"Freebie" Cookies!

After preparing Monday's dinner (a slow cooker chicken recipe), I had two egg whites to use.  The directions said to "do something else" with them, so I immediately thought of Meringues!  Not having my recipe handy though, I winged it this time!  I think they turned out pretty well too (considering I ate the entire batch last night after dinner).

So, how did I do it?  Well...I started with my bowl, I took my trusty old (and I do mean old, it was my Grandmother's, then my Mother's, and she gave it to me when we moved into our first house together) metal bowl and found space for it in my tiny freezer (more on that below).  You want your mixing bowl extra cold to help the egg whites foam and eventually form medium to stiff peaks (I find a medium peak perfect for these, but if you are trying to get "pretty" shapes, stiff peaks might be the way to go).  The cold bowl helps.

Now for the "recipe"...

Low-Carb, Low-Fat Meringues

• 2 egg whites (I made Dana Kim's Kings Ranch Chicken found on page 64 of the this cookbook and this is what I did following her instructions)
• 1/2 teaspoon Cream of Tartar
• 3 Tablespoons Splenda (use more or less depending on your preferred sweetness level...and you can change this up for any sugar substitute, I just prefer Splenda)
• 1/2 teaspoon flavoring (I used Anise Extract this time)
• food color, optional (I find this handy for when I'm making several flavors at once)

Set oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Line 2 or more cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Start by taking your mixing bowl out of the freezer, if you used a glass bowl, don't drop it.  Grab your mixer (I used my Gizmo with the whisk attachment), as a side note, if you freezer your beater(s) too, the process can go even faster.  Now, dump your egg whites into the bowl (you can use more than 2 if you are separating them just for this recipe, just make sure you don't get any yolk in your whites!) and add the Cream of Tartar.  Start mixing and keep going until you start to have soft peaks forming...this can take forever, but never fear you'll get there eventually.  Now, add your Splenda (or whatever sweetener you chose) and extract/flavoring.  You can use DaVinci's sugar free coffee flavorings, but cut down on the sweetener as that will make them sweeter too.  I chose Anise extract because a Licorice flavor just sounded extra good to me last night!  Start with 1/2 a teaspoon, if it wasn't enough flavoring, next time add 1/4 teaspoon more (but don't over do them, the liquid makes it harder for the egg whites to whip up).  Also, if you choose to color your cookies, do that now too, again though, be careful of adding too much moisture to the mix.  Go back to whipping/mixing your egg whites, it really does take a while to get medium peaks, longer for stiff, but be careful if you are shooting for stiff, if you go too far, they will "break" and all you'll have is a runny white white omelette mix that took forever to make.

Once you have medium peaks, carefully transfer the mixture into a Ziploc baggy or pastry bag.  I use the baggy because I can just toss it in the trash when I'm done.  Snip a small (tiny even) piece off a corner of the Ziploc and you are set to pipe your cookies!  I made these "pop in your mouth whole" sized, but you can make them any size you want!  They are totally dry and crumbly though, so I find this size perfect for not making too much of a mess with.  I managed to get 49 cookies this time, but this varies on the size you make them.

Bake in the oven for 10 minutes (for this size), or until golden brown and not burnt!  Take them out of the oven and let them sit until cooled (10-15 minutes) so that they can finish drying out and un-stick themselves from the parchment paper.  If you don't wait, you'll lose parts of your cookies to the paper!

Now for the good news...the nutritional information!




Whole Batch...
Calories: 32
Carbs: 7.8g (if you count Splenda)
            0.6g (if you don't count the sweetener)
Dietary Fiber: 0g
Sugar Alcohols: 0g
Net Carbs: 7.8g (if you count Splenda, I don't)
                    0.6g (if you don't count the sweetener)
Fat: 0
Protein: 8g

Good enough to eat the whole batch, assuming you don't count sweeteners like me.  But if you can resist eating the whole batch...here's the nutritional information for a "serving" of 7 cookies...

1/7th  the recipe...
Calories: 4.57
Carbs: 1.11g (if you count Splenda)
            0.09g (if you don't count the sweetener)
Dietary Fiber: 0g
Sugar Alcohols: 0g
Net Carbs: 1.11g (if you count Splenda)
                    0.09g (if you don't count the sweetener)
Fat: 0
Protein: 1.14g

Essentially, this can be a nice "free" snack if you can control yourself (at 7 cookies), but even if you can't (and don't count the sweetener carbs) it's pretty easy on the daily carb count.  If you aren't worried about carb counts and are looking for a low-calorie, low-fat snack, this is perfect too!  Only 32 calories in the whole batch and no fat!