Hannah paged through their laminated recipe book, but nothing struck her fancy. She should bake something different, something new. She thought about it for a moment and then an idea popped into her head. Everyone loved their meringue cookies. Perhaps it was time for a new variety.
She walked to the pantry and stared up at the shelves, searching for inspiration. She’d never made a meringue cookie with coconut. And there was a bag of dried pineapple pieces. Coconut and pineapple were wonderful together. Since all of their meringue cookies had the word angel in the title, she’d call these cookies Tropical Angels.
Less than thirty minutes later, Hannah was slipping the second batch of her new creation on the revolving racks in her preheated industrial oven. Once she’d finished, she set the timer and headed straight for the kitchen coffeepot to pour herself a pick-me-up cup of hot caffeine. She was just about to sit down on a stool at the stainless steel work island when someone knocked on the back door.
Hannah smiled as she hurried to open the door. She recognized that knock. Norman was here.
“Coffee?” she asked.
Norman nodded as he hung his coat on the rack by the door. “That would be good. It’s cold out there.”
Hannah set a mug of coffee in front of the stool where Norman always sat. “How about trying my newest cookie? I’m calling them Tropical Angels.”
“You won’t have to twist my arm for that!” Norman gave a little laugh. “I missed lunch today.”
“Problems?” Hannah went to the bakers rack to fill a plate with some of the Tropical Angel Cookies she’d already baked.
“You could say that. Hal McDermott broke his appliance again, and I . . .”
“Hold it!” Hannah interrupted him. “I think you told me once, but I forgot. What’s an appliance?”
“In Hal’s case, it was a partial. You’ve heard of a bridge, haven’t you?”
Hannah squelched the urge to remind him of the Mississippi River Bridge that was only a few miles away from Lake Eden, and simply nodded. She knew what a bridge meant in dental parlance.
“Well, Hal broke his and there were sharp edges. I had to remove it, file the sharp edges, and make him a temporary.”
“Hal’s broken it before, hasn’t he?” Hannah set the cookies in front of Norman and took the stool across from him.
“Oh, yes. He keeps crunching ice. He says it’s a habit he’s had for years and he just can’t seem to stop doing it. This is the second time he’s broken it this month. I’ve been patching it up, but this time I had to send it back to the lab.”
“How long will that take?”
“At least a week.”
“So Hal won’t have teeth for a week?”
Norman shook his head. “He’ll have teeth, but they’re temporary.”
“That’s good.”
“It could be. But unless the ice machine in their restaurant breaks down, that temporary I made won’t survive much more than a day or two at the most.” Norman reached out for a cookie and took a bite. Then he began to smile. “These are good, Hannah. They taste like a vacation in the tropics. Your name for them is perfect.”
“Thanks,” Hannah said, smiling back. “It’s probably the coconut and dried pineapple. They taste like a tropical drink.”
“A pi?a colada. Back when I was still drinking, that used to be one of my favorite drinks.”
Hannah remembered the day, several years ago, when Norman had told her why he no longer touched a drop of alcohol. “Should I warn you when I put liquor in something I bake?”
“No need. Alcohol in food doesn’t bother me. I just don’t want to drink it straight. And that reminds me . . . do you have any beer at your place?”
“You want to drink beer?”
“Not me. But I would like you to try a recipe I got from one of my former dental school colleagues. He’s a cook and he sent it to me online.”
“What is it?”
“Beer muffins. He says he makes them every time he puts up a pot of chili.”
“That sounds interesting. Do you have the recipe with you?”
“No, but I can forward his email to you. Or I can bring it when we come over tonight.”
“Send it to me and I’ll look at it on my phone. Then I’ll pick up what I need at the Red Owl and make your beer muffins for dinner tonight.”
“Great!” Norman looked delighted. “The recipe’s easy and it just sounded good to me. Thanks, Hannah. I can hardly wait to taste them.”
TROPICAL ANGEL COOKIES
Preheat oven to 275 degrees F., rack in the middle position.
(Yes, that’s two hundred and seventy-five degrees F., NOT a misprint.)
6 large eggs ? cup dried pineapple, finely chopped (measure AFTER chopping)
? cup dried mango, finely chopped (if you can’t find it, double the dried pineapple—measure AFTER chopping)
1 cup coconut flakes, finely chopped (measure AFTER chopping)
? teaspoon cream of tartar ? teaspoon vanilla ? teaspoon salt 1 cup white (granulated) sugar 2 Tablespoons ( cup) all-purpose flour (Pack it down when you measure it.)
Separate 6 large eggs and put the whites in one container and the yolks in another.
Cover the container with the yolks and put it in the refrigerator. You can use it to make yolk-rich scrambled eggs for breakfast in the morning, or you can use the yolks to make a Chocolate Flan with Caramel Whipped Cream.
Set the egg whites on your kitchen counter until they’ve come up to room temperature. (This will give them more volume when you whip them up into a meringue.)
While you’re waiting for your egg whites to warm to room temperature, use your food processor with the steel blade (or a chef’s knife with a cutting board) to finely chop your dried pineapple, dried mango, and coconut flakes into very small pieces.
Prepare your cookie sheets by lining them with parchment paper (this works best) or brown parcel-wrapping paper. Spray the paper with Pam or another non-stick cooking spray and dust it lightly with flour.
Hannah’s 1st Note: You can also use Pam Baking Spray or another brand of baking spray that has the flour already in it.
Hannah’s 2nd Note: These cookies are a lot easier to make if you use an electric mixer because you must beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks and, ultimately, stiff peaks. You can use a copper bowl and a whisk, but it will take some time and muscle.