There’s nothing that pleases me more than cute Holiday cookies. Red, white, and green. Chocolate, sprinkles, caramel, and fudge. I love them all. Today I am sharing a cute little meringue kiss recipe. These light and chewy meringues are flavored with peppermint, dipped in dark chocolate and finished with crunchy candy cane pieces. They are the epitome of Holiday cookies.
These little meringues are a cross between a cookie and candy. It would be perfectly acceptable to place them into either category. The meringue is light, chewy and minty. The cookies themselves are soft and crunchy with a bit of sweet chocolate to balance out the flavor of mint. Besides being delicious, they are so adorably cute and will impress your family and friends! Wrap them up in a tiny bag and they will make the perfect Holiday gift!
Candy Cane Meringue Kisses
makes 50 small 1 1/2 -inch meringue kisses
prep time - 30 minutes
cooking time - 35 minutes
INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups (300 g) of superfine sugar
5 eggs whites (150g)
1/2 tsp of cream of tartar
1/4 tsp of peppermint extract
1 cup of Ghirardelli dark chocolate melting wafers, or any dark chocolate
4 candy canes, crushed
DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 400ºF.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the superfine sugar onto the parchment paper. Place the baking sheet into the oven and bake for 5 minutes until the edges of the sugar start to melt. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and reduce the oven temperature to 200ºF.
While the sugar is in the oven, add the egg whites and the cream of tartar to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Whisk the egg whites on low speed for a second or two, and then increase the speed to high and whisk until the eggs have reached the stiff peak stage.
With the speed set to high, add the sugar a spoonful at a time to the egg whites, making sure that the egg whites come back to stiff peaks after each addition. Continue in this manner until all of the sugar has been used. You may need to use a spatula to scrape down the side of the bowl. Once the sugar has been added, continue to whisk on high speed for roughly 5 minutes until all of the sugar has dissolved and the meringue is thick and shiny.
Add the peppermint extract to the meringue and whisk until combined.
Remove the bowl from the stand mixer. Prepare a large piping bag with a Wilton #1A large round piping tip. Scoop the meringue into the piping bag.
Prepare two baking sheets with parchment paper. Add a small dab of meringue to the four corners of the baking sheet to hold down the parchment paper. It should act as a glue.
Pipe the meringue kisses onto the parchment paper, spacing each meringue by a 1/2 inch. Place the baking sheets into the oven and bake for 30 minutes, until the exterior of the meringues is hard and you can easily lift them off the tray. Remove the trays from the oven and let cool.
Heat the dark chocolate melting wafers in a microwave-safe dish for 30 seconds. Remove the dish and stir the chocolate. You may need to place the bowl back into the microwave and heat for 15 more seconds to completely melt the chocolate. While you are dipping the meringues in the chocolate, if it starts to harden, just place the bowl back into the microwave and heat for 15 seconds to remelt. This is an advantage of using the melting wafers.
Grab a meringue and hold the top between your two fingers. Gently dip the meringue kisses into the chocolate and cover 1/4 of the bottom half of the meringue. Then dip the meringue into the crushed candy cane. Place the meringue back onto the baking sheet to let the chocolate set.
The candy cane meringues can be stored in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.
