Festive Meringue Cookies
Pastel meringues serve as an elegant and festive end to your Easter brunch. Photo courtesy McCormick.

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March 2010

Product Reviews / Main Nibbles / Cookies, Cakes & Pastries

Easter Brunch Recipes

Page 5: Festive Meringue Cookies

 

This is Page 5 of a five-page article. Click on the black links below to visit other pages.

 

Festive Meringue Cookies

Fat-free, lower-calorie, airy meringue cookies are the perfect way to top off your Easter brunch. You can serve them with ice cream or sorbet; or, if everyone has had enough to eat, with nothing more than a cup of coffee or tea or a glass of milk.

  • If you want several colors, divide the meringue at Step 3 below;
    or just make multiple batches: These crisp cookies make wonderful
    Easter gifts!
  • You can include mini chocolate chips if desired, or keep the pastel
    colors pure.

Recipe yields 6 dozen small meringue cookies.

Ingredients

  • 4 egg whites, at room temperature

  • 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

  • 1 cup sugar

  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract*

  • 25 to 30 drops food coloring in various colors (along with regular
    food colors, McCormick makes neon food colors that were used
    to achieve the pastel colors seen in the photo above)

  • 1 cup mini chocolate chips (optional)

*Or use 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract and 1/2 teaspoon mint extract for mint meringues.

Preparation

  1. Preheat oven to 225°.
  2. Beat egg whites in large bowl with electric mixer on low-medium speed until frothy. (If using a freestanding mixer, use wire whisk attachment.)
  3. Add cream of tartar; continue to beat until soft peaks form.
  4. Increase speed to medium-high. Add sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until sugar is dissolved and stiff peaks form. Beat in extract and food color until well blended. Gently stir in chips, if desired.
    BAKER’S TIP: The meringue is finished if you rub a bit between your fingers and it feels smooth. If it feels gritty, then the sugar has not fully dissolved; keep beating.
  5. To get the swirled meringues in the photo above, use a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2 inch (1.25 cm) plain tip. Otherwise, drop by rounded teaspoonfuls about 1 inch apart onto 2 large foil-lined baking sheets sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.
  6. Bake both sheets at the same time, for 45 minutes. Let the meringues stand in the oven with the door ajar for 1 hour, or until completely cooled. (You can let them sit overnight in the cold oven.)
  7. The cookies will keep, stored in an airtight container, for 3 days or more.

 

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Recipe courtesy McCormick. All other materials



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