These Christmas Tree Meringue cookies are light as air, crunchy, melt in your mouth and so fun for the holidays for any cookie plate!
Ingredients
4Egg Whitesroom temperature
1CupWhite Sugar
1/8tspCream of Tartar
½tspVanilla Extract
Green Gel Food Coloring
SprinklesStar shaped for top and small sprinkles for the branches
Instructions
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat. Heat the oven to 200 degrees.
With an electric mixer whip egg whites on medium speed and then on high in a large bowl until white and foamy, about two minutes.
Add cream of tartar and half of the sugar to the egg whites. Whip the egg whites on high until they begin to thicken and soft peaks form. This happens when the egg whites start to look more like a soft marshmallow in texture and will take about two minutes.
Add in the remaining sugar and vanilla to the egg whites. Continue whipping the egg whites on high several minutes until stiff peaks form in the mixture, another one to two minutes. If you drag a spoon through the mixture, the path from the spoon should stay formed like a riverbed in the egg whites.
Add in a small drop of green gel food coloring. Mix on medium until the entire mixture turned green. Add a little more food coloring until you reach your desired green color to make a bright green tree. *See notes about liquid food coloring.
Fit a large piping bag with a large star tip or closed star tip. Place the tip of a piping bag into a tall glass and open the bag. Add themeringue mixture to the piping bag.
Pipe swirls onto the parchment lined baking sheet to make tree shapes. Top each tree with a star sprinkle and add extra sprinkles to decorate the trees branches if desired.
Place the mergines in oven and bake for two hours. Shut the oven off and open the door to the oven so it is slightly ajar. Leave the meringues in the oven to finish cooking and cool for abour one hour.
You can also use any large closed star or open star pastry tip. You want it to be around a 1/2 inch wide so the tip is wide enough to make the tree. The Wilton version is the Wilton #30 Closed Star Pastry Tip