There is always that one dish that you feel you just aren’t ever going to get right.
For me its been the dreaded meringue and and its the reason why you’ve never seen a meringue recipe on Chew Town… till now. Sure, I’ve made heaps of attempts in the last few years but they’ve never made it to the blog (can somebody say perfectionist?).
After yet another meringue failure earlier in the year (peanut butter meringues this time), I was determined that by the end of 2013 I was going to have a successful meringue recipe on the blog or so help me god!
This time I approached my nemesis with caution, I researched a number of meringue recipes of all different flavours and finally pieced together what I thought could possibly create the perfect meringue. Being Christmas and with a candy cane theme already in mind for 2013, these candy cane meringues were born – and they worked perfectly just in the nick of time. Huzzah!
This recipe generated a healthy batch of 50 meringues which were shared happily among my colleagues at Opera Australia. All reports were that they had the perfect blend of crisp and chew (music to my ears). Finally, I had a meringue recipe worth sharing – and I’m delighted to now share it with you.
Candy Cane Meringues
Makes 45 – 50 mini meringues
6 fresh free-range egg whites, at room temperature
300g caster sugar
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
Red food colouring
Preheat oven to 140° Celsius.
Ensure the metal bowl of an electric mixer is clean and completely dry, then add egg whites. Beat on medium speed until the egg whites form soft peaks, then increase speed to medium high and add the caster sugar gradually. Continue beating on high till the mixture becomes glossy and forms stiff peaks.
Add cream of tartar and peppermint extract and fold through 5 or 6 times gently and lightly ensuring you do not lose any air in the mixture.
Fit a piping bag with a round nozzle. Taking a skewer dipped in red food colouring, drag a few drops in two sides of the bag and gently fill with some of the mixture.
Line two baking trays with paper. Gently pipe small mounds of the meringue mixture onto the trays with bases the size of 50c pieces and spaced 1.5cm from each other. Repeat with remaining mixture re-applying red food colouring to the bag between each refill.
Place trays in the oven and bake for 50 – 60 minutes until the bases are firm. Turn the oven off and leave the meringues in the oven to cool completely with a wooden spoon handle wedged between the door of the oven to keep it ajar.
Once cool, place in an airtight container to stay crisp till you are ready to serve. These will last for a week in an airtight container.
Just gorgeous bella! I love what you have done here! I agree. They’re an absolute pain to perfect. And the candy cane flavour is just so Xmas-sy!
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What perfect Christmas colouring! At this time of year I make enormous batches of eggnog and have ridiculous amounts of egg whites leftover. Thanks for giving me a different option to use them rather than just pavlova!
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Beautiful! What lens did you use for that first close up shot? It’s awesome!
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Hi Alyssa, All my photos are currently taken with a Nikkor 50ml prime lens. Always has a great depth of field!
these are delightful!
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They certainly do look perfect and oh so pretty!
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They look so perfect! I can’t imagine you freaking out at all when things don’t go right 😉 lol
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These are beautiful and I love the 3 tired stand that you used to display them! I can’t wait to viist you one day and see your room full of props hehe 🙂 You must have an amazing collection!
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Haha! Anytime! Would love to have you around. The prop room is definitely epic! Gets bigger by the day and I think Scott has finally learned to deal with it now. Its all about flea markets and ebay!
These are totally gorgeous! Lovely pictures, and I’ll bet the meringues are even better. But one of these days you need to do the peanut butter meringues for us, too – they sound like a lot of fun! Super post – thanks.
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just beautiful – i’m totally feeling the christmas spirit!
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I love the red stripes! Hard to believe you ever had trouble with meringues after seeing these babies!
Interesting blog.It would be great if you can provide more details about it. Thanks you