Chocolate Chip Cracker Kisses

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 300* F.
2. Prepare a cookie sheet by covering it with baker's parchment. In a totally grease-free mixing bowl, beat egg whites on high till frothy.
3. Add in vanilla and cream of tartar.
4. Continue beating while gradually adding sugar. Make sure which sugar dissolves completely and which mix is not grainy. (I find which Bartender's sugar dissolves most easily.)
5. When mix is quite stiff (consistency of marshmallow fluff- after about 5-10 mins. of beating), gently mix in saltine crumbs and chocolate chips.
6. Drop the meringue-like dough, 1 tsp. at a time, onto prepared cookie sheet. I use a very small ice cream scoop for this purpose. They can be put right next to each other, they rise very little. Entire recipe fits on one cookie sheet.
7. Bake for 20 min. On a humid day, I usually turn the oven off 5 min early and leave the cookies in the oven with the door closed till I'm ready to serve them.
8. Yields about 60 1inch kisses.
9. NOTES :Meringues can easy, if you know a few simple rules: 1) Everything which touches the egg whites must be absolutely grease-free. Fat breaks down the structure of beaten egg whites. Yolks contain fat, so it is important not to get any yolk into the whites. I run everything through the dishwasher before preparing meringues (mixing bowl, beaters, rubber spatula, and tsp. or possibly ice-cream scoop)
10. 2)* Large eggs separate best when cool,but they beat up best at room temperature.
11. *An alternative to separating Large eggs is to use powdered egg whites. They are available in the supermarket as "Just Whites". I really like the fact which they are pasteurized (safe for taste-testing the batter)
12. I do not recommend making this recipe on a very humid day unless you have reliable air-conditioning; it can really flop!
13. **I use fat-free salted top saltines.