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 that 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.
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.
Tangerine Meringue Cookies
Barbara Hall
Ingredients
- 4 Egg whites room temperature
- ½ teaspoon Cream of tarter
- 1 cup Sugar white 198 g
- 2 packages Freeze-dried tangerine .036 oz each
- ¼ teaspoon Orange extract
- 1-2 drops orange Coloring gel
Instructions
- In a food-possessor add both bags of the freeze-dried tangerines and pulse till 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 and add the tangerine strained powder to the sugar and mix. I separate one egg at a time into one bowl; then, I transfer the egg white to another container. If I do not do this and try to add all the eggs whites as I am doing them into the same bowl, it never fails the 2nd, or 3rd egg will tear just enough to add some of that egg yolk to my bowl of egg whites, and I have to start all over again. I loosely cover the egg whites and let them come to room temperature.
- I suggest if you have a stand mixer, please use it; this takes a good ten to twelve minutes for this process. Add the egg whites to the bowl and on medium speed with a wire attachment mix until the egg whites are frothy (a couple of minutes). Add the cream of tartar and turn the mixer on to the highest setting. IMPORTANT! Add the tangerine-sugar mixture one tablespoon at a time after all the sugar is added continue to beat on high speed for 10 minutes. Turn the mixer off and scrape down the sides and turn the mixer back onto the highest setting. Add the orange extract and start with one drop of the orange coloring gel. That was all I used, but if you want a vibrant color orange, do a second drop. Beat for another 2 -4 minutes until the meringue has stiff peaks and looks shiny and glossy. If you take a little of the meringue between your fingers, it should feel smooth, not gritty. If it feels gritty, that means the sugar has not fully incorporated with the egg white. Turn on for a couple more minutes.
- Line two baking sheet pans with parchment paper. I bake both pans at the same time 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 the one side, so the overlapped pan does not touch the meringue on the other pan. 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 stars shapes. The type of cookie shape you create is your choice. I do both. Bake at 225° for 45 minutes, then turn the oven off and let them in the over for an hour before taking them out. IMPORTANT! Do not open the oven door until the end of the complete cooking is finished (1 hour and 45 minutes). They will start to collapes into themselves. I did it once and learned my lesson. 🙂
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