Peppermint Meringues

I was so excited to make these.  I had always wanted to try these out, but was a little unsure about them.  They do take a lot of time, but not a lot of effort.  But once I started I really got into it.  These are easy enough, they just bake a long time - like an hour and 40 minutes long.  So once I got them all piped out on the sheets....

looks awesome, right?

......and into the oven they go for a low and slow bake.  I checked on them halfway through and had my first bit of bad luck - they were turning brown! My oven was acting up again! It hadn't done this since summer.  Not sure what to do I start texting my friend at Lettuce Eat Together with my mini melt down.  They still had like 30 minutes left in the oven and I just left them.  Defeated, I took them out when the timer went off, the white was a light toasted brown.  I put the second batch in hoping it wouldn't happen again - but it did. 

it doesn't look it, but the white part
has really got a tan going on

An hour and 40 minutes later, same thing happened to my second batch.  I was freaking out.  I had them in at the right temperature for the right time.  Clearly I'm not meant to make these in my oven ever again - to my parents next time where they have the nice ovens.  Once I got over the disappointment of the color, I tried one....man are they good.  This gave me some hope and I moved on to making a chocolate ganache to sandwich two cookies together with.  Chocolate and peppermint - who doesn't love that?  I've done this part a thousand times - but sacrifice from the baking gods was hanging in the air all around my kitchen yesterday.  And man, they struck and they struck hard.  My ganache never set.  After waiting 3 hours for it to set, I finally gave up (I had stuck it in the fridge for over an hour and nothing) and added some confectioners sugar to it to make it somewhat thicker.  It worked and I started to pipe them on the backs of cookies to sandwich them together.  Then - disaster.  The ganache just started to slide and melt all over the place and the cookies wouldn't stick together.  By the end, I had chocolate all over myself, the kitchen counter and the sink. 

the prettiest, cleanest part of the
disaster scene

Defeated, I left them on the counter.  I didn't care anymore what happened to them.  I was contemplating throwing them out, but I knew that my sisters wanted to try them.  So I left them there, and every time I went into the kitchen they taunted me, shoving my massive failure in my face.  I finally boxed them up so I wouldn't really have to look at them.  And shock of all shocks, one of my sisters brought them into work with her today.  I apologize to those of you who got them, while tasty, not my best work by far.   So one day soon I will try these again, and hopefully have a better post out of these.  And when I succeed I will post the recipe.