For me, meringue falls into the category of “foods I thought I didn’t like, then realised I just didn’t like the awful shop-bought version”. The rock hard toothache inducing meringue you get from supermarkets is worlds away from these deliciously light, chewy, melt-in-your-mouth meringue kisses. Humble as always 😉
Little meringue kisses like these do taste delicious, buttttt I feel like their main appeal is how cute they look! If you walk past a shop window and see rows of these lined up its hard not to stop and have a look. So I did really love making my own version; with added sprinkles because why not?! Meringue can however be extremely finicky, so as always here’s my…
Tips for meringue kisses success!
- Get yourself prepared ahead of time. Paint the inside of your piping bag (and if you want to draw guide circles on your baking paper) all before you’ve started to create the meringue. The longer your meringue sits there the more it will deflate and lose all that lovely air you’ve just incorporated.
- Heat your sugar a little in the oven before adding it to the whipped egg whites. This will help the sugar to incorporate better and give you a much more stable meringue.
- Don’t open your oven while the meringues are cooking! I know it can be tempting, but the change in temperature will make your little meringue kisses more prone to cracking. And no one wants a cracked meringue!
- Pipe little blobs of meringue underneath each corner of your baking paper to stick it to the baking tray. This will help give you a steady surface to pipe on AND if you have a fan oven it’ll help it from being blown around.
So you’ve made your meringue kisses, now for the final touch – the sprinkles!! The easiest way I found to do this was to tip all your sprinkles into a small bowl, then using a small paintbrush (or you could use your finger!) paint a thin layer of water onto the base and edges of the kisses. You can then press them gently into the sprinkles and they will stick beautifully. Just remember to be gentle, your kisses will be extremely fragile!
If you follow my recipe and the tips above you should produce beautiful little meringue kisses that will wow anyone who sees them! Fancy making these but don’t want to waste the egg yolks? Why not save them and make my raspberry danishes!
Sprinkle Meringue Kisses
Ingredients
- 150 g caster sugar
- 75 g egg whites 2 large eggs
- food colouring of your choice
- rainbow sprinkles
Instructions
- Firstly preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas Mark 6. Then turn two piping bags inside out and paint three evenly spaced stripes of food colouring down the length of the bag from the tip. Then turn them back the right way and set aside. Then line a large baking tray with paper, draw 20 circles as guidelines approx. 1.5inches wide and set aside.
- Line a small baking tray with baking paper and pour the sugar in. Then bake for 7 minutes. Meanwhile, place the eggs in a large bowl of a stand mixer and whisk until stiff peaks. The eggs and the sugar need to be ready at the same time, so start the whisking slow and slowly increase the speed.
- Once the sugar is hot and eggs are stiff, add the sugar a tablespoon at a time with the whisk on high speed. Meanwhile turn the oven down to 100C/80C Fan/Gas Mark 1/2. Ensure each tablespoon of sugar is incorporated before adding the next. Once all the sugar has been added, continue whisking the meringue for 5 minutes. When its ready the meringue will be thick, glossy and if you rub a little between your fingers you shouldn’t be able to feel any sugar granules (if it does, continue whisking for a few minutes.)
- Divide the meringue between the two piping bags and cut off the ends (about the size of a 50p piece). Then pipe kisses by squeezing then releasing as you pull upwards. Bake for 38-40 minutes (without opening the oven door) until the meringue kisses come away cleanly from the baking paper. Leave to cool on a cooling rack.
- Pour the sprinkles into a small bowl and pour some water into another small bowl. Using a paintbrush paint a thin layer of water onto the base of the meringue kisses and slightly on the edges, then press gently into the sprinkles.
