Magical Meringue Cookies on #HowToTuesday

~Disclosure: Amex EveryDay “At Your Service” is a client of Mom Central Consulting.

 

Sometimes when I cook or bake, I don’t mind spending all day in the kitchen, pulling out endless ingredients and whipping up complex creations. Yet at other times – for example, during the busy holiday season – it can be a challenge to find the time to devote to a more complicated recipe. Moreover, the holidays represent the one time of year where we find ourselves needing a festive, no-fuss, and great-tasting recipe that we can take to everything from cookie exchanges to holiday open houses.

So this week, we loved that when we opened our #HowToTuesday box, the Amex EveryDay team included everything we needed to bake Amber Spiegel’s Meringue Cookies, which can be found on the American Express “My Everyday Dish” series.

After realizing the Meringues took all of four ingredients – with one being optional food-coloring! – we knew these cookies could become our go-to holiday season dessert. We headed over to the Mom Central kitchen to test them out.

In addition to just four ingredients – we opted to include the food coloring – the baking techniques proved simple. We just separated the egg whites, mixed in the sugar, and beat the mixture until frothy. We then poured in the vanilla and continued beating until peaks formed. By adding red food coloring, our meringue batter turned a beautiful raspberry color – perfect for festive, seasonal cookies.

These cookies do take a while to bake – we kept ours in about 20 minutes longer than the recommended two hours – but with the prep time going so quickly and no time needed afterwards for decorating, we still found the cookies to be an easy holiday recipe. Plus, they prove so eye-catching and delicious for such little effort that the baking time ends up being inconsequential.

Meringue Cookie Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup egg whites (about 4 eggs)
• 1 cup white granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract (or experiment with other flavors!)
• Gel paste food coloring (optional)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 175F.
2. Separate the egg whites from the yolks while eggs are cold. Allow egg whites to reach room temperature.
3. In a mixing bowl, combine the room temperature egg whites and the white granulated sugar. Whip them together until they are frothy.
4. Add vanilla extract and continue to whip the mixture on high for approximately 10 minutes, or until it is shiny and stiff peaks form.
5. **Optional** To make colorful meringues, gently old in gel paste food coloring. Gently fold in the food coloring.
6. Spoon golf-ball sized amounts of the mixture onto a baking sheet covered with a layer of parchment paper.
7. Bake at 175F for about 2 hours, or until the meringues are dull and dry to the touch.

Now that we have our baked good in hand for our upcoming holiday festivities, we’ll need to make sure that our nails look equally festive. Check out this unique life hack for drying your nails in a flash from Kari Byron and the American Express “Everyday Genius” series.

Featured Image Photo Credit: Shuterstock