“I think it would be cool to fly a helicopter,” my boyfriend said while pummeling his Xbox controls one afternoon. He had spent the last 10 minutes maneuvering his way through the skies of “Grand Theft Auto” on the Annihilator, a chopper with a seemingly endless supply of manly ammo. He’s right, I thought. It would be cool. Just not on the Annihilator. I made a reservation for an intro flying lesson soon after.

Whenever I’m on a plane, I like to stare out the window and imagine that the tiny world below is edible. The plowed, circular fields of Iowa look like wheat crackers. The Grand Canyon is an artsy bowl that can be filled with almost any kind of soup. Red barns and silos pass for sausages, and clouds are either wisps of cotton candy or the fluffy tops of meringue pies. (I always request a window seat.)

Helicopters though, are nothing like planes: instead of hurling down the runway for takeoff, it was more like God himself had cupped his hands together and carried us calmly upward and across the sky. I snapped panoramic views of the city with my camera, stopping only when I noticed that everything was looking rather edible.

Huh, I thought. The Queen Mary looks like a sushi roll. I closed one eye and pretended to pick the ship up between my fingers. Tree clusters resembled broccoli, and roads became thin strands of black licorice. Even buildings looked like Chiclets and petit fours. The world was just a giant, crowded dinner table.

It went on like this until I noticed the clouds, which weren’t quite the meringues they usually are when they form fluffy pictures in the sky. Seeing that, I made a silent promise to make my own. Clouds, that is.

(Click on “Read the rest of this entry” for recipe)

You can’t quite fit a whole lemon meringue pie in your pocket, but you can take a few of these lemon meringue clouds with you wherever you go. It’s especially recommended that you carry some with you if you’re going to fly a helicopter on a gray day.

LEMON MERINGUE CLOUDS
Yield: 16 to 18 cookies

• 2 large egg whites
• 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon lemon extract
• Lemon zest (optional garnish)

PROCEDURE:
1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees. In a stand mixer with whisk attachment, beat egg whites on medium speed until they develop foamy bubbles. Add cream of tartar and whisk on medium-high speed until whites form billowy peaks (they won’t be totally stiff at this point).
2. Add sugar to egg whites in a slow stream and beat until soft peaks become glossy and stiff. Beat in vanilla and lemon extract.
3. Use a teaspoon to drop meringue cookies onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Top each cookie with lemon zest (optional).
4. Bake for 1 hour and 40 minutes, or until cookies are crisp on the outside, but not brown. Remove from oven and cool on a rack. Store in airtight container for up to 4 days.

– Cynthia Furey

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 25th, 2009 at 11:10 pm and is filed under Baking/desserts, Cookies, In the kitchen. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.