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Coconut Drops
4 egg-whites 1/2 pound powdered sugar 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract 1/2 pound grated coconut Beat the egg-whites stiff, add sugar and beat until light and white, then add the lemon extract, and enough coconut to make it as thick as can be easily stirred with a spoon. Drop on greased paper and bake at 350 degrees F. for ten minutes.
A plain meringue-and-coconut drop of the macaroon family, and one of the few recipes in this section that already gives a numbered oven temperature. The main adjustments are in the coconut and the baking sheet.
- Weights to cupsHalf a pound of powdered sugar is about 2 cups sifted if read as modern confectioners' sugar; if the book means a fine granulated grade, as 'powdered sugar' sometimes did, it is closer to 1 1/4 cups. Half a pound of grated coconut is roughly 2 1/2 to 3 cups loosely packed, depending on how finely it is grated.
- The coconut is unsweetened'Grated coconut' in a book of this period generally meant fresh coconut meat grated at home, or dry unsweetened shred, rather than the moist sweetened flake sold now. Sweetened flake will make the drops noticeably sweeter and will brown faster; unsweetened desiccated or fine-shred coconut is the closer match.
- Add the coconut by feelThe quantity given is a guide, not a fixed amount, and the instruction to add "enough coconut to make it as thick as can be easily stirred" governs. Fresh coconut carries more moisture than dry shred, so stop when the mixture holds a soft peak on the spoon rather than emptying the bowl.
- Do not overbeat after the sugar goes inBeating the whites stiff first, then beating in the sugar, produces a meringue that will hold its shape on the sheet. Once it looks glossy and white, stop; further beating breaks the foam and the drops spread.
- Greased paperSubstitute parchment, which needs no greasing and releases the sticky bottoms cleanly. Greased paper was the period answer to the same problem and works, but the drops tend to spread a little more on a fatted surface.
- Time and colourTen minutes at 350F sets small drops of about a rounded teaspoon. Larger mounds want 12 to 15 minutes. They are done when the tips are lightly coloured and the base is dry to a lifted spatula; the centres stay slightly chewy.
- YieldDepends on the size of the drop; teaspoon-sized mounds from this quantity should give something in the region of four dozen. They keep two or three days in a tin but soften in humid weather, so store them airtight.