Meringues

Tip: if you don't have a piping bag, (and even if you do) I suggest using a large ziplock bag with the tip cut off to pipe the mixture onto the baking sheet. Mostly, the mix is REALLY sticky and horrible to clean, and you can just toss a ziplock afterwards. Sooo ... while I'm not generally a fan of making extra garbage, for making meringues I make an exception :p

Ingredients

3 large egg whites
1/4 teaspoons cream of tartar
3/4 cup superfine or castar surgar
    (if you don't have that, put regular sugar in a blender for 30-60 sec.)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 200ºF and place rack in middle. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer with a whisk attachment, beat the egg whites on low-medium until foamy. 
3. Add the cream of tartar and continue to whisk until it forms soft peaks.  This can take a while.
4. Add the sugar, a little at a time and continue to whisk until it forms very stiff peaks. This can also take a while.  Then mix in the vanilla.  Meringue is ready when the sugar has fully dissolved - when it feels smooth, not gritty, when rubbed between your fingers.
5. Spoon or pipe the meringue mix onto a baking sheet. Bake for 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours, rotating the baking sheet. Meringues are done when still light in colour and crisp. Turn oven off, and open door, but leave meringues in to finish drying for several hours or overnight. (We cheated and put them in the warming drawer of the oven!)