MERINGUE RECIPE

1. Add 3 inches of water to a medium/small pot. Bring to a simmer. Transfer egg whites into a heat-safe bowl (preferably metal bowl of stand mixer). Add powdered sugar. Briefly whisk or stir to combine. Place mixing bowl on the rim of the pot of simmering water, well above the water line. Constantly whisk or stir the mixture until the sugar has completely dissolved. Check the temperature with a candy thermometer. Once batter reaches 113°F, remove bowl from heat.
2. Attach mixing bowl to stand mixer with whisk attachment. Whisk the hot batter for 5 minutes at high speed. As it whips, the mixture will thicken, cool, become shiny, and double in volume. The meringue should grip onto the metal whip in a medium-soft peak. The consistency should be like fluffy, clingy shaving foam. If the mixture is too thin, whip it some more. At the very end, add the flavoring (extract). Whip to incorporate.
3. Prepare the baking tray with a silicone baking mat. If using parchment paper, add a dot of meringue to the four corners of the tray. Place the parchment paper on top and press into place. Meringue cookies are extremely light. This technique will keep the parchment paper secure in the oven. We don’t want the convection fan to lift it up and toss it around.

HOW TO PIPE MERINGUE

1. Adjust #804 tip inside decorating bag. Push it down firmly so it’s tightly in place and very secure. Place the blades of kitchen shears on the plastic bag about 1/8-inch up from the bottom of the metal tip. Twist/spin the scissors and metal tip to cut off the very end of the plastic sleeve. Fold back the top of the piping bag by 1/3. With a small paint brush, brush a line of red coloring inside the bag from the end of the piping tip upward. Brush a line of red on the opposite side of the bag. Rotate the bag, and repeat this process with blue coloring. The 4 painted stripes should alternate: red, blue, red, blue. Place your non-dominant hand beneath the folded-back top of the piping bag. Hold the bag like a cup with your hand in a “C” shape to keep the bag wide open. With a clean spatula, fill the bag with meringue until 1/3 full.
2. Run your fingers along the side of the piping bag to gently press the meringue forward. This will help minimize small pockets of air. Twist the top of the bag and fold it down. With the metal tip facing up, slowly press the contents until a small amount of meringue emerges from the tip. The meringue is ready to be piped onto a prepared baking tray.
3. For kiss-shaped cookies, hold the decorating tip 1/8 inch from the parchment paper. For meringue swirls, hold the tip 1/4 inch from the surface of. To begin piping, use one hand on the bag to apply pressure. Use the other hand to direct the metal tip. As you lift the bag up, release some of the pressure at the same time. This will result in a lovely thin peak on top of the meringue cookie. Slightly stagger cookies on the tray so they can bake evenly in the oven.
4. When making patriotic meringue cookies, try piping them in a spiral fashion. This results in magical-looking cookies with red/white/blue swirls. The first cookies piped will be dark and vibrant. For more evenly-colored cookies, work with half the meringue at time. Make sure the metal tip is well cleaned, and completely dry, before transferring it to the second piping bag.

HOW TO BAKE MERINGUE COOKIES

1. Preheat conventional oven to 200°F, or 175°F for convection.
2. Bake the cookies dry over 80 minutes, rotating the tray 180 degrees every 20 minutes. The cookies are done when the meringue is crisp all the way through. If the cookies start to show some surface cracks, immediately remove them from the oven.
3. With the cookies still on the parchment paper, transfer them to a cool countertop surface or cooling rack. When cookies are cool but slightly sticky, lightly sprinkle them with edible stars. Allow the cookies to continue to air dry for a few hours in a cool non-humid spot.