Nancy Drew: The Clue of the Broken Locket Review – Ft. Broken Locket Meringues

In The Clue of the Broken Locket, Nancy leaves home to investigate a ghostly ship haunting Misty Lake in Maryland. Lately, the ghost of a decades-old sunken ship and its deceased passengers has been randomly appearing floating along the lake, and then just as quickly disappearing without a trace. As Nancy investigates the mysterious vision with Bess, George, and newfound friend Cecily, she stumbles across several other mysteries, including a lost inheritance, an imprisoned woman, and an illegal pirating scheme.

Spoilers ahead!

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This was a solid Nancy Drew story, and its plot veered less into the unbelievable than Password to Larkspur Lane did. There were still some parts of tying the various mysteries together that seemed poorly explained; for example, the kidnapped children. Was it really that essential to have children in their side-gig acrobatic show? Is pirating records not lucrative business? The villains even mention that they had to sell their old home in order to provide for the kids! That makes them seem almost.. sympathetic! It was just an odd sub-plot.

However, the book starts on a high note with comedy gold in this conversation between Nancy and her father:

(Nancy has just been calling Bess and George to see if they’ll join her on her latest mystery.)

“Is it okay with the girls?” Mr. Drew asked.

Nancy nodded. “George is keen about the idea.”

“I’d expect that.” Mr. Drew commented. “She’s very level-headed and sensible.” He chuckled. “I’ll bet Bess is a little hesitant though.”

The Clue of the Broken Locket, pg. 4

Okay, Mr. Drew! How many times has Nancy nearly gotten her friends kidnapped, shot, run over, beaten, or killed? You can calm down, sir! Poor Bess; she’s slandered for having even the least bit of self-preservation!

All in all, a decent, though perhaps forgettable, Nancy Drew mystery.

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Broken Locket Meringues

This recipe was a BEAR. Here are the ingredients, taken from my Nancy Drew Cookbook:

• 1 large package Frozen Strawberries
• 6 Eggs
• 1 1/4 tsp Salt
• 1 1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar
• 1 cup Sugar
• 1/2 pint Heavy Whipping Cream

This is really a simple recipe with very few ingredients. Unfortunately, the instructions for the recipe are pretty non-specific (you can even see that in the ingredients- one “large” package of strawberries?), and for cooking idiots like myself, we need DETAILED directions to make a meringue!

Here is the recipe, in my own words (no copyright strikes please!).

1. Heat oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Thaw Frozen Strawberries. Crack open all six Eggs and separate the whites from the yolks. Put whites aside in a large mixing bowl.
3. After the whites have come to room temperature, mix them with Salt and Cream of Tartar, and beat until nearly stiff. Then slowly stir in 3/4 cup Sugar, and beat until the sugar is dissolved.
4. Line a baking pan with “heavy brown paper” (does anyone know what this is? I used foil. Let a girl know.) and outline 4-6 hearts on it. (How do you outline the hearts? I don’t know and God be with you.) Place batter onto each heart and mold it into shape. Craft them so that the centers have a depression, to be filled with filling later. Bake these for 1 hour, and then let stand in the oven, turned off and door closed, for at least ten minutes afterwards. (SIDE NOTE: Unless you are making at least 8 hearts, you will have lots of extra meringue here.)
5. Chop the thawed Strawberries into small bits and put aside.
6. Pour Cream into a large mixing bowl and beat, while slowly adding 1/4 cup Sugar. Beat until the cream has stiff peaks.
7. After the meringue-hearts have been taken out of the oven and are cool, fill the center of each with chopped strawberries, and top with whipped cream.

OKAY. This was a series of misadventures. My biggest struggle was absolutely with the meringue. First off, HOW are we supposed to outline these hearts? I gave, in my recipe, as much detail as the original does. I signed up to be a baker, not an artist, dangit!

Secondly, I used foil, and next time I’ll use parchment paper, because after it was baked I could not get this meringue off for the life of me.

Thirdly, ever since I had a terrible and life-changing bout of food poisoning two years ago, I’ve had a deep paranoia about under-cooked eggs and these meringues scared me. They were quite chewy.

Lastly, the meringue was a bit salty. Bethany suggestion: drop that salt content to a teaspoon, rather than 1 and a quarter.

The next struggle was with the frozen strawberries. Unless you have a freshly bought package of frozen strawberries, your fruit will probably resemble something more like brown mush.

Yeah.. not the most appetizing. To make up for this, I added two large spoonfuls of strawberry preserves, to try and give it more of a red color.

Also, you will really want to strain and dry your strawberries, or there will be lots of watery ice chips in your filling.

Those were the misadventures. All in all, this recipe was actually very good. The meringues terrified me but they were actually really delicious (if a bit salty). Very soft, buttery, melt-in-your-mouth texture to them. Both the whipped cream and the strawberry mix were very sweet, though I’m sure my adding two spoonfuls of strawberry preserves helped that quite a bit. Lately I’ve been eating this with just the fruit and whipped cream, and it’s really delicious all on its own. Now, if only I had mastered that meringue! Next time!