I was watching Food Network and saw a lady put an egg white wash on already baked cookies to adhere sugar crystals to it.

If your using pasturized egg whites would this be ok to do-or is there something else that you could use to get the same effect?

I guess its just the thought of raw eggs, pasturized or not, that just doesn't sound good to me.

Lots of people use meringue powder mixed with water to glue fondant together and then it's eaten...that's really just pasteurized egg whites with some junk mixed in.

I saw pasteurized eggs in the shell in the grocery store the other day too. I like the idea of using them instead of the cartons of egg white when I need pasteurized egg whites.

I wonder why she was putting the sugar crystals on afterwards. The times I've used them, they don't really change at all in the oven. The ones that fall on the pan do, but the ones on the cookie don't, and if you put them on the raw cookie dough they stick without needing something to glue them on.

I might have seen the same episode. They were cookies assembled to look like peaches. I thought the same thing! I even asked my husband about it (he took the food safety course). He didn't think it was a good idea. Our assumptions were that she used raw eggs.

If she used a powdered product, then that would be different.

Yes, that was the episode that I saw. I am wondering what else could be used in place of the raw egg? Would the meringue powder work as well? The cookies did look good.

Meringue powder mixed with a little bit of water makes a sticky liquid that dries clear.

I've used powdered egg whites before too...but they smell terrible.

I'll try the meringue powder with water. I'm assuming the smell goes away when it dries.