Classic meringues! Meringue cookies are light made from whisked egg whites and sugar into stiff peaks and baked until crunchy. Cute, crunchy, and perfect for any celebration!

DAY 2 OF THE 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS COOKIES: MERINGUE COOKIES

Welcome to Day 2 of the 12 Days of Christmas Cookies! I started this tradition last year where I post 12 Christmas Cookie recipes to kick off the holiday baking season. Today’s cookies? Meringues!

If you ever find yourself with a lot of egg whites on hand, you have to make meringues! They can be a little intimidating at first but they really are super simple to make.

I have been watching a lot of The Greatest British Baking Show and they make a lot of meringue based recipes. I have been wanting to try my hand at making meringues and watching that show gave me the push to do it.

Making meringues takes a lot of patience and you have to follow the directions by the letter. If you don’t, your meringues won’t work.

I am going to share my tips for making meringue cookies below so don’t skip over them!

TO MAKE THESE Meringue Cookies, YOU’LL NEED:

parchment paper
piping bag
stand mixer
baking sheet
4 large egg whites room temperature
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
⅛ teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
air-tight container

HOW TO MAKE Meringue Cookies (with tips!)

Preheat oven to 225F and line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper.

In a completely clean, grease-free bowl, combine egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt.

It’s important to make sure your bowl is completely clean! Merginues are finicky and the littlest thing will throw them off!

Using an electric mixer or a stand mixer, stir on low speed until mixture becomes foamy. Increase speed to high.

With mixer on high, gradually add sugar, about 1 tablespoon at a time, stirring after each addition until sugar is dissolved (about 15-20 seconds between each addition).

Be patient! You want to make sure the sugar dissolves before adding more. If not, your meringues will be gritty.

Beat until mixture is thick, shiny, and has increased in volume. Mixture should have stiff peaks and sugar should be completely dissolved.

To make sure your sugar is dissolved, rub a little of the mixture between your fingers to see if it’s gritty.

Stir in vanilla extract and any other extract you may like to use.

If using food coloring, add the food coloring at this stage, too.

Fit a large disposable piping bag with a large tip and transfer meringue to prepared piping bag and pipe onto prepared cookie sheet.

You can pipe your meringues pretty close together. They do not spread when baking so you can fit a lot onto your baking sheet.

Bake on 225F for 1 hour. Turn off the oven once the baking time has passed. Leave the oven door closed and allow cookies to cool completely in the oven for 1-2 hours before removing.

Do not open the oven door after they are done baking! Like I said above, meringues are finicky even after baking. They need to slowly cool in the oven or they will pop! If you remove the meringues too quickly from the oven, they will crack and deflate. I left mine in the oven for several hours.

Store in an air-tight container.

Meringues need to be stored in an air-tight container without moisture or they will get sticky and melt.

Even More Tips for Making Meringue Cookies

When separating your egg whites from the yolk, you need to be really careful! You can not even have a drop of yolk in your whites. I like to separate them over another bowl and then add all my whites together to ensure there are NO yolks in my egg whites.
Be patient! You need nice stiff peaks so you will be mixing your mixture for awhile. But stop as soon as you achieve stiff peaks.
If your meringues get a little soft after you store them, you can crisp them back up in the oven at 225F for about 10 minutes. But you have to let them cool again in the oven just like you did when you baked them.

Once you make meringues a few times, you can experiment by adding other extracts, like lemon, or by coloring then. To achieve the striped look, just line your piping bag with food coloring before you spoon in your meringue mixture.

12 Days of Christmas Cookies:

If you love these Meringue cookies, check out some more of our favorite cookie recipes and the rest of the 12 Days of Christmas Cookies HERE!