Halloween Special Edition - Meringue Cookies

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote this post and it was featured on Kathia's Pink Little Cake Blog. Just in case you missed it there, and because I'm in the Halloween spirit, I thought I would share the recipe for my regular readers.

MERINGUE BONES AND GHOSTS COOKIES

Meringue cookies are easy to make, but I think people are afraid of them because they appear complicated. They are very inexpensive to make, and you can pipe them into almost any shape. Also, they are gluten and peanut free, so there's a few more people that can enjoy them!

Let's start with the ingredient list. Better get out your pencils! LOL!

INGREDIENTS
6 large egg whites
1 1/2 cups sugar

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees. Put egg whites and sugar in the heatproof bowl. Set bowl over a pan of simmering water; whisk constantly until sugar is dissolved and mixture feels warm to the touch, about 5 minutes or until the mixture reaches 130 degrees.

2. Transfer the hot mixture to your mixer with the whisk attachment. Beat on high speed until very stiff peaks form, about 8 minutes. The great thing about meringues is unlike plain egg whites or cream, it is almost impossible to overbeat or break it.

3. Transfer meringue to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch plain round tip, I used a Wilton #1A. You can fill a baggie and snip off a corner for piping too. Pipe bone shapes, each 5 to 6 inches long, onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper. For ghost shapes, start at the base with heavy pressure and lessen the pressure as you near the top of the ghost. If you are unhappy with your shapes, just scoop them back up and re-pipe them!

Bake until crisp throughout, about 90 minutes. Test one meringue to see if it is dry throughout. If not, let it cook a little longer. One they finish, turn off the oven and place a wooden spoon in the oven door so that it is still cracked a little. Leave the meringue cookies in the oven. This will allow the meringue to cool very slowly and prevent them from cracking. Some of them will probably still crack though! It will just make them spookier!

Once they are thoroughly cooled, use an edible image marker or gel color and small brush to draw faces on the ghosts. This is what you end up with!