Nope....meringue requires a certain amount of sugar to keep the egg white from collapsing....just so much, not more or it will weep, not less or it caves.

Called Divinity cookies.

My sis made those off and on for years, also called them Forgotten Cookies. Back in the 70's. I haven't made them in at least a couple of decades ;)

Sleevendog how do you make salt cured ginger? I am a fan of ginger, but have never heard of salt cured.

My recipe included finely chopped hazel nuts.

I think you're wise to toast the pecans. Oily nuts can make the meringue weird, but toasting them should fix that.

What gives "Forgotten Cookies" their name is that they're put in a heated oven that's turned off and left to bake and cool overnight, "forgotten" in the oven. :)

I first came upon these in a holiday cookie tray one of my parents' friends gave us in the '70's. She called hers Forgotten Cookies because they were baked at a low temp, then the oven was turned off and the door was propped open (with a wooden spoon handle) and the cookies were left "forgotten" overnight. This is how they cooled and set up to that nifty texture.

The heated oven, then off and 'forgotten' overnight. (or till cooled). duh, lol.

Possibly a cookie/treat using a warm oven after a meal.

Many made with less sugar so that should not be an issue. Egg whites stiffen without sugar but that would not taste so good. Nor do these caramelize. Sugar would be needed for that flavor. Some seem to cook a bit longer for a toasted flavor. And probably would weep as mentioned, without sugar. Not seeing a specific egg white to sugar ratio.

Nice gluten-free option. Sky is the limit for additions. Expresso powder, cocoa powder, etc.

I make candied and pickled ginger but not made salt cured, (yet) I believe it is pickled then salt cure.

I get mine at AjiChiban in ChinaTown, on Mott St just below Canal a couple blocks. A must visit in NYC. Lots of cured sweet/salty treats. And you can sample anything before purchase. It is on my downtown tour when guests visit. I chop it in small dice with the salt cured licorice and choose a sweet paring and put it in a pinch tin like an Altoid. Great for a winter sore throat or stuffy nose. : )

Thanks . I have a nice oriental grocery not very far from me.- will look for the salt cured ginger.

Yes, those are one of Mother's favorites, but we just always called them "meringues", because they reminded us of, well, meringue. We've added maraschino cherries, chocolate chips, mini M&Ms, nuts, bits of dried fruit, cocoa, it's all good.

Annie

Meringues made with less sugar won't be as light and fluffy as if you use the correct amount. Meringues are made with 1/4 cup sugar to each egg white ( using large eggs as a standard....for more precise amounts see a weight chart.)
And toasting the nuts before folding into the finished meringue only improves the flavor, has nothing to do with fat in the nuts etc. etc. many recipes call for untoasted nuts, I think they taste better lightly toasted.
But you start messing with the classic proportions and you are looking at the reason many don't like meringues.

You brought back a long forgotten memory. The mother of a very good friend in grade school used to make those, and I loved them. She called them Divinity. It was always such a treat when she made them. No one else I knew ever made them.

Sally

I made a pavlova last week and cut the sugar almost in half (maybe 1/3) and it turned out great! I will definitely try again in cookie form.....with nuts this time.

I found adding cocoa tricky so I added some finely chopped extra dark chocolate.

Thanks for the memory. My mom made these for Christmas when I was a little girl. She called them divinity too, she really liked them. She made fudge too. I remember trying to help her. I also remember her saying it was a pain and she wasn't going to do it again, lol! We all got weight problems from all that sugar and she ended up with diabetes. Everything divine is bad for you, darn it!

My great aunt called them Surprise Meringues. She always baked them on a cookie sheet lined with a paper grocery sack. Is that typical with meringue?

Divinity and these forgotten cookies are not the same. Divinity is made by making a sugar syrup cooked to hard crack and then poured over beaten egg whites and continuing to beat....not baked.
These meringue cookies are a meringue, baked until dry and crisp> They are very different from Pavlova, which is "tender" inside. Forgotten cookies or meringues are brittle and crisp. The only thing in common with pavlova and divinity is that both are made with egg whites.

Annie, I always thought divinity was a nougat too, and since so many people were saying it, I was wondering and did some research. I think either the name spread, as such things do, or people with humidity issues who ended up with chewy meringues decided that it was a better name, or, since apparently divinity is supposed to be dry, as Linda described, rather than the chewy nougat I remember (only had it a few times, as a child), some folks are talking about the candy while others are talking about the cookie.

Cocaty, I'm thinking the grocery sack must have been the provident baker's parchment paper. The difference is that the bag paper is porous and doesn't have a release agent.

I'm a botanist, but I can tell you that cookies are no different than trees, they have a wide variety of common names, often depending on the background of the people naming them or region of the country. Many common names are the same even though the actual species is different. That's why scientists and folks who obsess over details use Latin names. But even then, botanists argue about whether a plant is morphologically, (and now genetically), distinct enough to be a separate species, since plants, like cookies, are incredibly varied and even turn out looking different depending on the environment they are grown in, or the cook making them. I'm not too interested in those discussion, I prefer to eat the crops the plants give me or enjoy their beauty. Same with cookies.

Well, I was just going by what the picture looked like, not the method, as I have no idea how she made them. If she called them divinity, she may very well have made it the way LindaC and Annie described. What she made was white, shaped somewhat like a Hersey's Kiss, but a little bigger, and very light and delicate. I actually don't remember what they tasted like, but I liked them. This was in Norman, Oklahoma in the late 60's and early 70's, if that tells you anything.

Sally

I grew up on the east coast, as did my divinity making grandmother. Look in any basic cook book, like an older Betty Crocker, The Joy of Cooking, or my favorite, The Boston Cookbook....you will see directions for divinity and meringue cookies....but perhaps not Pavlova as that has origins in Australia as I understand.
Nougat contains bits of candied fruits usually and is made pretty much like divinity, but divinity is beaten lots longer to incorporate some air after adding the syrup to the egg whites. Nougat is spread like fudge in a pan and cut when cool, divinity is dropped onto paper and allowed to cool. Divinity is not "dry" like a meringue cookie, but rather tender and very divine!
Check any basic cookbook and you will see the difference....
If we are talking regional terminology....then we might as well acknowledge that that awful stuff made with browned hamburger and a can of cream of mushroom soup is really "beef Stroganoff", and Italian spaghetti is made with a can of tomato soup.

Thanks plllog. I always pull this recipe out at Christmas but don't get them made. Think i'll have to change that this year. They are easy and a wonderful addition to a cookie tray.

LindaC, I'm still puzzled by the "American chop suey" on the East coast, which is my "goulash" here in Michigan. And it's not goulash either, it's just tomatoes, pasta, onions, some seasonings, LOL.

Call it divinity or call it meringues, I like both. To me divinity is not baked, but meringues are. They aren't both cookies, one is a candy. I'd eat them no matter what they are called because like lpink, I'm less interested in the designation than the final product.

I still refuse to eat canned soup, though, no matter what you mix it with or what it's called!

Annie

What mom made was divinity because it was the beating part she hated. I'd love to find some . . . in a bakery or at someone else's house! Never had the forgotten version, but anything that requires a lot of beating/mixing is not going to come out of my kitchen. Although like my mother, I am often game for intrepidly experimenting with some recipe to create some unusual treat. My SO complains about this since my experiments are rarely a success. He like tried and true stuff--oatmeal, peanut butter, CChip and snickerdoodles would be enough variety to keep him happy for the rest of his life.

I've never known meringue to be known as divinity or vice versa. I will say that I love meringue but truly dislike the divinity.

'Forgotten Cookies' are the little meringue delicacies; I've made them for spring and summer parties, flavoring them with lemon extract and lemon zest. Have also added peppermint extract and a drop of red or green food coloring, almond extract with any pastel color.

I wrote a long post in response to Annie's chop suey post....and ti went "poof"...
Yeah/...I was so disappointed when shortly after coming to Iowa I was invited to a co-worker's for lunch....she was having goulash she said....I pictured a lovely brown gravy and lots of paprika....and found that it was only American Chop Suey!!
A rose my any other name....

.remember asking a plant supplier for 5 flats of Snow on the Mountain...asked in August so he could order the seeds and grow it for the next spring...I was planting the annual beds at the Arboretum.
In May when I went to get the plants, I had 5 flats of aegopodium!!..What I wanted was Euphorbia!! I learned!!

Funny how the names for things drift. I've heard "goulash" used for other kinds of stews (the root is from "herdsman" and it basically means range stew), but what Annie described is new to me. Sometimes, my father would describe one of my mother's concoctions as "goulash" (when not "ragout"), but it would still be in the stew family. My father also used to make a lunch of "Farmer's Chop Suey" (chop suey more or less means "miscellaneous"), which is actually an Eastern European Jewish salad. I think originally it just had sour cream, but the common way around here is coarsely chopped raw vegetables with both cottage cheese and sour cream. I like sour cream, but I'd never go near it combined with cottage cheese. :)

I've been trying to remember the divinity I've eaten, and finally recalled that it made my teeth stick together!

Of it made your teeth stick together, either it was poorly made or sat around in a humid place for too long. Divinity is not at all sticky like taffy.

It might have been what as in it -- candied fruit, maybe? I remember the white and the lumps in it, but can't even remember the shape. :)