Le Petit Vacherin - A Cookie
Source of Recipe
Internet
List of Ingredients
6 large egg whites -- room temperature
1 1/2 cups superfine sugar, if unavailable put plain
sugar in food processor and process until
super fine. (a few pulses)
1 small dash salt or few drops lemon juice
Red and green colored icings
Recipe
Before you begin, be sure that your bowl and beaters have been washed with *dishwasher* detergent and thoroughly dried. This is to remove ANY grease that might hinder the making of these cookies.
Preheat your oven to 180-190-deg. F.
Put the whites, room temp, into your bowl and add the small sprinkle of salt. Begin whipping. If using a machine whip on medium to high speed. When the whites are holding a nice shape, gradually add 1 cup of the sugar and keep beating for 1 minute. The mixture should be stiff and shiny. fold in the remaining 1/2 cup sugar by hand. Folding in a part of the sugar at the end makes for a tender meringue and this is very important for these cookies.
Fit a pastry bag with a star tip (for Christmas Cookies) (fluted tip for vacherins)** and fill with the meringue mixture. Form small vacherins by squeezing out the bottom and piping a circle on the outside to make a 'nest'. For Christmas cookies do a double a simple circle and then a row of stars on top. Be sure to use a Magic Baking Sheet (Teflon or fiberglass baking sheet) or else butter and flour your cookie pans. It helps if you draw circles in the flour so you can keep your sizes uniform. I normally use a glass and put it in the flour to leave a clear mark in the flour. If using a Magic Baking Sheet, dip the glass in sugar and then stamp it onto the Baking Sheet.
Bake in the oven for 1.75 hours and let cool. (They should not brown at all) Store tightly covered. If making vacherins fill with ice cream, top with a peach half or other fruit and decorate the top with sliced almonds and whipped cream. If using the peach half serve Melba or raspberry sauce on top. Let your imagination run wild as far as toppings.
For the Chrismas cookies, use red and green icing - I use the store-bought by Betty Crocker or Pisbury - and decorate with green leaves and red berries.
For a full vacherin: Coat several large cookie sheets with butter and flour and make outlines with a flan ring or any round object about 10-11 inches in diameter.
Place some meringe mixture in a pastry bag fitted with a plain tube. Fill in one of the outlines to make a solid circle. Make plain rings on the other trays. our double rings if you want to go faster. You will need six single rings or 3 double rings. Bake base and rings in an oven at 180-190 deg. F. for 1.75 hours. Let cool in oven for 15 minutes. Keep dry. Using a paper coronet or pastry bag, place dots of meringue mixture on the baked base. Place a baked ring on top and keep builidng the vacherin with rings, cemented with the meringue mixture on the baked base.
Continue until all rings have been used. Using a metal spatula, coat the outside of the rings with meringue, filling up holes and making it smooth all around. Make stripes or any other motif which suits your fancy all around the vacherin. Embed small pieces of candied violets in the meringue if you like. Return to the oven for 1 hour. Cook in a dry place.
At serving time, fill the vacherin with softened ice cream or whipped cream. Arrange strained peach or apricot halves on top of the ice cream. Cover with a thick melba or raspberry sauce. Decorate with whipped cream and candied violets. You can also fill with a white chocolate mousse and serve with a dark chocolate sauce, or fill with whipped cream and top with Kiwi berries and/or strawberries or mango slices.
**To make it esier to fill the bag, put the empty bag into a large glass or empty drink can and fold the top over the edge, then fill.
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