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How many have had a meringue cookie? The best way to describe these is sweet soft like a cloud cookie. I have made a recipe in the past for candy corn meringue cookies which you should look at after this recipe. This lite weight goodness can be the most beautiful cookie as well as the most functional as well. Since we are getting into Halloween season again, I thought I would make a meringue cookie with a Halloween theme.
If I told you this cookie does not have any flour in it you would be shocked. I mean, when we start talking about cookies we think of flour, sugar, and how to decorate it. I will say these meringue cookies are not meant for beginner bakers or cookie makers. Meringue cookies look very simple to make and a lot of people have failed at making them. Josh if you are reading this don’t get mad. Josh is a wonderful baker, he makes all sorts of bread, cookies, treats, pies, and cakes. But this is a ‘BIG BUT’, Josh failed terribly at making meringue cookies.
Let’s talk real quick about where meringue cookies even came from. Meringue cookies came into existence in the late 1700s. There are 3 different ways to make meringue cookies; Italian, French, and Swiss. Yes, they still use egg whites but they use different forms of sugar. The Italian meringue cookies are made using melted sugar syrup, the French meringue cookies are made with powdered sugar, and the Swiss way is yes add powdered sugar but they heat the egg whites in a bain-marie, which gives the cookies more of a marshmallow texture and taste.
For this recipe, we are making the French way of meringue cookies. To start this recipe we need to remove 4 eggs from the fridge and place them in a bowl then leave them out for 24 hours. We want the eggs to get to room temperature, this is important because they will not be fluffy if you just pulled them out of the fridge. After 24 hours grab a large bowl and a medium bowl and carefully separate the egg whites from the yolks. If you accidentally get yolk in it then sorry to say this but you will have to start all over.
We want the egg whites in the large bowl and put the yolk in the medium bowl or trash. I like to cook the yolk or give it to Josh for him to use as an egg wash for one of his loaves of bread. Using a stand mixer or hand mixer, mix the egg whites until you have soft peaks, probably about 5 to 10 minutes. Add the cream of tartar, salt, and add a little bit of the powdered sugar and mix it well. Keep mixing and adding the powder sugar a little at a time. If you add all of the powder sugar at once then you will not get stiff peaks. After mixing it you should be seeing stiff peaks. The term stiff peaks are when you take the mixer whisk(s) out of the egg white mixture and the mixer stays stiff then you are ready for the next step. If you don’t have stiff peaks yet then keep mixing until you do.
After you have obtained stiff peaks add separate the creamy mixture to 4 bowls. Add the black, purple, green, and orange gel food colors to each bowl. You will have a bowl of each color, grab a pastry piping bag, and piping tip 1A. Cut the piping tip into the piping bag, if you don’t have a piping bag I have used Zip-Lock bags, just cut one of the bottom corners off not too big we want to control how much comes out. Using a tall cup insert the piping bag in it and make sure by the tip the piping bag has a bend or it will leak out when you are adding the meringue. Preheat the oven and grab a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
Using a plastic spatula scoop some meringue from each bowl and add it to the piping bag. Now when you add the meringue to the piping bag since we are using 4 colors we want to separate the colors as much as possible, so you want to think about quartering the piping bag. Scoop any color first and scrap it on the inside of the piping bag. Do not go all the way to the bottom scraping the meringue stay about halfway. Then repeat the procedure with all of the other colors and until all of the meringue is in the piping bag or until the piping bag is full. Now gently put a twist on the top of the piping bag, this will cause the meringue to head to the tip. Put the tip on the parchment paper and gently squeeze the bag and lift it slowly to form the cookie. Separate the cookies about 1 to 2 inches away from each other. After the cookie sheet is full or you have run out of meringue, place the cookie sheet into the preheated oven for an hour and a half, keep an eye on them because the tips might turn brown. After an hour and a half, remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool on the cookie sheet. These cookies are great for Halloween parties and kids love them.
