AKICOLJ: Baking Advice Needed

[gerisullivan]

With tomorrow being Talk Like A Pirate Day and all, I went looking for pirate food recipes to supplement the not-pirate-food-but-we'll-fake-it deviled eggs I plan to take into the MCFI meeting tomorrow night. Presuming I get around to boiling them, that is. And deciding on which deviled egg filling I want to use this time....

I found: Brännvins-sweet-bread
They claim to be "(Swedish 17th century)." Bakers who know something about egg whites and oven temperatures, please look at the recipe

These small sweetbreads were consumed together with brännvin. (If you live outside Scandinavia you can use vodka instead).

1 dl of cinnamon
three whites of egg
2 dl of sugar

mix everything til ye got it looking like foam then pour it out with a spoon onto a plate the cakes should be the size of a larger coin bake for 5-10 minutes til they´re slightly golden. And now fer the fun part: take a cooled of bread in one hand and the ”sup” (dram) in the other. Put the bread in yer mouth and let it melt on yer tounge then empty the glass.

Cinnamon, egg whites, and sugar. Hmm. They sound like cinnamon meringues, or something very similar. My only problem is that the recipe doesn't give an oven temperature and most meringue cookies bake in a very slow oven (200-225 F) for an hour. These are supposed to turn "slightly golden" (as though you'll be able to notice through all that cinnamon), and bake in 5-10 minutes. Any recommendations as to what oven temperature I might want to try?

Comments

[eackerman.livejournal.com]

Smoked beef is a good piratical food. Boucan was strips of beef smoked over a fire until it became like jerky and kept well. The freebooters who ate boucan became known as "buccaneers".

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

I should have picked up smoked meats while I was in Montreal. My budget was non-existent enough that I didn't even think to look at them.

[janetmk.livejournal.com]

Probably just as well--two years ago a Canadian friend was prevented by U.S. border guards from bringing smoked meat from Montreal to a gettogether in Vermont. Fortunately he found a nearby motel owner willing to store it for the weekend so he didn't have to dump it in the garbage.

[buttonlass.livejournal.com]

Well two things. One, the outside turning brown or golden would be from the sugars carmelizing which would happen at higher temperatures not at the lower ones as much. Second, meringues are notorious for separating if you bake them too fast, the outside separates from the inside.

If they're really small you can probably bake them at a higher temp because then there's less moisture to draw out so the outside setting isn't as big of a deal.

All this is to say try a couple at 350 and see how they do. If they brown to quickly turn it down 25 and try again. I am however highly dubious about the 5-10 minutes, but if they're smallish maybe it works.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

I started baked most of them at 350 for about 10 minutes. For the last tray, I upped the temp to 375 and got better browning from that.

I probably made them too big; I tend to do that with cookies. They're odd. Not horrible, but odd. I suspect the key is to consume them with brännvin or vodka, as directed.

[vgqn.livejournal.com]

If that 5-10 minute number is to be believed, it sounds like they're intended to be more akin to moist lemon pie meringue than the slow and low baked dry meringues. I would try a few at a typical lemon meringue pie temperature and see what they're like. If you don't like the effect (whether or not it's what was intended), then bake the remainder in the usual slow & low manner.

Do let us know how they turn out! What does a dl translate to anyhow? A tablespoon or so?

[buttonlass.livejournal.com]

A dl is about .42 of a cup. I think this recipe makes a gajillion cookies since they are supposed to be the size of a coin and egg whites whip up so big.

[vgqn.livejournal.com]

Nearly 1/2 c of cinnamon?! Gack! And over 3/4 c of sugar to a mere 3 egg whites? I'd only use a few tablespoons myself. I've seen meringue recipes calling for that much, but I once followed a Betty Crocker recipe for meringues and even my teenage nephew found them too sweet to eat.

I think you're right that the fact these are supposed to be mere coin-sized dollops is the key to this recipe.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

1 dl = 3.3814 fl. oz.
1 dl = 6.1024 cu. in.
1 dl = 20.29 tsp.
1 dl = 6.76 Tbls.
1 dl = 27.05 fl. dr.
1 dl = 0.423 cups
1 dl = 0.845 gi.
1 dl = 0.21134 pt.
1 dl = 0.10567 qt.


Yep -- far, far more than a tablespoon or so. I went with 6.75 tablespoons of cinnamon and 13.5 of sugar. The egg whites never looked like foam against all that structure; I stopped at soft peaks.

They baked up with the accidents of cookies and interior texture of soft bread. Given the amount of sugar, I doubt they'd convey many of cinnamon's health benefits to diabetics, but they aren't a bad way to consume a lot of the tasty brown stuff.

They don't look like they'll store or age well.

I made them a bit large, especially the last nine. My yield: 4 dozen. If I make them again (a dubious proposition at best), I'll use a 375 degree oven.

I'll ruffle through the recipes

[dragonet2.livejournal.com]

300 degrees for 18-20 minutes is the advice (someone posted my pecan meringue recipe on the Web... it has a little flour and cornstarch in it to make it a bit more durable).

We used to send these to my brother while he was in Vietnam. I was too young to think such things through, but I think a bit of humidty makes them a bit less fragile.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I'd start at 350F

If that doesn't really brown, go to 375F.

If the cookies go strange (from the whites breaking, since these are a meringue) then drop to 325F.

One of those ought to do it.

TK

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Yep. 350F. worked; 375F was better. Thanks!

Great Ghod Ghoogle...

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1710,145161-239202,00.html

MERINGUE COOKIES

2 egg whites
1/8 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. cream of tartar
3/4 c. sugar
6 oz. pkg. chocolate chips
1 tsp. vanilla

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees.

2. Beat egg whites with salt and cream of tartar until stiff.

3. Add sugar 1 tablespoon at a time, beating well after each addition.

4. Add chocolate chips and vanilla.

5. Put 2 layers of paper towels on a cookie sheet.

6. Drop meringue by tablespoonfuls onto the paper towels.

7. Bake 15 minutes.

You're a little hotter than this recipe, although the original may not be going to as much of a meringue as we're used to.

Re: Great Ghod Ghoogle...

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

...not be going to as much of a meringue as we're used to.

You can say that again!

The interior is rather bready. If one were to make a loaf of bread using cinnamon in place of flour, that is.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

Late response. I would cook them slow and low, then brown off after they are finished. Heck, I might even be crazy enough to get out the blow torch to lightly brown the outside if that's what it took. If it is good enough for crème brûlée...