Meringue – something I’d seen made on The Great British Baking Show a BUNCH of times, but had no confidence that I’d ever be able to make something like it.
But sometimes you have to push past the fear and try something new!
Meringue Kisses
Equipment
- Piping bag(s)
- baking sheet lined with parchment paper
- Large Star Piping Tip
Ingredients
- 4 egg whites
- 200 g sugar super fine, if possible (or 1 cup)
- 1 pinch salt
- 5 ml vanilla or other extract (1 tsp)
- ¼ tsp cream of tartar
- Food coloring optional
Instructions
- Set oven to 200°F. Separate egg whites one at a time into a small bowl then transfer each white to the bowl of your stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment. (Be very careful to not get any yolks into the bowl.)
- Add cream of tartar and salt to the mixing bowl, then begin mixing on low. Gradually increase the speed to high
- Once the egg whites have begun to froth up, begin to slowly sprinkle in the sugar a teaspoon at a time. (Taking your time is important here, so go very, very slowly.) After incorporating the sugar, whisk in the extract of your choosing. Beat until the meringue has a thick, marshmallowy texture, and holds a nice peak.
- (Optional) Add a tiny amount of food coloring, and swirl around with a toothpick or skewer, or beat with the whisk attachment to distribute. Ensure your sugar is dissolved by rubbing a small amount between your fingers to determine if the meringue is smooth with no grit.
- Transfer meringue to a piping bag that has been fitted with the large star attachment.
- Add a small dollop of meringue to the corners of the baking sheet under the parchment paper to hold the paper down. Pipe small meringue kisses onto parchment paper, keeping about 1 inch of space between them.
- Place on the center rack to bake at 200° for about an hour, then turn the oven off and keep it closed for an additional 2 hours. The kisses are done when they're dried throughout, and lift from the baking sheet easily, feeling light and dry.
Notes
If you’ve never made meringue before, you may also be a little intimidated. After all, under whip it, and it’s not going to be stable enough to bake. Overwhip it, and it’ll turn watery and gross.
Also, how do you flavor it? How do you color it? Will adding extracts or food coloring change the texture?
And what about piping this stuff? Which tip should I use? How large should the kisses be?
So many pitfalls!!
Let me tell you, friends. This was a lot easier than I expected, and turned out really well.
I ended up dividing my picture into approximate thirds, flavoring each third with a different extract, and coloring them with different colors. Orange extract with orange food coloring (okay, yellow and red mixed), Vanilla extract with yellow food coloring, and Strawberry extract with red food coloring.
For the strawberry portion, I swirled the red food coloring with a toothpick. For the other two, I took the chance of whipping the colors in for a number of seconds, pretty successfully.
Here’s another tip – get your piping bag(s) and tip(s) ready before you start!
The result? Yummy meringue kisses that melted in my mouth and tasted like candy. A little reminiscent of the marshmallows in Lucky Charms!
Hurry! Go try this! What flavors would you do?