After a long season of munching on buttery cakes, iced cookies, and gooey candy the last thing that I want to bake, or eat, is dessert. I do, however, make an exception for meringues. Take one bite of an ethereally light meringue and you’ll understand why this confection was originally dubbed “sugar puff.” Crafted from egg whites and granulated sugar, this is one of the daintiest and simplest sweets that you’ll ever taste. As a child, I associated meringue with the browned peaks capping off my mom’s coconut cream and lemon meringue pies. Yet, as I later learned, it is so much more than a topping for creamy treats. Where would ile flottante be without its white, fluffy islands or baked Alaska without its elegant, insulating alps? Minus meringue both become pools of cream sloshing about on our plates. Without question meringue remains the backbone of these and many other desserts. Debate over the origins of this airy treat has raged on for decades. Some culinary historians credit the Swiss pastry chef Galasparini in the …