{recipe} Swirly Valentine Meringues

I have not blogged since before Christmas, because I was busy having a baby! Yay! I made these meringues last weekend and wanted to share the recipe before Valentine’s Day. They look pretty cool, but they are super easy to make and require very few ingredients.

I have found that meringues are sort of a love-hate thing. Like, either you love them or you hate them. Me, I’m not a big fan – but my husband, son, and niece can’t get enough.

The only piece of specialty equipment you need to get the swirls going is a large star tip for icing. I used this open star tip, but the French star tip is a good thing to own as well, as it makes a tighter swirl pattern. They cost around a buck each so it’s not a huge investment, and a great item to have around for all kinds of projects. I don’t even use a real pastry bag, just a gallon-sized Ziploc bag.

I tend to make a batch when I have a bunch of leftover egg whites. In this case, I had made the Pioneer Woman’s Chocolate Pie (so good; use an Oreo crust for best results) and had 4 egg whites left. This recipe calls for 3 egg whites, but you don’t need to be super precise, so you can eyeball it if you’re comfortable. If you are weighing egg whites, here is a good rule to remember: one egg white (from a standard large egg) is usually a little over an ounce or around 35 grams.

As to the swirling effect: I tried to make white, red/pink, and purple (although the purple came out pretty light and a little bluish; I blame my 3.5 year old assistant colorizer.) It looks cool if you don’t even mix the color all the way in – as you see with the red/pink bowl below – and plus, you don’t want to mix meringue too much or it may deflate.

Once you have the colors you can just put heaping globs into the prepared bag in whatever random, messy way you like. It will look gross and chaotic but once you start squirting out the meringues, it magically all works out.

What could be easier than that?

RECIPE: Swirly Valentine Meringues
makes about 100 small meringues

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 egg whites
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• red sprinkles (optional)

METHOD:

• Prepare two sheet pans with parchment paper and set aside.
• Heat oven to 200 degrees F.
• Put egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt in a mixing bowl. Using a whisk attachment or hand mixer, whip until they start to form soft peaks.
• With the mixer running, slowly pour sugar in to whites. Add vanilla. Continue whipping until mixture reaches stiff peaks (if you don’t know what that looks like, this will help.)
• Divide meringue among 3 bowls. Leave one white, color one pink/red, and color the third purple.
• Cut a small hole in the corner of a gallon sized Ziploc bag. Place a large metal star icing tip in the corner. It’s OK if it seems to be loose; once you add the pressure of pushing the meringue through it will right itself and fit snugly into the corner.
• Add heaping spoons of different colored meringues into the bag. I like to do one white, one pink, then one purple, and repeat with the remaining meringue.
• Seal the bag and squeeze small stars of meringue onto the prepared pans. Optional: sprinkle with red sprinkles.
• Place in 200 degree F oven for about 2 hours. Turn off oven and leave meringues inside, with the door closed, to fully dry and crisp.
• Store in an airtight container. If they start to get soft, you can recrisp them by putting them back onto a baking sheet and putting them in a 200 degree F oven for about 30 minutes.