Friday 24 May 2013

Vanilla Meringue Cookies

These Meringue cookies are soooooooooo yummy, you have to try them :) As daunting as making meringue sounds, it's not that difficult if you follow the instructions carefully. Don't be scared just go for it.

Ingredients:

3 egg whites at room temperature
6 Tbsp of powdered sugar.
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt

Preparation Method:

Pre heat your oven to 100 - 110 ( oven temps vary)


Whisk the egg whites until they become frothy like this and stop.
Now add the vanilla extract and 1 tbsp of sugar and start whisking again.
Add a tbsp of sugar a little at a time whilst whisking until the sugar has finished.


Keep whisking until you get stiff glossy peaks and the mixture does not slide around when you move the bowl around. 

Your whisk should look similar to this when lifted.


Now gently fill your your piping bag( nozzle of your choice) with the meringue batter. Or you can spoon the meringue onto the baking sheets.




Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and pipe out the meringues to your desired shape and size. I piped out random sizes as I'm going to crush them to make Eton Mess :)

Put both trays in the middle of the oven and bake for 30- 60 minutes, it all depends on how hot your oven is.
I set the times for 30 minutes but found that they were still too wet, so baked them for 20 minutes more and they were perfect. 
Remember you're not browning the meringues, just baking them to dry them out, so keep an eye on them.
Do not open the oven door until half way through the baking or you may run the risk of getting cracked meringues.

Once the cooking time is over, turn the oven off and keep the trays inside until the oven cools completely this will help to dry out the meringues.

This may take up to 1-4 hours depending on your oven. Mine took 1 and a half hours to cool down completely.


Your Meringues will look paler than before and have that slight tint of the vanilla .

The Meringues should come off leaving the paper clean, if some of them stick to the paper don't panic (it's a good excuse to taste them).

Now they are ready to eat :)


Or store them in an air tight container. They will last up to 2 weeks.







Enjoy :)

Notes:
If you forgot to leave your eggs out in room temperature, don't panic ,all you have to do is fill a bowl with hot water from the tap (not boiling) and put the eggs in it for 2 minutes.

Make sure that the bowl that you are using to whisk the egg whites in is clean as any fat or grease or even a speck of yolk will prevent your meringue from forming.

I hope this recipe was useful :) give it a go .


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