One of my favorite cookies is meringue cookies; it is like air bites of flavor. OK, so I made up that phrase, but to me, it fits well. Two kinds of meringue cookies, but I like them either way. The dry the whole way through or the type that melts in your mouth, and you have a chewy center.
I purchased a couple of freeze-dried fruit packets to try in some of the cookies because adding fresh fruit would not work, for example, meringue. Some of the freeze-dried fruits do not have as strong a taste as its fresh fruit counterpart. So I usually help it by adding a little extract or spice to give the flavor a little punch. What I did with the tangerine flavor was add just a small amount of orange extract since I didn't want to lose the tang of the tangerine.
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Ingredients
- Egg whites
- Cream of tarter
- Sugar white
- Freeze-dried tangerines
- Orange extract
- Orange coloring gel
Freeze-dried Tangerines
My go to for freezed dried fruit is Crispy Green. I found them at my local Weiss store here in Lancaster PA, but you can also purchase them from straight from their website. Freeze-Dried Tangerine Crispy Fruit. This comes in a four pack and it took 2 packs to make the cookies.
If you would like to learn more about the benefits of freeze-dried fruit or what the process is to creating freeze-dried fruit at home, check out the links.
Making Meringue
These are pretty easy once you get the hang of making meringue. But I will say that getting the prep work completed first will have a big inpact on the final cookies.
Prep Work
Add the freeze-dried tangerines to a food processor and pulse until ground up. It only takes about 4 or 5 pulses
Strain the ground tangerines into a bowl.
Mix the strained tangerines with the sugar.
Stir them together and set the bowl aside.
To prep the equipment I take a paper towel and dab some white vinegar on it. I wipe the whole inside of the mixer bowl along with the wire whip attachment.
The last part of the prepping is the piping bag. I put the tip and the inside coupling inside the bag. Cut enough off the end of the bag for the tip to go through. then place the outer coupling over the tip and bag and screw it onto the inside coupling.
Getting the Egg Whites Ready
Anytime I am making meringue cookies I use this 3-bowl system for separating the yolks from the whites.
Here is my three bowl method:
- Bowl 1 - I use this bowl to separate the egg yolk from the white.
- Bowl 2 - After separating the egg, the yolk goes into bowl 2.
- Bowl 3 - If the egg white in bowl 1 is clean, it is added to bowl 3. This bowl will hold all the accumulated clean egg whites.
If you break a yolk, you only have to discard one egg instead of everything you had done to that point.
How to Make Meringues
Add the egg whites to the mixer bowl and on a medium mixer speed whip the egg whites until frothy about 30 seconds to a minute. Stop the mixer and add the cream of tartar. Turn the mixer onto the highest speed.
Add the tangerine-sugar mixture slowly, one tablespoon at a time. I go around the bowl so I don't add it all to the same spot.
After all the sugar is added beat on high for 10 minutes or until you have stiff peaks. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides. Add the orange extract and the drop of orange coloring gel. Turn the mixer on high for another minutes.
To test for doneness, rub a little meringue between your fingers. If it feels gritty, whip it for another minute. You don't want to over beat. You want the meringue to be smooth and glossy. If you take the attachment off and turn it upside down, the meringue should not droop.
Fill the piping bag with the meringue. Then, pipe your cookies onto the parchment-paper sheet pan. I fill the bag twice, one for each sheet pan.
On one of the pans, I left a good 3 inches down the long side of the pan empty. This way, I could overlap the two sheet pans. I do this because you cannot open the oven for 3 hours, so you can not rotate the pans.
Bake at 225°F (110°C) for 1 hour, then turn the oven off and let them in the oven for 2 hours before taking them out. IMPORTANT! Do not open the oven door until the 3 hours has finished. Once out of the oven place in an air tight container.
I just love meringue! They are flavored pieces of air that are just so refreshing.
Enjoy!
FAQ's
Well, there are lots of reasons. First I like the chewy insides, but if you don't here are some of the reasons why yours came out that way:
1. Underbaking: If the meringue cookies are not baked for a sufficient amount of time, the inside might remain chewy instead of fully drying out and becoming crisp.
2. Moisture: Excess moisture, whether from high humidity during baking or improper storage after baking, can lead to a chewy texture.
3. Overmixing: Overmixing the egg whites can cause the proteins to break down, resulting in a denser, chewier texture rather than a light and airy consistency meringue.
I put them in an air tight container which lives on my counter. They stay crispy for a good 3 to 4 days.
Now, I have not tried either of the substitutes for cream of tartar, but if you are in a pinch, you can try lemon juice or white vinegar.
Apparently the acid in both of these products can be used to stabilize egg whites. Like I said if you are in a pinch! If you do use one of these please let me know how they turned out.
Other Meringue Cookies
Recipe
Tangerine Meringue Cookies
Barbara HallWould you like to save this recipe?
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Ingredients
- 4 (4) Egg whites room temperature
- ½ teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) Cream of tarter
- 1 cup (200 g) Sugar white
- 24 grams (24 grams) Freeze-dried tangerine 2 - 12g bags
- ¼ teaspoon (0.25 teaspoon) Orange extract
- 1 drop (1 drops) Coloring gel orange
Instructions
PREP WORK
- In a food-possessor, add both bags of the freeze-dried tangerines and pulse until they are powder. I then add this to a strainer to separate the more significant pieces from the tangerine powder. You should get about ⅛ cup. Weigh or measure the sugar, add the tangerine-strained powder to the sugar, and mix.
- Next, you need to separate the egg whites from the yolk. I use a three-bowl system to ensure that no yolk gets into my egg whites. Bowl 1: I have an egg separator that puts the whites into the bowl and the yolk in the separator. In Bowl 2, I add the yolk. In Bowl 3, I add the whites. Repeat for the other three eggs. (A picture is above in the post if needed.)
- Regarding the equipment, I take a paper towel, dab some white vinegar on it, and wipe the inside of the mixer bowl. I also do the whip attachment. I want to get the piping bag and the tip ready for the meringue. I find the large open star my go-to for my tip when making meringue cookies.
MAKING TANGERINE MERINGUE
- If you have a stand mixer, please use it; it takes ten to fifteen minutes to complete. Add the egg whites to the bowl and mix at medium speed with a wire whip attachment until the egg whites are frothy (about a minute). Add the cream of tartar and turn the mixer on to the highest setting. This is IMPORTANT! Add the tangerine-sugar mixture 1 tablespoon at a time. After adding all the sugar, beat at high speed for 10 minutes or until you reach stiff peaks. Turn the mixer off, scrape down the sides, and add the orange extract and one drop of the orange coloring gel. Turn the mixer back onto the highest setting for a minute.
- Take a little meringue between your fingers; it should feel smooth, not gritty. If it feels gritty, that means the sugar has not been fully incorporated with the egg white. Turn the mixer back on high for another minute. Don't overbeat the egg whites. When finished, if you take the attachment off the mixer and turn it up with the meringue at the top, the peak should stand up without slowly dropping down. Also, the meringue should look smooth and glossy.
- Line two baking sheet pans with parchment paper. I bake both pans side by side. My oven is not that wide, so one sheet pan is slightly up on the side of the second pan. So when piping the meringue onto the pan, I leave a good 2 to 3 inches on one side so the overlapped pan does not touch the meringue on the other pan (picture above). They only overlap about an inch, but the good thing is the piped meringue does not move. I use a large open star tip and pipe out the cookies. You can make swirls or star shapes. The type of cookie shape you create is your choice. I have done both.
- Bake at 225°F (110°C) for 1 hour, then turn the oven off and let them in the oven for 2 hours before taking them out. IMPORTANT! Do not open the oven door until the 3 hours have finished. They will start to collapse into themselves if cool air hits them before the drying process is finished. I did it once and learned my lesson. 🙂
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Notes
NUTRITION DISCLAIMER
I am not a certified Dietitian or Nutritionist. The nutrition amounts given below are provided through a program and are only a guideline.
Jodi says
Hi Barbara!
YUMMY! And wow, these look fabulous. I'm so happy to have found your blog! I plan to make these asap.
Barbara says
Hi Jodi, so very happy you found my blog!