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.
Cordelia
It was so fun!!!
Louisa
I liked these a lot, I undermixed them a bit so they ended up as blobs instead of swirls (entirely my fault) but after baking and cooling they were still delicious and pleasantly chewy inside. I might reduce the vanilla next time, 1 teaspoon was a little much for me.
Louisa
I cooked them again with 3/4ths of a teaspoon of vanilla and found it to be better but it’s definitely a personal preference thing.
lea provost
so good and perfect recipe
Patty
I made these this past weekend. Trying VERY hard to make them last. So delicious! I’ve never made them before and was surprised at how easy it was. I added about 1/8 tsp of lemon extract along with the vanilla in a half recipe. So. Darn. Yummy. Tastes like crispy little lemon meringue pies. Light as air. Definitely making it again!
Virginia
This recipe makes a good quantity- I always substitute Splenda for the sugar and they are delicious and safe for diabetics!
KRISTI Dorn HART
They are in the oven so we will see….. I added crushed roasted almonds to mine so I’m excited to try them.
Victoria
The recipe was perfect. The meringues are in the oven now, so I can’t tell you how they cooked up, but the uncooked meringue was stiff, looked perfect, and I’m sure will turn into crisp little crunchers. I am an experienced baker, though, living by the beach, I don’t try to make crisp meringue very often as there is always moisture in the air. So this is not something I knew about. But today is dry. Sam’s tips added the little guides to perfection that one needs making a confection that is a little bit tricky. I didn’t know you didn’t want any sugar grit in the dough.
I made just half the recipe, which was easy. And cut V’s in the tip of a piping bag to make a serrated tip. It made 37 cookies, so her approximation of the amount was right on.
Beautiful.
One quibble is that the website has an annoying feature of—after going through the video for this recipe—going on to the speech for all the next recipes, just about 20 or 30 seconds of each one, then a minute’s rest, and then the next one. It probably began about a dozen more recipes while I had this one open. I hope there is some way to fix that.
kennedy
can i use stevia instead of sugar for lower calories?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Kennedy! We haven’t tried these with stevia, but others have used it with success.
Kendra Ryder
I substituted lemon for the cream of tartar and it worked just fine, just what I had on hand, much cheaper. Beautiful result!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thanks for letting us know, Kendra! Enjoy 😊
Deb
How much lemon juice did you use? I noticed another commenter below said she used 1tsp of lemon juice, but I would still like to know how much you used if you don’t mind sharing. I am not a fan of cream of tartar, so would definitely want to replace it with lemon juice like you did.
Ksv
These came out great! I added a touch of green food coloring and added crushed andes mints. Everyone loved them.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Yum! We’re so happy they were a hit 🥰
Janice
Substituted 1 tsp Lemon Juice for 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thanks for letting us know how that worked for you, Janice! 😊
Sabreen
Yes I looked it up too. Thank you so much for instructions and the help! I’ve made them already and they came out amazing
Elle
I just finished making these for the very first time, and I must say these are so delicious! Thank you for your step-by-step instructions! They made baking these little bits of heaven very easy to make. I can’t wait to try your other variations 🙂
Della Smith
How do you get the dark chocolate/crushed peppermint candy to stick to the bottom of the meringues? Thanks.
Sam
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!
Sabreen
Hi! Just wanted to know, does the sugar have to be granulated or can I use normal sugar? And if I can’t, can I use custard sugar instead of the granulated sugar?
Sam
Hi Sabreen! What do you mean by “normal” sugar? For custard sugar, do you mean caster (superfine) sugar? That would be fine
Sabreen
Yes I meant the caster sugar. Sorry, it was auto correct. And alright thank you I’ll definitely give this a try!
Dot
To the best if my knowledge,granulated sugar is the same thing as ” normal sugar”.
Chris
Granulated sugar is regular sugar. Table sugar. I wasn’t sure either so I looked it up. Hope this helps!