportions. Whites at room temperature and a scrupulously grease-free bowl matter more than the mixer you use.
- Oven heatMeringues dry out rather than bake, so a very low oven, around 200-225F, is what is wanted; at 250F or above they colour and crack. Allow 45 minutes to an hour for kiss-sized mounds, then leave them in the switched-off oven with the door ajar to finish drying.
- "Do not remove the inside"The parent meringue recipe expects you to scoop the soft centre out of each large shell so it can be filled with cream or ice. Kisses are left solid and joined in pairs instead, which is the entire point of this entry.
- Size"Smaller mounds" means roughly a rounded teaspoon each, piped or dropped about an inch apart. Keep them uniform so the halves match up when you pair them.
- The egg-white glueA dab of raw white is what the original uses to join the flat sides, and it is never heated afterward. Use pasteurized whites for this.
- HumidityMeringue is hygroscopic and will go leathery on a damp day. Make these in dry weather if you can, and store them airtight the moment they are cool.
- YieldTwo egg whites give roughly 30 small mounds, or about 15 finished kisses.
"Kisses" was the standard English-language name for small meringue drops through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a name often connected with the French baisers, though that derivation is traditional rather than established. American and British cookbooks of the period generally treat meringues as a single technique with several presentations: large shells hollowed and filled with whipped cream or ice cream, flat rounds layered into a gateau, and these small joined pairs. The arrangement of this book, with meringues given in full and kisses following as a two-line variation, is typical of the form. Meringue itself is generally said to have become a household possibility once refined white sugar was cheap and reliably fine, and recipes like this one use nothing but sugar and egg white, making them a way to use up leftover whites.