Friday, May 22, 2010

I’ve always believed that cooking things from scratch teaches lessons in patience. Today, my girls proved that when they set out to bake meringue cookies, one of their favorites, but which they’ve never made before.

My oldest daughter asked me where my recipe was, and I told her which book I thought it was in. (It’s been a few years since I’ve made them.) Didn’t take long for my daughter to find that which she sought and into the kitchen she headed, a happy camper. I could hear my girls laughing and having a good time in between my youngest daughter coming in every few minutes to ask how this or that needed to be done with the recipe.

After they were done adding the sugar, I heard the mixer going and going and going forever. Then my youngest daughter appeared at my office door and asked if I could come and see if the meringue looked right. I went in and immediately realized that they must have added the sugar too fast, as it had only poofed to half the volume it should have. Not to dampen my girls’ enthusiasm, I tasted the batter, said, “It tastes fine,” which it did, and told them it would bake up fine.

The girls beamed. Inspired by their success, they decided to make more meringues.

Apparently the four dozen pastel pink ones the other batch made weren’t enough.

They set those on cookie sheets and began mixing a new batch. I gently advised that the slower they added the sugar, the fluffier the meringues would be. From my office, I could hear them debating what color this batch should be. My oldest daughter suggested they get the neon food coloring from a friend of hers. I made a point to chime in that neon meringues would be cool. In the end, my girls decided that pastel green ones would be better—more visually appetizing.

Good point.

They whipped the egg whites in this batch thoroughly before adding the sugar a tiny bit at a time. After a bit, they called me in to take a look at their progress. Inside the mixer bowl, I saw perfect fluffy peaks.

Great job, girls!

Just about the time the first batch came out of the oven, the green batch was ready to go in. I was called in to take a look. What I saw impressed me. I’d shown my youngest daughter where my press was that she could use to squeeze the meringue onto the sheets to create professional-looking star shapes. Viewing them as they cooled, I was pleased to see that they’d turned out great.

When the green ones came out of the oven, an hour later, I was called in to sample one of the pink ones. I’m proud of how well my girls worked together and how beautiful and tasty the meringues turned out.

In the end, my girls learned that taking one’s time while setting things up yields more favorable results. And I learned that it’s okay to get pulled away from my work to help them. All in all, the Hanna girls had a productive learning day that ended with a yummy treat.