I used to think that eggs were good for two things, brownie mix from the box (an extra egg means the difference between cakey and fudgy) and fried rice. I was also vaguely aware that cookie dough contained raw eggs, but that certainly didn't stop me from eating it. Delving into cooking and baking for myself made me realize that eggs are essential in most baking applications, but it was only this Tuesday that I realized how miraculous eggs really are.
My first moment with the powers of the egg was a bit secondhand. John made homemade mayonnaise in order to make honey mustard salad dressing, which he may or may not talk about in his own post. I guess I knew that mayonnaise had something to do with eggs, but since I don't particularly care for either, I probably dismissed this fact. Apparently, all it takes is slowly whisking oil into an egg yolk.
I had to wade through a fairly difficult genetics test before I could have my own adventure. I had promised my mentee at Barrow Elementary who I visit every Wednesday for lunch that we would decorate cookies for Valentine's Day. I know the cookies were a little late for Valentine's Day, but we also planned to make cards, which took precedence for the Wednesday before. I was not particularly excited about making cookies and icing that night, especially since I had to wait for the dishwasher to finish to retrieve my KitchenAid bowl. We have decorated cookies before at Christmas, but I thought the icing was too sweet that time. It was the leftover I had from making homemade oreos. It was just powdered sugar mixed with shortening. I wanted to try something new.
I decided on royal icing. The recipe (which I got from
Alton Brown) is pretty simple:
3 ounces egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups confectioners sugar (powdered sugar)
food coloring- I used two drops of neon pink Kroger brand
I started by beating the egg whites and vanilla extract in my KitchenAid. I was a bit dismayed to see that the mixture was brown due to the vanilla extract. I kept thinking that I was going to end up with ugly icing. Even after I gradually mixed in the powdered sugar, the mixture was pretty brown. Then the magic happened. I turned up the mixer to a high setting and let the egg whites perform their miracle. The icing turned a beautiful, shiny white, until I added the food coloring that is. The icing was excellent. It was fluffy and not too sweet. I used some new piping tips I got myself at Michaels to decorate a few of the cookies. I wanted to let them dry overnight before I took a picture. Royal icing dries into a harder, shiny icing. Unfortunately, someone got to them before I did. I put the rest of the icing in the refrigerator to save for decorating cookies. It was still exactly the same after the refrigeration. The only downside was that it was so fluffy that it was hard to make shapes and words out of sprinkles on it, which was the plan for decorations, without it getting all over your fingers and messing up the design. It would have worked if we had let it harden a little before decorating, but we didn't have that kind of time.
Overall, my appreciation for eggs has increased greatly. You still won't catch me eating an omelet any time soon, but I certainly won't be without eggs in my refrigerator.
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