Egg-free meringue cookies
Meringue “cookies” are a simple concoction of egg white, cream of tartar, sugar, and sometimes flavoring, baked at a low temperature until completely dry. A good meringue has a lovely crunch when you bite into it, then melts into sweet happiness in your mouth. Aquafaba absolutely shines as an egg replacement in meringue recipes, providing the lift, airiness, and melt-in-your-mouth quality required.
For my meringue test I used Vegan Lass’ recipe for Lemon Meringue Nests, adapting for the fact that I wasn’t going to make nests, and that I was in the mood for a lime-flavored dessert.
Ingredients:
Aquafaba from 1 can chickpeas (~15 oz can)
~1 cup plus 2 tablespoons safe powdered sugar*
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon lemon or lime juice
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 212F. Line 2 or more baking sheets with parchment paper.
Add aquafaba to a large, clean bowl and beat on high speed for about 5 minutes.
While continuing to beat, gradually add powdered sugar. Once sugar has been incorporated, add the cream of tartar and flavoring.
Continue beating until mixture is glossy and very stiff peaks form.
Drop teaspoonfuls or scoop mixture into pastry bag and pipe desired shapes onto baking sheets.
Bake for 2 hours and 45 minutes, then turn off oven and leave meringues in warm oven for another hour.**
Meringues are done when completely dry and not sticky.
Store immediately in an airtight container in the fridge.
Makes about 4 dozen (48) teaspoon-sized meringues.
Each meringue provides 12 calories, 3g carbohydrates, 10.5mg potassium, and 2.8g sugar
*The original recipe called for 140 grams of icing sugar. I made my own safe version by blending 1 cup of granulated (table) sugar with 1 tablespoon of arrowroot starch, then measured out 140 grams on my kitchen scale, forgetting to use measuring cups to convert the result. The amount noted is based on an online conversion tool. Also, my meringues are tooth-achingly sweet.
**My meringues took additional time to become completely dry – but I made them larger than the typical application.
October 2020 Editor’s note: Recipe links have been removed from this post as the website is no longer active.