The old adage, if you love something let it go, should be revised to say - if you love something, share some of it, keep most of it, make lots more so that you are never without it.
Okay, put mildly, my adage crafting skills are lacking, but I guarantee after just one bite of these cookies, you'll quickly see the flaw in that love them and set them free business.
I absolutely love these cookies and set out to make them for gifting purposes, but as hard as I try, there is just no setting them free. And if I am not mistaken, K might just feel the same way about them - he ate half the Cocoa Rouge Meringue Cookies within hours of me taking them from the oven. BTW - he claims to not have much of a sweet tooth...
With hardly any of the first batch left, I set out to make a variety of flavours for gifting purposes. I made sure K was not around. First, I made coconut flavoured meringue and piped them onto a lined cookie sheet. I separated the remaining batter and added some raspberry flavour and a touch of pink gel food colouring to half. Using a double piping bag inserted into a large piping bag fitted with the star tip, I swirled to my heart's desire.
Heaven in a feather-light cookie! Yup, those are my teeth marks. It's called testing the product - over and over and over... I had more jars than I had cookies left, so another batch was in order. If you have never made or eaten meringue cookies, I urge you to try them. Your tastebuds will be forever indebted.
As it's the season for giving - they also make great gifts! So get in the kitchen and start whipping. Only eight more sleeps before Christmas!
Raspberry Coconut Meringue Cookies
(Yield: 2 dozen)
A light, flaky cookie with a marshmallowy soft center, infused with raspberry and coconut to make your taste buds dance.
Ingredients
200 g superfine sugar100 g egg whites (I used pasteurized egg whites)
¼ tsp cream of tartar
a pinch of salt
¼ tsp coconut emulsion
¼ tsp raspberry emulsion
a small drop of pink gel food colour
Directions
Preheat oven to 250ºF.
Prepare two cookie sheets by lining with silpat mats or parchment paper.
Place egg whites, sugar, cream of tartar and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer and mix on high speed until soft peaks form.
Turn mixer down to medium and sprinkle in the sugar a little at a time. Once all the sugar is added, turn mixer back to high and whip to stiff peaks.
Divide the meringue evenly and whip the coconut emulsion into half the batter for a few seconds. Add the raspberry emulsion and the food colour to the other half and whip for a few seconds, until colour is evenly incorporated.
Using a double decorating bag insert (like the one shown above) and the star tip, pipe meringue onto lined baking sheets.
Bake for 40 minutes.
Looks divine!
ReplyDeleteThey look beautiful.
ReplyDeleteOhhhh, they are!!
ReplyDeleteThanks!
ReplyDeleteis it poss. to replace cream of tartar with something else of similar function?
ReplyDeleteThe cream of tatar is used to stabilize the egg whites. White vinegar or lemon juice are said to be good substitutes, but they will alter the taste and I have not tried them, so cannot speak to the results they might yield. You could omit the cream of tatar all together, but your meringue may not be stable. Hope that is helpful.
ReplyDelete