Jodi Picoult - Handle with Care

CLOUDS

5 egg whites

Pinch of salt

1/3 cup sugar

2 cups milk or water

Place the egg whites and salt in a mixing bowl; on low speed, mix until smooth. Gradually increase the speed and sprinkle in the sugar. Beat until the whites hold a soft peak-this is meringue, the cloud I imagine you resting on nowadays. Meanwhile, simmer the milk or water. Take a spoonful of the meringue and gently drop it into the simmering liquid. Cook the meringue for 2 to 3 minutes and, with a slotted spoon, turn it over and continue cooking for another 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer the poached meringue to a paper towel. The clouds are fragile.

Cooking spray

2 cups granulated sugar

1 teaspoon corn syrup

Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray, wiping any excess off with a paper towel.

Place the sugar and corn syrup in a saucepan and cook over low heat. Stir occasionally, until the sugar is dissolved. Raise the heat to high and bring the mixture to a boil, until a candy thermometer registers 310 degrees F (hard-crack stage). Remove from the heat and cool slightly. Let the syrup stand to thicken, about 1 minute.

Dip a fork into the sugar syrup and wave it back and forth over the baking sheet to paint long threads. The syrup will begin hardening almost immediately. With practice you can form the strands into lace, swirls, the letters of your name.

To serve, spoon some of the sabayon sauce into a shallow bowl or onto a large plate and top with 2 poached meringues. Gently place a few threads of spun sugar around the meringue, not on top, or it will deflate.

The outcome of this recipe is a work of art, if you can make it through the complicated preparation. Above all else: handle everything with care. This dessert, like you, is gone before you know it. This dessert, like you, is impossibly sweet.

This dessert fills me, when I miss you the most.

Willow’s trivia came, in part, from The Book of Useless Information, edited by Noel Botham and the Useless Information Society (New York: Perigee, 2006).

If you’d like to learn more about osteogenesis imperfecta or to make a donation, please visit www.oif.org.

[1] 2 ripe peaches, peeled, pitted, and sliced (link) [1] Butter and flour an 8 by 8-inch pan; preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. First, make the topping: in a small bowl, combine the butter, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and ginger until it resembles coarse meal, and set aside. Then, make the batter by sifting together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set this mixture aside, too. In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, combine the butter and brown sugar until creamy and soft (3-4 minutes). Add the vanilla. Beat the eggs into the flour mixture one at a time until just combined. Fold in the berries and peaches. Spread the batter in the prepared pan and crumble the topping mixture on top. Bake for 45 minutes or until a tester comes out clean and the top of the buckle is golden. The best way to peel peaches is to cut a small cross at the base of each peach and drop the fruit into a pot of boiling water for 1 minute. Remove it with a slotted spoon and immediately place the peach in ice water. Peel the peach-the skin will come right off-and slice into thin wedges or small pieces for the buckle.