In the Kitchen: Meringue and Whipped Cream Sandwiches

These dainty little treats are quite sweet and the airy, crunchy texture is perfect. I made them for the Easter weekend since they just seemed the right sort of dessert "cookie" for spring.

Don't be confused, these sandwiches are way bigger than they look! Next time I make them, I will make much smaller dollops (or pipe them) on the cookie sheet.

Meringue and Whipped Cream Sandwiches

4 egg whites

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

Whipped Cream (about a 1-1 1/2 cups of cream whipped with a 1/2 tsp vanilla and a tbsp. of powdered sugar)

Preheat the oven to 200* F.

Beat the egg whites until stiff, but not dry (still foamy). Fold in half of the sugar and then beat on high speed until stiff and dry (more like marshmallow creme). Fold in the rest of the sugar and briefly beat to combine. Divide the "fluff" into two bowls and add a tiny bit of food coloring to each bowl. I did green and pink (springy and all that). You don't want to use much since you want the meringues to be a pastel color.

{I really do not like to use food coloring ever, but I used very little in this recipe. I have heard you can buy food coloring that is not made with Red 40, etc., so I need to find it!}

Spoon the "fluff" onto a cookie sheet. Make them small! I made them too large so they were a bit of a mouthful when you sandwiched them together. You could also pipe the meringues onto the cookie sheet and they would probably be very pretty. Bake at 200 for 3 1/2 -4 hours. Yep, they take a long time. They are ready when they are firm, can be fairly easily removed from the cookie sheet and have started to crack just a little.

Once cool, spread with whipped cream and sandwich together with another cookie. I doubled this recipe when I made it since I was making these to give to people, so I am unsure of how many this recipe makes (I also made mine too big). I think a single recipe would be plenty for our family and some neighbors, so I don't think you would need to double it unless you were feeding a ton of people.

I hope everyone has a Happy Easter!

Recipe from: The Complete Book of Irish Country Cooking by Darina Allen