Don’t Toss Those Egg Whites, Make Light And Crisp Pecan Praline Puffs

These days eggs are so expensive that I want to use every bit of every dozen I buy. That means that if I am making a recipe that only calls for egg yolks, I want a recipe that is more interesting than scrambled egg whites to make with the leftover whites.

That’s exactly what happened to me a few days ago. I made a big batch of homemade mayo and I had three leftover egg whites. I was about to wrap them up for the refrigerator and suddenly I remembered “forgotten cookies.”

My best friend’s mother made them weekly, and I loved them. Forgotten cookies are simply small meringue cookies that you bake and forget, a.k.a. leave in the oven overnight to dry out and crisp up. She always made them with mini chocolate chips and I loved biting into the crunchy sweet meringue shell that every so often had a dark semi-sweet chocolate chip hidden inside.

But as I starting baking them myself and experimented with add-ins, my favorite version was made with pecans. The addition of pecans are reminiscent of pralines, but not quite as sweet. I make them with light brown sugar instead of white sugar, a pinch of fine-grain sea salt, a pinch of cinnamon and the pecans. They are delicious just like that but even better with an abstract drizzle of chocolate on top.

These “forgotten” Pecan Praline Puffs are everything you’re looking for in a light and crunchy sweet treat, and you could easily make them gluten free as well. I use a small amount of flour to coat the pecans but corn starch or rice flour would work equally well.

Pecan Praline Puffs

The meringue is made with light brown sugar, which gives it a deeper flavor than granulated white sugar. If you prefer a whiter sweeter meringue, use white sugar instead.

Makes about 18

3 egg whites

1 cup light brown sugar, not packed.

2 cups pecan halves

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour or cornstarch

One pinch or 1/8 of a teaspoon fine-grain sea salt

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon, optional.

Dark chocolate, melted for decoration

1. Preheat the oven to 250°F.
2. Place parchment paper in two half sheet pans.
3. In the bowl of your stand mixer, beat the egg whites until they are stiff, but not dry. Add the brown sugar little by little beating well after each addition.
4. Meanwhile, place the nuts in a re-closable plastic bag and seal the bag. Using a rolling pin or the back of a metal measuring cup, break the pecans into pieces. Add the flour, salt, and cinnamon, if using. Seal the bag again and shake well to mix the flour salt and cinnamon.
5. Gently fold the nuts into the egg white and sugar mixture.
6. Drop the mixture by the teaspoon full onto the parchment-lined baking sheets, dividing the batter equally between the two sheet pans.
7. Place the pans in the oven. Bake until light brown, about 30 to 40 minutes.
8. Turn the heat off and leave the cookies in the oven until the oven is cold. Note: I leave them in overnight. You know the cookies are done if they lift off the parchment paper very easily. If they stick to the parchment paper, they haven’t cooked long enough.
9. Drizzle the tops of the cold cookies with melted chocolate, if desired. The Dark Chocolate Melting Wafers by Ghirardelli are easy to melt and easy to work with.
10. Store in an airtight container. They will stay crunchy for about a week.

Note: I think they taste terrific without the chocolate, but they definitely look better with the chocolate. If you want to get fancy, you can try to pipe these cookies, but the pecan pieces make this much more difficult than if there were no nuts in the meringue.