Should I be worried about raw egg whites in a royal icing recipe?

M

mariadnoca

Moderator
I was going to make these for gift giving. I don’t normally like royal icing, in fact, I find the taste kind of offputting, so when I saw this recipe in the New York Times that uses raw egg whites I thought well maybe that’s gonna taste better than meringue powder. Now I'm having a momentary pause thinking should I heat the egg? should I do something so I’m not using raw egg whites? The recipe only has you whip the egg whites to stiff peaks and then mix in the ingredients, nothing about doing anything to the raw egg. This is for the Peppermint Stripe Cookies posted in the Christmas cookie thread.

Thoughts?

For the Royal Icing​

  • 2cups/245 grams unsifted confectioners’ sugar, plus more if needed
  • 2egg whites (or 2 tablespoons meringue powder and 4 tablespoons water)
  • A few drops of glycerin, if desired to create more of a sheen
 
I always use meringue powder so that I don't have to worry about someone eating it. That being said I have a very abnormal fear of getting people sick via cooking/baking. And I mean abnormal (aka: ridiculous, over-the-top, probably-needs-medication)

I add a bit of vanilla (clear imitation) to the icing to help with the taste.
 
I made the icing for both my daughters' wedding fruit cakes with pasteurized whites, as Judy suggests. We ate it for weeks without a problem. Not only does the pasteurization protect it, but the huge amount of sugar in the icing probably also prevents development of anything nasty. I agree with deb about the vanilla. I also used the pasteurized whites to make the almond paste, so there were two sets of egg white in the cake.
 
Well, I’m living on the edge…couldn’t find pasteurized eggs, and I didn’t want just egg whites as I only needed one more egg from the store and reading how to pasteurize my own eggs it says to add an acid either lemon or vinegar, but I’m concerned it will impart taste on peppermint cookies, so I didn’t. And yes I have added flavoring to royal icing in the past, but I really cannot over state how offputting royal icing flavor is to me even with added flavoring. My go to is powdered sugar and water or milk, with almond extract. That’s what I grew up with for Christmas sugar cookies, I love the taste. However, it takes 1242 days to dry, or at least 3, when I only have one day before I need to ship. Why do I never learn that after December first it’s really only two days till Christmas? Royal icing makes a fantastic looking cookie, and I’ve tried to like it, but I just don’t. I wish I did, because then I could make pretty cookies, or try to anyway.

Also, due to possibly Christmas magic backfiring, I’ve come to realize the recipe is poorly written, which makes me even more nervous about this, but c’est la vie. Because it’s too late now. The recipe has you whip the egg whites to stiff peaks, and then adjust till you have the right flooding consistency, even has you test on a cookie, but then specifically says, step 2: Put in an airtight container and refrigerate. It doesn’t say why and it doesn’t say for how long, but then explains since you put it in the refrigerator, you’re going to have to readjust the consistency and re-whip it. Why should I bother adjusting to consistency if I’m gonna throw it in the refrigerator and I have to do it again later? But I will. Even though I made approx 235 cookies already today, 2/3 of which had to be filled or iced and decorated (with unroyal icing). I will, before I go melt into the bed.
 
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