Description
Delightfully light and crisp, these Christmas Meringue Cookies feature a subtle peppermint flavor and festive red and green colors, perfect for holiday celebrations or gifting.
Ingredients
Scale
Meringue Base
- 4 egg whites room temperature
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 cup caster sugar
- ¾ teaspoon peppermint extract
Decorations
- Red gel food coloring
- Green gel food coloring
Instructions
- Prepare Egg Whites: Beat the egg whites on high speed until foamy, about 30 seconds, ensuring a light start to the meringue.
- Add Stabilizers: Incorporate the white vinegar and cornstarch into the foamy egg whites and continue beating until soft peaks form, roughly one minute.
- Add Sugar and Flavor: Slowly add the caster sugar in a steady stream while beating, then blend in the peppermint extract. Beat for about 4 minutes until the mixture holds stiff peaks.
- Prepare Piping Bags: Using a pastry bag fitted with a star tip, draw lines inside the bag with red gel food coloring. Fill the bag with half of the meringue mixture and pipe one-inch star shapes onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Repeat with Green: Repeat the previous step with the other half of the meringue mixture, using green gel food coloring for piping stars onto another baking sheet.
- Bake the Cookies: Place the cookie sheets into a preheated oven at 200 degrees Fahrenheit and bake for about 80 minutes.
- Drying Phase: After baking, turn off the oven but leave the cookies inside for 4 hours or overnight to dry completely and develop their crisp texture.
- Store Properly: Once cooled and dried, store the meringue cookies in an airtight container for up to one week to maintain freshness.
Notes
- Do not add sugar too early; wait until egg whites are foamy to help the meringue fluff properly.
- Separate egg yolks carefully to avoid any yolk contamination, which can prevent the egg whites from reaching stiff peaks.
- Check your oven temperature to ensure it doesn’t run hot, as these cookies require low heat to dry rather than bake thoroughly.
- Meringue cookies taste best when eaten within a few hours of baking despite being storable for a week.
- To substitute caster sugar, finely pulse regular granulated sugar in a food processor, but do not use powdered sugar as its finer texture adversely affects the meringue.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 15 kcal
- Sugar: 2 g
- Sodium: 5 mg
- Fat: 0 g
- Saturated Fat: 0 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 0 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 3 g
- Fiber: 0 g
- Protein: 0.3 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
