2017 - November - savory meringue kisses

2017 November

One of my friends are gluten- and dairy intolerant.  So when we have a coffee date, I usually buy flavored meringue kisses for her.  Sometimes I managed to buy ginger-flavored meringues, but more often than not, its not available.

Why not try it myself I thought … I had quite a few tries and they all came out fantastic!  I made ‘gingerbread spice’ meringues - so easy and soooooo yummy!

Ginger Meringue Kisses

(This makes 1 baking sheet – double quantities for more)

Lemon drops

3 egg whites, room temperature

150 g white sugar, blitzed to finer texture (or use castor sugar)

2 teaspoons ginger powder

1 teaspoon all spice

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 95°C. Line 1 baking sheets with baking paper (I just used Spray & Cook).  Mix the ginger and all spice powders with the sugar.

Drop a few drops lemon in mixing bowl … wipe with paper towel.  Use a glass or metal (pot) bowl.  Whisk the egg whites in the bowl, ideally with an electric mixer, until white and soft peaks have formed, about 2 minutes.

Add the sugar and ginger/all spice powder mixture little by little, whisking continuously until the mixture is glossy and stiff peaks form, 5 to 10 minutes. If you turn the bowl upside down, the egg whites should hold.

Using a piping bag, pipe small meringues on baking sheet.  If you don’t have piping bag, spoon mixture into sturdy biggish ziplock bag, snip off the 1 corner and pipe.

Bake for 1 hour at 95°C for small meringues or 2 hours for large. When they are done, they should be crisp on the outside and sound hollow. Turn off the oven and leave the meringues in the oven to cool.

Meringues should be stored in an airtight container and will keep for a few weeks.

Recipe:  alma pretorius

Thinking about other flavors, I thought what about strawberry?  Since the usual  recipe requires castor sugar, I thought:  I'll just use jelly powder ... it already has sugar in it plus flavor ....

 

Strawberry jelly powder meringues

3 large egg whites, room temp

120 g white sugar

80 g packet strawberry jelly powder

In small blender, blitz the white sugar and jelly powder to make sugar fine.  Preheat the oven to 95°C. Line 2 baking sheets with baking paper. 

Use a glass or metal (pot) bowl.  Whisk the egg whites in the bowl, ideally with an electric mixer, until white and soft peaks have formed, about 2 minutes. Add the sugar and strawberry powder mixture little by little, whisking continuously until the mixture is glossy and stiff peaks form, 5 to 10 minutes. If you turn the bowl upside down, the egg whites should hold.

Using a tablespoon, place the meringue batter in spoonfuls on the baking sheet, about 1 tablespoonful for small meringues and 2 tablespoonfuls for large. You can also pipe out the meringues into shapes using a pastry bag. 

Bake for 1 hour for small meringues or 2 hours for large. When they are done, they should be crisp on the outside and sound hollow. Turn off the oven and leave the meringues in the oven to cool.

Meringues should be stored in an airtight container and will keep for a few weeks.   

Recipe:  alma pretorius

Play with other jelly flavors ... I've used pineapple jelly powder with some desiccated coconut in as well. Forgot to take a picture, but here's the recipe.

Pineapple jelly powder coconut meringues

3 large egg whites, room temp

80 g packet pineapple jelly powder

½ cup desiccated coconut

White sugar (about 2/3 cup)

In 2/3 measure cup, pour the 80g jelly powder, fill up with white sugar to fill the 2/3 cup.  In small blender, blitz the white sugar and jelly powder to make sugar fine.  Preheat the oven to 110°C. Line 2 baking sheets with baking paper. 

Use a glass or metal (pot) bowl.  Whisk the egg whites in the bowl, ideally with an electric mixer, until white and soft peaks have formed, about 2 minutes. Add the sugar and pineapple powder mixture little by little, whisking continuously until the mixture is glossy and stiff peaks form, 5 to 10 minutes. If you turn the bowl upside down, the egg whites should hold. Quickly but gently fold in the coconut.

Using a tablespoon, place the meringue batter in spoonfuls on the baking sheet, about 1 tablespoonful for small meringues.

Bake for 45 minutes for small meringues. When they are done, they should be crisp on the outside and sound hollow. Turn off the oven and leave the meringues in the oven to cool for 1 hour.

Meringues should be stored in an airtight container and will keep for a few weeks.

Recipe:  alma pretorius

For some reason I thought about peanut butter meringues ... I found this recipe, but didn't follow it ... I tried to whip the peanut butter with the egg whites from the beginning ... nope, that doesn't work.  I threw away 15 egg-whites!  But in the end, it worked and was great!

Peanut Butter Meringue Cookies

• 2 egg whites
• ⅛ teaspoon cream of tartar
• ⅔ cup granulated sugar or Splenda
• ½ cup smooth peanut butter

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 300°F/150°C and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Using a standing mixer with a whisk attachment or handheld beaters, whisk the egg whites and cream of tartar together on high speed until soft peaks form. Gradually sprinkle in the sugar while still beating; continue to beat until the whites are thick, glossy, and stiff. This will take several minutes.
3. Gently fold in the peanut butter just until incorporated.
4. Drop the mixture by heaping tablespoon-sized blobs onto your prepared baking sheets, leaving lots of room for them to spread. Bake for 20-22 minutes - they'll be set and slightly golden on the bottom.
5. Allow to cool on a wire rack, then store in an airtight container.

http://www.edible-woman.com/peanut-butter-meringue-cookies/

Of course I thought about doing something salty with the meringue kisses … Googling it, I found some herb flavored meringues but that wasn't what I was looking for… so I decided to just experiment.

Hmmm, Simba Cheese & Onion crisps …  I blitzed the crisps to a powder … I whipped my egg whites with cream of tartar and then added castor sugar.  When meringues were stiff, I folded in the Simba crisp powder and baked it.  It was lovely (for me) but the sweet-salty taste was a bit weird for my friends.

15 November 2017

This morning just after 4am I baked another batch (recipe included) and didn’t add any sugar.  OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It came out perfect!!!!  Yeah, it doesn’t have a smooth look like other meringue kisses, but it was quick, super easy and sooo flavorsome!!!!

 

Smoky Beef Simba Crisps Meringues

3 large egg whites

1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

125 g packet Simba Smoky BBQ crisps, blitzed really fine to a powder (or any other flavor)

Preheat oven to 110 oC.  Layer 2 baking sheets with baking paper.  In glass or metal mixing bowl, whip the egg whites and cream of tartar till stiff on high speed with handheld mixer.  When the meringue is stiff and with peaks (if you hold bowl upside down, it won’t fall), quickly but REAL gently fold in the Smoky Beef crisp powder.

Spoon onto the baking sheets, bake for 25 minutes, turn off the oven and leave in oven for at least 1 hour.  Let cool completely before storing.  Store in airtight container.

Recipe:  Alma Pretorius

Now I cannot wait to try other flavors.