Originally published 9 September 2009.

In Seventy-five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats, Miss Eliza Leslie published a recipe called “Kisses” which reads:

One pound of best loaf-sugar, powdered and sifted.

The whites of four eggs.

Twelve drops of lemon essence.

A tea cup of currant jelly.

Beat the whites of four eggs till they stand alone. Then beat in, gradually, the sugar, a tea-spoonful at a time. Add the essence of lemon, and beat the whole very hard.

Lay a wet sheet of paper on the bottom of a square tin pan. Drop on it, at equal distances, a small tea-spoonful of stiff currant jelly. It is better to put a little of the beaten white of egg and sugar at first under the currant jelly. With a large spoon, pile some of the beaten white of egg and sugar on each lump of jelly, so as to cover it entirely. Drop on the mixture as evenly as possible, so as to make the kisses of a round smooth shape.

Set them in a cool oven, and as soon as they are coloured, they are done. Then take them out and place them two bottoms together. Lay them lightly on a sieve, and dry them in a cool oven, till the two bottoms stick fast together, so as to form one ball or oval.

Now I empathize with women who made these things because a lot of work went into making these treats. Pounding loaf sugar into submission takes a bit of muscle, not to mention that the eggs were whipped into a stiff froth with “hickory rods” or wire whisks. I get impatient enough working with my electric hand mixer. But in any case the results of such labor are nothing short of fantastic. So here is a modernization of the recipe.

Note: I only made a half recipe and I had to substitute some of the ingredients because a. I forgot to get them when I went to the grocery store and b. they are hard to come by. The next time I make them I will make them with currant jelly, the raspberry makes them a little too sweet for my taste, but currant is nigh impossible to get in the grocery store! so it will have to come from my mother’s personal stash. Also, he first time I made the recipe I didn’t bake them long enough, so the inside was like the meringue on top of a pie. They were delicious, but didn’t come out quite as intended.

Ingredients:

1 1/2c. sugar

4 egg whites

1 tsp. lemon extract (or vanilla)

~1/4c. currant jelly (or seedless raspberry)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 250F/130C.

2. Beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Add sugar gradually, beating continually. Add essence and mix well.

3. Prepare 2 large baking sheets with parchment or wax paper.* Dab a small amount of the egg white mixture onto the baking sheet. Layer on a tiny bit of the jam. Use a soup spoon to cover the whole with a dab of the egg white mixture, and smooth the top and sides for a rounded appearance.

4. Put the kisses in the oven for thirty minutes, but check them occasionally to check the color. When they are done they will take on a faint golden-brown tone. Enjoy.

*Note: Preparing the baking sheet in this way will not allow you to stick the bottoms of the kisses together. I am working on devising a way to keep the bottoms of the kisses sticky so that they will attach to one another. I was a little afraid of putting regular paper in the oven even though it would have started out wet…

Also, made the recipe with currant jam and lemon juice (instead of lemon extract) and it was fantastic!

3/23/10- I decided to save time by squeezing my kisses from an icing bag, it worked great!