My two ingredients meringue cookies is a true definition of something crisp, sweet, and light as a cloud! 

2019 pre-Valentine day had me running around as usual, trying to meet up cake orders. There was this particular order where the client gave me free rein. You know how it is when a client gives you go ahead to do whatever design you deemed fit. You would want to give it your best. You would also become jittery ‘cos you wouldn’t know if your client would like your choice of design. It was a buttercream cake and I decided to make meringue cookies as the topping.

Prior to this time, I have tried making meringue kisses 6 times and failed. Something was always wrong with each attempt. One thing I don’t know how to do is to give up. Well that evening after decorating the cakes, I brought out my notes and started making the meringue again for the 7th time. And it came out perfect!

Wait, before you congratulate me 😀, let me say that it came out perfect before I took it to the oven. Out of excitement I didn’t check the heat of my oven and just popped my meringues kisses into it. Well, in few minutes, they got burnt! All my hard work!  And just when I was beginning to think the number 7 was a good sign of perfection!  I repeated the whole process again and this time, I even sat at the front of my oven (you can’t blame me for that 😀) and the rest is history!

Since then, I can make meringue kisses or cookies even with my eyes closed! 😀

And like the old saying goes, experience is the best teacher. Hence, I will walk you through the process, with troubleshooting guides on how to make the EASIEST AND PERFECT MERINGUE COOKIES ALL THE TIME!

SO WHAT ARE MERINGUES?

Meringue is a light mixture of stiffly beaten egg whites and sugar, baked until crisp or used as a topping for desserts.

There are 3 types of meringues namely:

FRENCH MERINGUE: It is made by combining sugar and egg white and beating until a stiff peak occurs. Just like these meringue cookies and my EASY LADYFINGERS COOKIES RECIPE.

SWISS MERINGUE: is made by whipping the sugar and egg whites together over a pot of simmering water and you keep whisking until the mixture reaches a temperature of about 71°C.

ITALIAN MERINGUE: is most stable of all. It is made by combining whipped egg whites and sugar syrup that has been heated to a soft-ball stage.

TIPS FOR MAKING THE BEST MERINGUE COOKIES

• First most important step is to preheat your oven to 200F before doing anything.
• Make sure your bowl is grease free. This is very important. I usually clean my bowl with distilled white vinegar or lemon juice. You can use any bowl, stainless, plastic, or glass.
• The logic behind my recipe is that your sugar ratio to egg white is 2:1. What I mean is sugar is more in the recipe. And the weight of your egg white is what determines the weight of your sugar. In other words if your egg white weight is 50g, then sugar would be 100g.
• Weighing your egg white and sugar is very important as this is the foundation of the recipe. Hence, don’t use an analog scale. Use a digital scale as this gives accurate measurement.
• Make sure there are no egg yolks in your egg white bowl. The tiniest egg yolk in your egg white bowl will prolong the time your egg white will get to a soft peak.
• Some recipes add cream of tartar or white vinegar or lemon juice to their egg whites once it’s foamy. To me this is optional as I don’t use it. The whole essence is for your egg to hold its shape and retain soft peak. So it’s not necessary.
• You can add flavours or extract to your meringue while mixing. This is optional too and only needed if you want to flavor the meringue.
• Add your sugar 1 teaspoon at a time. Don’t be tempted to rush the process. This allows you whisk your egg white well without deflating the air you’re introducing into it while you are whisking.
• If using colours, use gel or paste colours and make sure you only fold the colours in slightly or add them in just when whisking the egg whites to a foamy stage. Adding colour from the beginning works best when you’re working with one colour for your cookies.
  
• Beat till a soft peak is achieved. This takes a couple of minutes. To know if your meringue is at a soft peak, it would be thick;  it would increase in volume; once you pull your whisk from the batter, it would hold its shape;  and when you turn your bowl upside down, your batter won’t fall or move.
• Don’t over beat your egg whites please!  Once you get to a soft peak, stop whisking.
• You should not grease your baking tray. Just pipe a small batch of the meringue to the 4 corners of your tray and place your parchment paper on it. This serves as a glue to hold down the parchment paper.
• You can add sugar sprinkles on your piped cookies just before you bake them. Feel free to explore!
  
• After mixing it is adviceable to bake immediately and bake in the middle rack of your oven on low-medium heat (200F). If your heat is too high, the cookies will burn.
• Bake slowly for an hour.
• Don’t be tempted to open your oven door to check your meringue cookies while they are baking.
• Once baked, turn off the heat of your oven and leave your cookies in the oven and allow your oven cool completely while your cookies are in it. This trick makes your cookies bake completely and prevent it from becoming chewy.
• The shelf life of meringue cookies is 2 weeks. Store in an airtight container and keep away from direct sunlight.
• Once baked, your meringue cookies will come off easily from the baking paper.
• You can also use a brown paper to bake.
• If the end product of your meringue is chewy and not crisp, then it’s under-baked.
• If you don’t have a stand mixer or a hand mixer, you definitely can still make meringue cookies. Just use your egg/hand whisk.
• You can make meringue pops by simply using kebab sticks or lollipop sticks. Place the lollipop sticks or kebab stick on the parchment paper and pipe out the design you want.

• You can use any large piping nozzle tip of your choice. I usually love using star tip. But in this recipe, I used round nozzle tip 11, 1M nozzle tip, and nozzle tip 343.

SEE STEP BY STEP VIDEO HERE: Perfect and Easiest MERINGUE COOKIES

TO MAKE:

1. Preheat your oven to 200F.
2. Get your bowl and whisk and clean with distilled white vinegar or lemon/lime juice.
3. Next get your scale, separate your egg white from the yolk and weight your egg whites. Set aside.
4. Double the weight of your egg white and use the doubled weight in weighing your sugar.
5. Get your egg white bowl, whip till it’s slightly frothy or foamy. (IF using only one color, you can add the color at this stage. You can also add flavors or extracts now).
6. Next start adding your sugar 1 teaspoon at a time.  And whip between each sugar addition.
7. Once you have exhausted the sugar, keep whipping till it forms a soft peak. (If using different colors, divide the meringue into different bowls and add the colours of your choice and fold it in using a spatula).
8. Get your piping bag fitted with large nozzle tips of your choice. Add your meringue batter.
9. Next get your baking tray, pipe out little batches at the four corners of your tray, place your parchment paper on it and slightly press it down so it sticks to the tray.
10. Bake your meringue in your preheated oven for an hour on low heat. Once baked, put off your oven and allow your oven cool completely while your cookies are still in it.
11. Once you remove them from the oven, you can eat immediately;  use as toppings on desserts or cakes;  or store in an airtight container for 2 weeks. Enjoy!

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