HOLIDAY COOKIES : Forget the Cookies but Not the Taste

When I got married this year, I acquired not only a new husband but also a new Christmas cookie recipe: forgotten cookies.

According to my mother-in-law, the recipe for these festive meringues is at least 23 years old and originated in a Philadelphia bulletin. The cookies are incredibly easy to make because, as the name suggests, you put them in the oven and forget about them overnight (or for about 12 hours).

The recipe was developed for gas ovens that have standing pilots to keep the cookies slightly warm overnight, but ours were just as successful in an oven with an electrically operated pilot.

If you don’t have superfine sugar, you can place granulated sugar in a food processor and pulse a few times.

One of the family secrets to making famous meringues in Watsontown, Penn., was to cover the baking sheets with brown grocery bag paper, an inexpensive alternative to parchment paper.

FORGOTTEN COOKIES

4 egg whites, at room temperature

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups superfine sugar

3/4 pound mini semi-sweet chocolate chips (or regular-size chocolate chips chopped to pea size)

Red and green crystals, optional

Using hand-held electric mixer or stationery mixer with whip attachment, beat egg whites until foamy. Add salt and vanilla extract and slowly increase speed until whites begin to form soft peaks. Beat in sugar, spoonful at a time, and continue beating to stiff peaks. Carefully fold in chocolate chips.

Drop meringues by tablespoon onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper or brown grocery bag paper, leaving 1 inch between meringues. Sprinkle red and green crystals over tops.

Place in 375-degree oven and immediately reduce temperature to 150 degrees (or “Warm” on some ovens), for 2 hours. After 2 hours, turn oven off completely, but do not open oven door. Leave cookies in oven until dry, 10 more hours.

Store meringues in airtight container in dry place or place sealed container in freezer.

Makes 4 dozen cookies.

Each cookie contains about:

62 calories; 5 mg sodium; 0 cholesterol; 2 grams fat; 6 grams carbohydrates; 0 protein; 0 fiber.