These were some of the first cookies that I made from my Grandmother's reciepes. I'm not sure why, I was just kind of intrigued by either the name or by the cooking time (30 seconds).
As an aside, and unrelated to the cookies themselves, today would have been my Grandmother's 99th birthday. We lost her 1.5 years ago exactly. She was a fiery spitball and we loved her fiercely, and she definitely loved us the same.
I love to bake. I'm not the best cook (hey thanks for checking out my blog, I'm getting better), but I love to bake. I find it cathartic. But I don't find myself making a lot of cookies, lately I tend to make a lot of bread or trying cakes, that sort of thing. And when I do bake cookies I tend to make the same tried and true cookies (chocolate chip for the for the win), so making these was an adventure.
But they're seriously easy. She called them forgotten cookies, and I'm not sure why, but they're just meringue cookies. And they're easy enough to make I could make them at the beginning of the Texas snowpocalypse (or wintergeddon, depending on your preference).
If you're curious, meringue cookies date back to 1720. So maybe that's why she called them forgotten cookies!
Anyways. If you're a novice cookie maker or a novice baker this is actually a pretty good place to start. An important thing to note though is that once you make these cookies they'll take over your oven for 6 hours or overnight, so make sure you won't need your oven for a bit when you want to make these.
These cookies don't take long to prep so I would go ahead and preheat your oven at the very beginning. Preheat it to 350 degrees.
You start by whipping two egg whites. You can buy a fancy doo-dad from the store that will help you separate egg whites, I normally just use the time tested method of trial and error and getting super frustrated. There's probably a thousand youtube videos to describe this, but basically I crack the egg and break the shell in as close to half as possible and I move the yolk between the halves letting the egg white drip into the bowl. It's very very very important to not get any of the egg yolk mixed in with the egg whites or it will not mix properly.
It's important that you do not use a tiny bowl for this. Yes, egg whites start out small and minuscule looking and you will wonder how in the world that will make more than two cookies, but once you get whipping you'll see quickly. I have a stand mixer, but I prefer to use a hand mixer to whip egg whites. It's probably because I'm sometimes kitchen dumb, but I haven't figured out how to get the mixer portion of my stand mixer deep enough to whip the small amount of egg whites up. If you're smarter than me, I'm proud of you, please share your wisdom! And look, the first time I ever tried to whip anything (I think it was heavy cream) I very very lamely thought that I could just stir it aggressively enough to get it to whip so I wouldn't have to bust out another kitchen utensil. I don't know, maybe that's possible, but it would take longer than you would be interested in doing and it's dumb. Use a hand mixer. You'll thank me. Promise.
You'll want to whip them on medium to high speed. I generally start on medium speed and work my way up a bit as I feel comfortable with what's happening. Whip them until stiff peaks form. This will take a few minutes, maybe even closer to 10 depending on how slow the speed is, but so long as you don't have any yolk mixed in, it will happen. For me, the easiest way to identify when stiff peaks have formed is by stopping my mixer and gently pulling it out of the egg whites, if when I do two little peaks remain I'm good. There's a difference between stiff peaks and soft peaks. Soft peaks will collapse, stiff peaks will hang out there until you cause them to go away. The top on my stiff peaks will sometimes droop down a tiny bit, that's fine for these cookies, but you should aim to get it so that the peaks don't collapse at all. I think my Mom used to test stiff peaks by dumping the egg whites upside down and seeing what happened, but that's too dangerous for the way I want to live my life.
That is the hardest part of this cookie. Seriously. After you've done that add in the sugar (3/4 cup) and mix it a bit longer to get it thoroughly mixed. Then spoon in the vanilla (1 teaspoon), chocolate chips (small, miniature ones, are best, but whatever you have handy will do just fine) and nuts (I've used both walnuts and pecans, it's really whatever you like best, just make sure and chop them up the cookies aren't very large) and a pinch of salt (I just ground the salt grinder a few times over the mixture) and stir it together, with a spoon this time. And you're done.
In a baking sheet lined with a silpat or parchment paper (or if you're my grandmother greased and floured, but we have silpats so I don't mess with the greased and floured life when I don't need to, so much extra clean up) take a teaspoon or a small spoon and just plop the the mixture on. The cookies don't really expand so you can get them pretty close together and not have to worry about it. If you read about meringue cookies fancy people apparently put the cookies in piping bags and pipe them out into all kinds of pretty shapes and make them look beautiful. My Grandmother's recipe says to plop them on with a teaspoon. The cookies will taste lovely either way. If you're feeing extra, know that that's an option though.
Once you've plopped all your mixture onto the cookie sheet place it in the preheated over for 30 seconds. Literally. Just 30 seconds. Count to 30, set a timer, do a quick lap around the kitchen, but once those 30 seconds are over turn the oven off. But then leave the cookies in the oven for either 6 - 8 hours or overnight to dry.
Once you take them out of the oven it's important to put them in an airtight container as quickly as possible or they will get super sticky on you. I forgot that tip the last time I made them and I regretted it. But if you keep them happily locked away in a Tupperware you'll be great.
FORGOTTEN COOKIES
Yields: 2 dozen | Prep Time: 5 - 10 minutes | Cook Time: 6 - 8 Hours (or overnight)
Ingredients
2 egg whites
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
6 oz. package chocolate chip (mini if you have them)
pinch of salt
1/2 cup chopped nuts
Instructions
Beat egg whites until very stiff.
Add sugar and continue beating.
Spoon in vanilla, salt, nuts and chocolate chips. Stir to combine.
Drop by the teaspoon onto a greased and floured cookie sheet (or onto a sheet lined with a silat or parchment paper)
Put the cookie sheet into a preheated 350 degree oven. Count slowly to 30 (30 seconds) then turn the oven off. Leave in oven for 6 -8 hours or overnight to dry.
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