And the Voting Starts...NOW

... voting has officially begun on the Sugar & Salt Throwdown. As Salt has forfeited this week, she had full rights to choosing three yummy dishes that you, our beloved followers, can vote on for us to make in two weeks (see below).

Salt's choices are (drumroll, please):
a. Red Velvet Cupcakes
b. Snickerdoodle Cookies
c. Key Lime Pie

Please vote on the handy-dandy poll to the right. We are also opening up voting on our Facebook page.

Emeril's Forgotten Kisses Meringues earned Sugar an overall score of 4 Yums!

I would like to state for the record, that Salt's meringues taste AWESOME!! I could not stop eating them. Although the texture wasn't that of a meringue, the flavor was fantastic and she probably would have kicked my butt had they firmed up. I'm not even a mint fan, but I loved her peppermint meringues, so I highly recommend everyone try them.

Now, for the sad news, we will be taking next weekend off as a bye week to prep for football season. No..not really, but we will be taking off because Salt has some awesome family events that she must attend to and Sugar will be attempting to hit a golf ball without taking someone's eye out. For that reason, the voting will close on Friday, August 27 for our next bake-off on August 30. This gives each of you 2 whole weeks to vote like crazy on the culinary concoction of your choice. Happy voting!!

In the meantime, if we discover any more tips, tricks, or failures from baking land we'll be sure to keep you posted.

XOXO,

Yeah...don't try this at home....

I'm swamped right now. At work and in life. So when I had to pick what we made this past week, I wanted to do something that I had made (successfully) before and also something that I could lazily copy/paste directly out of my personal blog. Smart right? It always worked for art history papers in college.

Well it didn't work out so well for me this time. I ended up forfeiting this weeks challenge because my meringues fell flat. Like literally. They were like little pancakes. The flavor was VERY good, but I just don't think I left them in the oven for long enough. Lesson learned...moving right along.

Here's the recipe, but pay no attention to the baking times. In fact, I'm not even going to post baking times. Refer to Sugar's recipe if you want baking times because hers came out crispy just like these things are supposed to.

Mint Madness Meringues

by: Me. I take full responsibility for this crap.

What you need:

4 large egg whites

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar (I had no idea what this was…you can find it in the spice section at your local grocery)

1 1/2 cups of granulated sugar

1 cup of semi-sweet mini chocolate morsels

Peppermint extract

First of all, you want to separate your eggs. Pour your newly separated egg whites into a mixing bowl and combine it with the salt and cream of tartar. Beat “until soft peaks form”.

Add a little bit of the peppermint extract. Caution: This stuff is STRONG. You don’t need very much. And if you get it on your hand, you will smell like peppermint for the rest of the evening, regardless of how many times you wash your hands or take a shower.

Finally, gently stir in the chocolate chips.

Grease cookie sheets and drop tablespoon-ish sized dollops of this mix onto them. Now refer to Sugar's post about how long to bake these bad boys because mine were seriously underdone. Delicious, but underdone.

This May Be My New Diet Cookie....

Well, I have to admit, I'm not the biggest fan of meringues in the world. I've made some lemon meringues the past few Christmases, and maybe ate one...got annoyed that it got stuck in my teeth, and then stopped eating them for another 12 months. So, my expertise in the meringue genre is limited and I actually didn't realize the possibilities that existed until I searched for recipes.

I chose for this week, Emeril Lagasse's Meringue Cookies ("Forgotten Kisses"). They are a vanilla meringue with chocolate chips. And, after kicking myself for putting nuts in the brownies last time, I omitted the walnuts in this recipe so I could partake in some taste testing this week.

The meringue batter tasted like marshmallow before baking, so that was a little surprising. However, I tasted one of the little cookies after 2 hours in the oven and it was like a diet little chocolate chip cookie.

Meringue Cookies ("Forgotten Kisses")

Recipe courtesy Emeril Lagasse, 2003

Prep Time:

20 min

Inactive Prep Time:

30 min

Cook Time:

2 hr 0 min

Level:

Easy

Serves:

about 4 dozen cookies

Ingredients

• 2 large egg whites, at room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 2/3 cup superfine granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips or finely chopped semisweet chocolate
• 1 cup finely chopped walnuts

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat egg whites until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and beat until fluffy but not at all dry. (Be careful not to over beat.) Add the sugar gradually, about 3 tablespoons at a time. When 1/2 of the sugar has been added, add the vanilla extract. Continue beating and adding remaining sugar in batches, until all of the sugar is dissolved and the meringue is very shiny and tight. Gently fold in the chocolate chips and chopped nuts. Working one teaspoon at a time, push a teaspoonful of meringue from the tip of 1 teaspoon with the back of another teaspoon onto the lined baking sheets, leaving 1-inch of space between cookies. Place baking sheets in the preheated oven and turn the oven off. Leave the cookies (undisturbed) in the oven for at least 2 hours and up to overnight, or until cookies are crisp and dry.

Happy Baking!!

XOXO,

Sugar

The way to a man’s heart is undoubtedly through his taste buds.

Oh - Big PS. DO NOT use egg whites in a carton. They will not fluff up the same way fresh egg whites will.

Meringue Monday!!

Salt has requested that since she is such a great baker that she's really not had the opportunity to choose our treat for next week that she choose meringues for next week's throwdown and voting begin next week. This is also due to her deep craving for meringues. So, on Monday we shall bring you these little sweet treats.

The flavor of meringues is completely in the air, so this will be an interesting throwdown as there could be 2 totally different meringue recipes competing against each other.

(Image Courtesy of McCormick)

On a side note - Sugar's rating for Guy Fieri's [Not So] Craisy Oatmeal cookies was a 4.6. This is with scientific accuracy and a grand total of 3 voters (our whole office was on vacation last week and the cookies were gone by the end of the day Monday).


What flavor meringues do you suggest for us?


Have a great weekend!