Pink Meringue 'Kisses'

These meringues are light, low-fat and completely festive! Perfect for any baby or bridal shower, you can change these meringues up with raspberry or almond extracts, different colors, or my favorite, peppermint extract at the holidays. Make these on a dry, non-humid day for the best results. 

Ingredients:

4 egg whites (at room temperature)

½ teaspoon cream of tartar

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or other extract)

Natural pink food coloring

Extra Materials:

Disposable piping bag

Plain ½ inch piping tip

Stand mixer with a whisk attachment (or a hand mixer can be used)

Method:

Preheat your oven to 225 degrees. Line baking sheets with foil and lightly spray foil with pan spray.

In a stand mixer using the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy. Gradually add the sugar and continue to whisk until the whites are stiff but not dry, about 4-5 minutes. When you remove the whisk, the egg whites should completely hold their shape at a stiff peak.

Beat in extract and slowly add in the food coloring until the desired color is reached.

Snip a small opening big enough for your piping tip in your piping bag. Place your piping tip inside and spoon your stiff meringue into the bag.

Pipe the meringues by placing the piping bag straight above the baking sheet, almost touching the baking sheet. Apply pressure and gently squeeze the meringue out of the tip to make a 1” round (shaping the bottom of the meringue) and then stop squeezing and gently pull up the piping bag making a classic ‘Hershey’s Kiss’ top. Pipe the meringues about 1 inch apart on your lined baking sheets.

Bake meringues until dry and almost crisp but not yet colored, about 1 hour. Turn the oven off and leave the trays in the oven for 1 hour, as they will continue to dry out. *If you do not have an oven that can be set to 225 degrees, unfortunately the method will be longer. I have a professional oven, which has the lowest temperature setting of 275 degrees. I pre-heated my oven to 275 degrees and placed my sheet pans inside for 5 minutes and then turned the temp off and let the meringues sit in the oven. I continued to check them every hour and turned the oven on every hour for 5 minutes set to 275 degrees. To completely dry out, they took about 5 hours of this process.

When cooled, carefully remove them from the baking sheet. Store airtight. Meringues keep for 3 days in an air-tight container.