A classic recipe for meringue cookies! These little meringues only call for 5 ingredients, and at under 25 calories a pop they are easily the lightest recipe on my blog! The technique takes a little bit of practice, and a long time in the oven, but I’ll walk you through the steps in the recipe so that you can make your own perfect meringues!
Sweet & Simple Meringue Cookies
I have another recipe for your holiday cookie tray today — classic meringue cookies!
Meringues only require 5 ingredients to make, but they can be a little bit finicky — even the weather can affect them. Winter is a great time to try them out, as you’re much less likely to have a very humid day this time of year, and humidity is one of the greatest nemesis of meringue cookies.
I’ve been making this recipe over and over again the past few months to make sure that I understood all of the ins and outs of making perfect meringue cookies, and I’m finally ready to share what I’ve learned with you, so that you too can make these addictive little meringue cookies.
If you’ve never had one, meringues are light, airy cookies with crisp interiors. I’m sharing a classic vanilla meringue recipe today (with notes on how to add your own different flavors!). The taste always reminds me of marshmallow 😍.
Making Meringue: Stiff Peaks
This recipe calls for four egg whites and a single cup of sugar. That may not seem like it’s going to yield you very many meringues when you start, but you’ll be surprised by how much these ingredients increase in volume.
As you add the sugar, the mixture will become thick, glossy, and sticky, that’s exactly what you are looking for! You’ll also want the mixture to achieve stiff peaks — that’s how you’ll know that it’s done.
If you’ve made my angel food cake, whipped cream, or Swiss meringue buttercream before, then you’re already familiar with the concept of stiff peaks. It means that when you turn the batter over (like you can see in the image below with the meringue cookie batter), the peak that forms stands tall and does not fold back into itself. I’ve included a video in today’s post so you can see exactly how the meringue should look, in case you haven’t ever made meringue before.
Tips for No-Fail Meringue Cookies
- Make sure that the bowl and beater that you are using to beat your meringue is completely grease and moisture free. Any moisture can ruin your meringues.
- Crack your eggs in a separate bowl when separating the whites. Even a tiny bit of yolk can ruin your meringues, so crack each egg in a small bowl before adding it to the bowl that you will be mixing the meringue batter in.
- Add the sugar gradually, one Tablespoon at a time, and give it a chance to dissolve before adding more.
- You can test that the sugar is completely absorbed by taking a small bit of the batter and rubbing it between your fingers — if it’s not, it’ll feel gritty.
- Don’t stop until you get stiff peaks. The batter will take several minutes, at least, of beating to achieve stiff peaks, but keep going. It will increase in volume and be very thick and glossy — that’s what you’re looking for! See the photo above or the video for a visual.
- Don’t over-beat your batter, either! Once you hit stiff peaks, stop! You can stir in your extract and any food coloring at this point, but don’t push it because over-beating the batter is just as bad as not beating it enough.
- If you’ve found that your meringues have gotten soft after you finished baking them, you can actually pop them back in the oven at 225F for another 10-20 minutes (watch them, if they begin to turn golden brown around the edges turn off the heat immediately) and then let them cool in the oven for another hour, this has always worked for me with meringues that start to get chewy.
Adding Color and Other Flavoring
Once you get the hang of making meringues, feel free to play with lots of different flavors and colors — I made these Peppermint Bark Meringues by adding ¼ teaspoon peppermint extract, striping the piping bag with red food coloring (I used a clean paintbrush that I only use for baking), and dipping the baked, cooled meringue cookies in dark chocolate and crushed peppermint pieces!
Enjoy!
More Christmas Treats You Might Like:
Meringue Cookies
Ingredients
- 4 large egg whites room temperature
- ½ teaspoon cream of tartar
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract¹
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 225F (105C) and line a large cookie sheet (or two regular-sized cookie sheets -- make sure they will fit in your oven together) with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Combine egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt in a large, completely clean, completely grease-free bowl².4 large egg whites, ½ teaspoon cream of tartar, ⅛ teaspoon salt
- Using an electric mixer or a stand mixer (with either the whisk or paddle attachment), stir on low speed until mixture becomes foamy.
- Increase speed to high.
- With mixer on high, gradually add sugar, about 1 Tablespoon at a time, stirring after each addition until sugar is dissolved (about 15-20 seconds between each addition).1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
- Beat until mixture is thick, shiny, and has increased in volume. Mixture should have stiff peaks and sugar should be completely dissolved (you can test this by rubbing a small bit of the mixture between your fingers, if it feels gritty, the sugar isn't dissolved).
- Stir in vanilla extract and any other extract you may like to use. If using food coloring, add the food coloring at this stage, too.1 teaspoon vanilla extract¹
- Fit a large disposable piping bag with a large tip (I used Ateco 846, but any large star tip will work or you can just snip the edge of the piping bag for a “kiss” formation) and transfer meringue to prepared piping bag and pipe onto prepared cookie sheet. The meringue cookies can be pretty close to each other as they won’t spread, and you will want to bake all of the cookies at the same time, so make sure you make enough space.
- Bake on 225F (105C) for 1 hour. Turn off the oven once the baking time has passed, and do not open the oven. Leave the oven door closed and allow cookies to cool completely in the oven (1-2 hours) before removing.
- Meringue cookies should be crisp and can be stored in an airtight container. Keep away from heat and moisture as it can soften your meringues.
Notes
Recipes to use those leftover egg yolks:
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Marney
Hi Sam,
The recipe came out well, but the cookies were very sticky, like marshmallow sticky… Any reason why?
Thanks!
Sam
Hi Marney! They probably just needed to cook a little bit longer. 🙂
Evan Hopkins
First, attempt ever at Meringue and turned out great!
Great recipe and vide, thanks!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Evan! 🙂
Jane Sharp
Does it matter if I buy my egg whites in a carton? What’s the ratio to eggs?
Sam
Hi Jane! Unfortunately the carton egg whites typically don’t whip well. The cartons I have seen say they are not good for whipping so I would advise against using them.
Meghan
Great instructions and made it easy to follow, had fun making them and they turned out awesome!!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Meghan! 🙂
Kat
Hi Sam!
I was wondering if I could refrigerate the meringues or if they would go bad.
Sam
Hi Kat! You don’t want to refrigerate them as they will lose their crispiness. Air tight container at room temperature is the best way to store them. 🙂
Margarita
Hi! Thank you so much for sharing this! I just tried the recipe but unfortunately they all became brown after 10 minutes in the oven 😞 at 100 centigrades 🙁 and we tried it twice! Any idea why this could happen?
Sam
I am so sorry this happened! It sounds like your oven may actually be running a lot hotter than it says it is if they are burning that quickly. These should take an hour to bake and still shouldn’t turn brown. Hopefully it goes better next time. 🙂
Robyn
I love the idea of dipping them in chocolate and crushed candy cane! If I wanted to give them away as gifts, how long would they last before going soft/sticky? I’m worried that re-heating in the oven to re-crisp them won’t work with the chocolate on the bottom. Thanks!
Sam
Hi Robyn! Unfortunately that is a really really tough question to answer. I always store mine in an air tight container. Sometimes they can last a week sometimes a day. It really depends on the temperature and humidity of the surrounding environment.
Aamina
Hi. They came out amazingly beautiful but after 2 hours cooling they are getting sticky. What caused it and what should I do?
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Aamina! The sugar in the meringue pulls moisture from the air, too much moisture unfortunately can cause sticky meringues. You can try baking them for an additional 10 minutes at 200 degrees to try to restore crispness. I hope that helps. 🙂
katy
Hi, I’m a home baker and my friend requested salted caramel meringues for her sweet 16th party, I was wondering if I could mix in smuckers caramel sauce, kinda like how you would mix in gel food coloring. Would this work?
Thanksss
Sam
Hi Katy! I haven’t tried it. I’m not sure I would recommend working it in to the batter. I think if you drizzled a little bit on top and swirled it in a little bit that way, then it may work. 🙂
Katy
Hi Sam! drizzle on top of the cooked meringues or on top of the batter? would melting caramels and dipping the meringues into that work?
Thankss
-Katy
Sam
I would drizzle the finished meringues with a little bit of caramel. Dipping them may introduce too much moisture.
Alexa
Have you thought about toasting your sugar to get that caramel flavor? You’d definitely want to toast for quite a bit to get the taste right.
Shelley
Hello, I’m wondering if I can half the recipe? Or would this not be enough egg whites to whip up in a kitchen aid stand mixer? Please let me know – thank you!
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Shelley! You will need a minimum of two egg whites to use your stand mixer, so halving the recipe should be fine. Keep me posted on how they turn out. 🙂
Shelley
Thanks for an amazing recipe! I ended up making the full batch because my kids and husband love these cookies. I even used carton egg whites and they whipped up to stiff peaks fine! Will be making this again and again, thank you!
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed them so much, Shelley! 🙂
Peggy Tanquary
Hi Sam,
Any idea’s what you can make with the ( failed ) beat egg whites if they don’t form ANY peaks?
Thank you, looking forward to trying them!!!
Peggy
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Peggy! Unfortunately, I can’t think of anything to do with the failed egg whites. 🙁
Mel
You could make coconut Macaroons using unsweetened coconut 🙂
Annabelle
Theres a kind of chinese custard that uses eggss, if you’d like to try that.
Sugar Spun Run
Good suggestion, Annabelle!
Ally
This was my first time making meringue and it turned out amazing! Although my meringue cookies were weird shapes and sizes🤣 they tasted just like the ones you buy from the store. Definitely going to be making this again!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Ally! 🙂
Ali
Hi! Wondering how long in advance I can make these cookies? Do they typically go soft by the next day? Can’t wait to try this recipe.
Sam
Hi Ali! It really depends on your environment. These cookies will absorb any moisture in the air so they can get soft very easily in warm/damp areas. You can crisp them back up by following the instructions listed in the tips section in the post. 🙂
Lian
Hi I tried this today and tastes amazing! ❤️ Although, i have trouble making it crisp. After taking it out of the oven, it will be crisp but while cooling it down, the meringues turns soft and sticky. I live in the Philippines and the weather tends to be hot. Does this affect the texture of the meringues? What should I do?
Sam
Hi Lian! The humidity is probably the cause here. The meringues will soak up any moisture in the air. You can reheat them to make them crispy again, however, it will probably keep happening if it’s too humid in your house. 🙁
Faria Mehboob
Hey Sam! I tried this recipe twice, it did turn out pretty great but I had issues with piping my batter. I planned to pipe with petal nozzle but the batter was runny to hold any shape while piping. What could be the reason for that? How can I fix that? :/
Sam
Hi Faria! If the batter wasn’t holding shape, it probably needed to mixed more, or you over mixed your egg whites. You need them to be at stiff peaks. I hope this helps. 🙂