Itty Bitty Meringue Cookies

little vanilla meringue cookies

Last week I made amazing lemon curd. I used the Martha Stewart recipe which calls for 4 egg yolks. So what do I do with egg whites? Do I make a low fat egg white omelet? No, that sounds disgusting. I will make meringues.

Meringues are OK. I would not say they are the bees knees, but they are fun and a nice change from fatty traditional cookies.

I used the Joy of cooking recipe. You can find any recipe on line but it is nice having a food bible in the kitchen that you can trust.

Ingredients:

• 3 egg whites
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 tsp vanilla

Combine the egg whites, tartar and salt and beat until soft peaks form. Gradually add in the sugar and then the vanilla. Beat until the mixture is shiny and stiff peaks form. But do not over beat it! Put the mixture in a pipping bag and pipe nickle sized blobs onto parchment lined baking sheets. Bake for 45 min at 250F. Then turn off the oven and leave them in there for another 30min.

I like to use old milk bags as pipping bags.

milk bag = pastry bag

I baked mine for 40min and I think that was overkill for such small meringues. These are so small I bet they do not need much more than 30min with the oven on.