Meringue cookies. Chai spiced to be specific.
I tried to make them for the first time last night and they turned out decently well other than the acidic under-bite from the addition of too much cream of tartar. In researching recipes for these seemingly simple Styrofoam-esque puffs I noticed that they were split down the middle on the additions of cream of tartar or not.
Cream of tartar is a byproduct of making wine. The white substance is scraped off of the inside of the casks that wine is fermented in. This white powder is odorless with an acidic taste and is commonly used to help stabilize egg whites to increase their heat tolerance as well as other household uses.
In making my meringue cookies last night, I was inspired by the wrapper I left on my counter from a chai latte. Ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, anise. This combination is probably one of my favorites. I took a dash of this, a pinch of that and before long I had a wonderful smelling concoction of spices and sugar. This was where I believe I went wrong. In making meringue the sugar has to bind with the eggs and fluff up, with the additional hand ground spices, I think this was skewed. The eggs wouldn't fluff.
Cream of tartar to the rescue.
I used proportions from another recipe...for lemon meringue cookies. My mistake. Lemon is acidic. Cream of tartar is acidic. They go together. Chai spices? So not acidic.
My cookies suffer from a lemony after taste. Not very pleasant with anise, cardamom and black pepper. But the texture of these little clouds is to die for. They practically melt in your mouth.
Just ignore the aftertaste.
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