Deliciously Crisp and Sweet Meringues

So crisp, airy and light meringues that will melt in your mouth!

Only two more days left for your chance to win a free set of silicone baking mats from Kitchen Executive Chef. Once again, here is the link:

This giveaway ends at 1:59 pm on Friday, June 27, 2014, and is open to US resident 18+ only. Bookmark this page and come back for extra entries.
On Friday, the winner will be randomly selected, via PromoSimple. I will email the lucky winner directly, and will post the name here. Good luck :)

I'd like to finish my giveaway week with something yummy, that I made using my new silicone mats. So, here is the recipe for meringues. This is a great dessert to prepare when you have left over egg whites. Rather than throwing them away, whip them up with some sugar and make this deliciously crisp and sweet meringues.

It has been a long time since I made meringues, and my first attempt did not quite work. The problem was with the baking: my oven was at 300 degrees, which I thought was low enough. But only after 30 minutes the meringue started to become brownish, so I had to turn off the oven. I left the meringues in the oven for an hour to cool down before removing. But even if they looked almost perfect (a little too tan), they were not crisp enough. More soft and chewy. My kids were so happy ... I made "marshmallows"!! :-)
My second attempt, though, was great! I lowered the oven to 200 degrees, cooked the meringues for one hour, and left them in the oven to cool down for one hour and a half.
Simply perfect: so light and airy they just melt in my mouth!


Ingredients: to make about 50 small meringues

• 4 egg whites
• 1 cup of powder sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• one pinch of salt

Preparation time: 10 minutes to prepare, 1 hour to bake, about 1.5 hours to cool off.

Directions:
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. In a large bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff. Please make sure that no part of the yolk is present. This might prevent the whites to become foamy.

Step 2: Add half of the powder sugar and beat some more. Beat in the rest of the sugar, with the salt and vanilla extract, until the mixture is fluffy and stiff.

Step 3: Pipe the mixture in small round shapes on the silicone baking mat. No greasing necessary! Bake for about one hour. Turn off the oven and leave the meringues inside the oven to cool down for about one hour and a half.

Enjoy!