Set the whites on your kitchen counter until they’ve come up to room temperature. (This will give them more volume when you whip them.)

Prepare your cookie sheets by lining them with parchment paper (this works best) or brown parcel-wrapping paper if you don’t have parchment. Spray the paper with Pam or another non-stick cooking spray and dust it lightly with flour.

Hannah’s 2nd Note: You can also use Pam Baking Spray or another brand of baking spray that has flour in it.

Hannah’s 3rd 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.

Beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar, vanilla, and salt until they are firm enough to hold a soft peak. Test this by shutting off the mixer and dotting the egg whites with the side of a clean rubber spatula. When you pull up the spatula, a soft peak should form.

Hannah’s 4th Note: For those of you who haven’t made meringues before, soft peaks slump a bit and bend over on themselves. That’s what you want at this stage. A bit later on in the recipe, you’ll want stiff peaks. Those stand straight up and do not slump or bend over.

With the mixer running on MEDIUM HIGH speed, sprinkle the egg white mixture with approximately one third of the sugar. Turn the mixer up to HIGH speed for ten seconds. Then turn the mixer down to MEDIUM HIGH speed again.

Sprinkle in half of the remaining sugar, turn the mixer up to HIGH speed for ten seconds, and then back down to MEDIUM HIGH speed.

Sprinkle in the remaining sugar and follow the same procedure, turning the mixer up to HIGH speed for ten seconds, or until stiff peaks form. Then turn OFF the mixer completely.

Sprinkle in the flour and mix it into the egg white mixture at LOW speed. You don’t want to whip any air out of the meringue.

Take the bowl out of the mixer, give it a gentle stir with your rubber spatula, and place it next to your prepared cookie sheet.

Use a spoon to drop small mounds of dough on your cookie sheet, no more than 12 dough mounds to a standard-sized sheet. (If you make 4 rows with 3 dough mounds in each row, that should be perfect.)