Heavenly Meringue Kisses

Heavenly - I think not - but these cookies sent my oven to the great beyond.

We had egg whites, and this seemed an easy way to use them. Egg whites were beaten, beaten again with sugar, then toast almonds and grind, fold into the whites along with some zest (out of lemons, so we used orange).

I ran into a huge problem though, my oven failed to preheat, and it turns out the heating element was dead! My neighbor neighbor kindly allowed me to use her oven, but they sat at least 15 minutes before baking. After the hour in the oven, they ended up crisp and OK looking, but there was a distinct burnt flavor. I also didn't care for the texture with the small pieces of ground almond.

I would have only awarded 2 stars, but my husband loved them - perhaps especially because he got almost the entire batch himself.