Description
These Christmas Meringue Cookies are light, airy, and bursting with peppermint flavor, perfect for festive holiday treats. Colored with red and green gel food coloring, they bring a charming holiday spirit to your dessert table. Made with simple ingredients like egg whites, caster sugar, and peppermint extract, these cookies are baked at a low temperature to achieve a crisp texture that melts in your mouth.
Ingredients
Scale
Meringue Mixture
- 4 egg whites room temperature
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 cup caster sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
- red gel food coloring
- green gel food coloring
Instructions
- Beat Egg Whites: Beat egg whites on high speed for about 30 seconds until foamy.
- Add Vinegar and Cornstarch: Add the white vinegar and cornstarch to the foamy egg whites and beat until soft peaks form, about 1 minute.
- Add Sugar and Peppermint: Slowly add the caster sugar in a steady stream while continuing to beat. Add peppermint extract and beat for about 4 minutes until stiff peaks form.
- Prepare Pastry Bags: Draw lines inside one pastry bag with red gel food coloring using a star tip, then fill the bag with half of the meringue mixture.
- Pipe Cookies: Pipe one-inch star-shaped cookies onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Repeat this process with a second bag lined with green gel food coloring and the remaining meringue mixture.
- Bake: Place the baking sheets into a 200 degree oven and bake for about 80 minutes.
- Drying Time: Turn the oven off and leave the cookies inside for 4 hours or overnight to dry completely.
- Store: After cooling, store the meringue cookies in an airtight container for up to one week.
Notes
- Don’t add sugar too soon—wait until egg whites are foamy to ensure the meringue fluffs properly.
- Be careful separating yolks from whites; any yolk will prevent achieving stiff peaks.
- Check your oven temperature to avoid overheating, which can harm the cookies’ light texture—these are dried, not traditionally baked.
- Meringue cookies are best eaten within a few hours but can be stored up to a week.
- If you can’t find caster sugar, pulse granulated sugar in a food processor until fine, but do not substitute powdered sugar.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 15 kcal
- Sugar: 2 g
- Sodium: 5 mg
- Fat: 0.1 g
- Saturated Fat: 0 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 0 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 3 g
- Fiber: 0 g
- Protein: 0.2 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
