Peppermint Meringues Recipe

It’s suuuper close to Christmas now so you know what that means? MOAR PEPPERMINT! These cute little Peppermint Meringues are super quick to whip up and so much fun to pipe out! They are bite sized too and you just know everything good comes in bite sized form. For more peppermint recipes check out my candy cane peppermint chocolate bark.

For these Peppermint Meringues, I chose a French Meringue. This means that I simply whisked the egg whites with additions of sugar, piped it and baked it. This is the most common form of meringue and the easiest as opposed to Italian and Swiss, which both call for heat in some form or another.

Tips for making meringues?

-Ensure all bowls and utensils are grease free. This means washing them in hot soapy water and drying well before using. Any residue of grease from your equipment might inhibit the eggs whipping to full peaks.

-Don’t get any yolk in your whites. Be very careful when separating your eggs. Always separate into a bowl that is not your mixing bowl so if you accidentally get yolk into your whites it doesn’t ruin all of them. If it’s only a little bit of yolk you can fish it out with the egg shell itself, yolk will gravitate towards the shell and make it easier to remove. But if you have a lot of yolk, it’s better to just use it for other baking and start fresh again.

-Add sugar gradually. In my recipe, I add all the caster sugar to the egg whites at the start and then when they have started to whip and stabilise I start to add the icing sugar and cornflour in additions. If you add too much sugar at once you can deflate the meringue and it won’t whip to hard peaks.

-Allow to rest before baking. These meringues will crack if you don’t rest them for the 15 minutes indicated. They will expand a little bit in the oven and the resting helps to form a thin skin on the top of the meringue. This way, the meringue will expand out the bottom, like a macaron, rather than it try to escape through the top and crack.

-Oven temperature is important. Do not set your oven higher than 105°c(220°f) if fan assisted (110°c/230°f). Temperatures higher than this will cause the meringue to crack or turn brown. If you notice the meringue start to do either of these, reduce your oven temperature by 5-10°c.

-Whip the meringue to stiff peaks. But what does this mean? It means that when you pull the whisk away from your meringue it should hold a stiff peak, aka it should hold it’s shape firmly. All the tips above will help you form a stiff meringue along with ensuring to whisk the meringue for a good 2-3 minutes after all the ingredients have been added.