Meringue Baskets

(makes about 6 baskets)

4 egg whites

1 cup sugar, superfine is best

½ tsp. cream of tartar

Preheat oven to 200º F.

Beat whites until frothy on medium speed. Add cream of tartar and turn up speed to medium high. When soft peaks form, start adding the sugar very slowly in a tiny stream while beating at high speed. Add all the sugar and continue beating until mixture is stiff and shiny.

Prepare 1 large baking sheet and 1 medium baking sheet with shiny side down foil. (The side probably doesn’t matter, but I’m superstitious.) Trace as many 3 inch circles as you can fit with about an inch in between.

Fill a large piping bag, fitted with a star nozzle, with the meringue mixture. You'll need to refill it once or twice. Pipe 6 bases in 6 of the circles. Start by piping a ring just inside the traced line and continue until circle is filled in. Next, pipe 3 rings on top of each base to form the sides. See note.

For the handles, pipe meringue along edge of traced circle, going a little bit over half the circle. Pipe a little rosette at the end of each handle. Pipe a few extra handles in case one or two break. With any extra meringue, pipe little Hershey Kiss type shapes in between the baskets. I use those as sentinels. If THEY don’t come off the baking sheet easily, then the larger shapes I’m baking are definitely not done.

Bake for an hour and a half in preheated oven.

Test a little kiss for doneness. If it comes off easily and doesn't taste too gummy inside, it’s done. Turn off oven and leave baking sheets in for up to another hour. Remove from oven, carefully remove meringues from baking sheets and cool on wire racks.

Fill as desired with fruit and/or lemon curd and top with a bit of whipped cream. (You can also fold a 1/2 cup of whipped cream into the lemon curd for a creamier filling.) Attach handles with a dollop of whipped cream.

The meringues may be made up to a week ahead and stored in an airtight container or frozen, which I prefer. Thawing isn’t necessary, just fill the baskets straight from the freezer.

Note:

Don’t make baskets more than 3 inches wide. With the base and 3 layers of meringue for the sides, that’s more than enough meringue for one serving.

A slight variation on baskets is making NESTS. There's only a slight difference in piping the sides.

* For BASKETS, pipe the sides as 3 separate rings, one right on top of the other. Then you’ll pipe handles as outlined above.

* For NESTS, pipe 3 rows along the edge of the base without stopping…going continuously up the sides. The top edge may be a bit less straight than the basket. Also you might want to start with an oval base, instead of a round.